Matthew 13:44-52 - Possession of the Kingdom Demands Going "All In" - August 9, 2020

This Sunday we conclude the section of Matthew’s gospel in which Jesus relates a series of seven parables about the kingdom of heaven. It can’t be emphasized often enough that the kingdom of heaven is not a visible nation; it doesn’t have borders and armies; it’s not a particular church or denomination. Rather, the kingdom of heaven refers to the invisible reign of Jesus (Luke 17:21) through Word and Sacraments (Romans 10:17). So these parables deal with things that are largely hidden from human sight – the operation of the Word in your heart. Today, we’re going to use an analogy from the world of poker to help us understand Jesus’ words. When you go “all in” in poker, you are pushing all your chips in. It’s a risky move, but one that is sometimes necessary. In these final three parables, Jesus teaches us that anyone who wants possession of the kingdom of heaven must be willing to go “all in.”

He says that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field – a treasure so valuable that you would sell everything you own to get the field that it’s in. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls – and that when you find one so perfect, so beautiful it’s worth selling everything you have to get it. And, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is worth understanding. As he stated in the parable of the Sower, the key is understanding (Matthew 13:19). So here, at the end of his teaching in parables he doesn’t ask his disciples if they like all these things; if they feel good about these things; not even if they believe all these things. No, he asks them do you understand all these things?

The kingdom of heaven demands that we go all in. Are you? Are you all in? Isn’t it true that while Jesus makes it clear that possession of his kingdom demands a full buy-in, we only buy bits and pieces? Who among us has sold all that we have for the kingdom? Oh, it’s worth an offering. It’s worth a percentage of our money. But is it worth everything we have saved up for a lifetime? Oh, we may give a portion of our time for the kingdom – teaching, ushering, counting, serving in countless other ways. But who of us – including myself – can claim that we have given all of our time for the kingdom? Sure, belonging to the kingdom, being and calling myself a Christian, might be a part of my identity. But who of us doesn’t spend more of our casual conversations talking about our pets, our hobbies, our children, our careers, our aspirations for the future – even sports, the weather and politics – than we do the kingdom of heaven? If the kingdom of heaven is a pearl – then you can’t have just a part, a percentage of it. You either have it all or you have nothing.

Jesus says that possession of the kingdom calls us to be all in – not part in, not some in, not most in – but all in. But who among us can really say that we care enough to understand exactly what this means for our lives – day in and day out? For many, even for many Lutherans, understanding the kingdom begins and ends with two years of formal confirmation instruction. What is intended to be an introduction to Christian doctrine often becomes the conclusion. Oh, they may grow in loving, believing, and even serving Jesus – but not in understanding. Jesus asks: [do] you understand all these things? And we’re content to answer: “well, no, but I know enough.” And all of those things reveal the sad truth: we really aren’t willing to go “all in” in order to possess the kingdom of heaven.

Not one of us can stand before Jesus and say “Yep, Jesus, I’m all in.” The evidence is indisputable, isn’t it? Whether you survey our time, our money, our identity as we reveal it to others, even our understanding of Christian doctrine – we’re not “all-in” in any sense. Not one of us has pushed all our chips in to obtain full possession of the kingdom of heaven. So, if you read these parables as instructions for getting the kingdom of heaven all you can conclude is that none of us have it or could ever get it. Not only is that a depressing interpretation, understood that way, it’s not even Biblical. When did Jesus ever present heaven, salvation, as something you can buy or earn? When are we ever told that we could have enough – enough time, money, effort, righteousness, anything – to exchange it for the kingdom of heaven? And, more importantly, who is the only person the Bible ever presents as going “all in”?

Isn’t the only answer God – and specifically, Jesus? When we read these parables in the light of the clear Scripture passages that tell us that God does everything for our salvation and we do nothing (Romans 9:16; Ephesians 2:8-9) – doesn’t it demand that we see the man and the merchant in these parables as Jesus, and not us? The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16) and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)? Scripture makes it clear that Jesus is the one who went all in to purchase a kingdom for himself. And that’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, if it were me, I might have died for the good people, or maybe the ones I knew were going to come to faith. But Jesus? Jesus died to buy the whole filthy field of humanity even though the treasure was hidden and buried (1 John 2:2).

And where does the Bible ever say that we could ever have enough to sell to be able to buy the pearl of heaven? Isn’t Jesus the one who gave up the full use of his divine glory, honor, and power so that he might live in humility on this earth to save us (Philippians 2:6-7)? Jesus gave up his freedom, his authority, his power and God and put himself under every last obligation of the law (Galatians 4:4-5)! Jesus sold his glory to buy your debt. In the end, if you think that either these parables or Christianity as a whole is about you and your obedience and effort – then you have to answer this: then why did Jesus come to earth at all? Why did he give up his place in the kingdom to take one in a lowly manger, as a hated and harassed prophet, as a convicted and crucified criminal? If these parables are about us…then what is the cross all about?

It doesn’t make any sense, does it? It’s beyond our understanding. And now I’m no longer talking about the false teaching that Jesus needlessly came to earth to save people who were fully capable of saving themselves – I’m talking about the fact that what these parables are telling us is that we are the treasure, we are the valuable pearl, we are the ones who get bought back by Jesus. You’re the one for whom Jesus sold his position, his authority, his life to buy you back from sin, death, and the devil. Rather than thinking that God looks at you and sees you as the miserable, wretched, filthy sinner that you know you are, you are to believe that God sees you as a treasure, as a pearl – as worth even more than the life of his own beloved Son.

That’s what really doesn’t make sense, right? That’s what’s really beyond our understanding. Here’s the thing. Jesus couldn’t understand it either. Part of the price it cost to purchase our wretched souls was Jesus’ giving up of his perfect understanding of his Father’s gracious plan of salvation. Now, that might sound like blasphemy, so let me explain. The Bible says that Jesus did not consider equality with God as a prize to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). And Jesus displayed that servant-like ignorance at two memorable times during his life on earth. The first was in Gethsemane. Jesus fell on his face in that garden and prayed My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (Matthew 26:39) – apparently not understanding why he had to swallow the suffering the sinful world deserved. But, then he concluded yet not as I will, but as you will (Matthew 26:39). Or go to Calvary. Listen to the Son of God cry out as he suffers the hell of having his Father disown him: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46)? Jesus couldn’t understand that his Father would forsake him, but he endured it, so that his Father would never, ever forsake you. You are the treasure. You are the pearl. You are what Jesus gave up everything to buy and have and hold and treasure forever. Do you understand that?

There’s one more part of this text that can be easily misunderstood. In the third parable Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven catches all kinds of fish: good fish and bad fish, righteous fish and wicked fish (and I better stop there before I start sounding like Dr. Seuss!). In other words, the net that is the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God on earth in Word and Sacrament, doesn’t just gather in treasure and pearls. It gathers garbage. And Jesus makes it clear that we won’t know until the end of the world which are which – when the angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous who are among them. So the question often becomes: which one am I?

Jesus leads us to the answer when he closes: therefore every expert in the law who has been trained as a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure both new things and old things. So here the picture changes a bit, doesn’t it? Rather than Jesus treasuring us and giving up everything to have us in his kingdom – he’s saying that those who have been trained as disciples now also possess all of the treasures of the kingdom. So here’s the answer to the question of which kind of fish you are: are you a disciple? Remember, a disciple is first and foremost a learner, a receiver. So are you receiving the gifts Jesus gave up everything to win for you? You have once again today, right? The forgiveness of sins in the Absolution, the assurance that you are still God’s beloved, baptized child. The peace and comfort of knowing that you have been reconciled with God through Christ. Because these gifts are yours, all of the treasure of the kingdom are yours as well – both new and old.

What does that mean? While there is no real agreement among Bible scholars regarding this statement, since Jesus is concluding his teaching in parables here – and leaning on the theme that many things in Jesus’ kingdom are hidden from the world but revealed to disciples – I believe he is simply stating that his disciples not only have a grasp of the old things of Scripture – the basic, historical facts of what God has done in the past, but even the new, often hidden, things that God is still doing in our world through his Word today. Over the past three weeks Jesus has taught us that the seed of the gospel does not always succeed in penetrating human hearts and bearing fruit in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23); that in the visible church there will always be both wheat and weeds, both believers and unbelievers – and it won’t get sorted out until the Last Day (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43); that while the kingdom of heaven will one day be revealed as powerful and effective, it doesn’t look that way here and now – as in the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast (Matthew 13:31-35). In other words, Jesus’ disciples not only understand what he has done for us in the past, we can, to a certain extent, understand and see him actively working in our world today – the old and the new. And the common thread that runs throughout both these “old” and “new” treasures is that it doesn’t depend on us or our effort! Being a disciple is not about doing but receiving. And if you are receiving the all-in effort of your Savior to purchase and win you for heaven through Word and Sacrament – then you don’t have to spend any time wondering what kind of fish you are.

I don’t know about you, but over the past few weeks I’ve found that Jesus’ parables have a tendency to throw my normal understanding of things out the window and flip everything upside down. Today is no different. Whenever you’re tempted to ask “Am I ‘all in’ for Jesus? Have I done enough to find a place in his kingdom?” – don’t, and instead ask the right questions: “Is Jesus all in for me? Did he give up everything to buy me back from sin and death and the devil? Does he promise to provide me with everything I need for this life and the next?” There’s your answer: because Jesus, in his boundless love, appraised you to be worth more than his own priceless blood (1 Peter 1:18-19), you are in possession of the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 - A Reverse Revelation of Reality - August 2, 2020

If you are interested or invested in the stock market – you are probably aware that publicly traded companies are required by law to offer quarterly earnings reports. This is to give investors a glimpse into the financial reality of the companies. However, while they are compelled by law to not mislead the public in these quarterly forecasts, everyone knows that the true reality isn’t discussed publicly, but in the company boardroom. What they offer to the public is generally a rosy, optimistic picture while often more difficult reality is discussed only in private. I think that modern picture is helpful as we seek to understand the parable before us today: the parable of the Weeds. Jesus offers one description of the kingdom of heaven to the public – many of whom were stubborn unbelievers; and another privately to his disciples. But unlike a modern day CEO, he doesn’t project a rosy picture to the public; and he saves the good news for the ears of his disciples. That’s why today’s parable is a reverse revelation of reality.

In speaking to the largely unbelieving crowds, Jesus presents the reality of the kingdom to them in the form of a parable. The reality that he reveals is that what they see is what they get. What they are seeing happening in and around Jesus’ ministry is the reign of heaven on earth. But it’s not a pretty picture; it doesn’t seem like the way any King would rule. Who plants a field with good seed and then when his enemy sows weeds on top of it does nothing? And not only that, he specifically forbids his servants from doing anything to end the infestation. Strange, to say the least. No self-respecting farmer would allow weeds to freely grow in their field. It would mean letting all of their hard work to be wasted, to run the risk that their precious crops could be destroyed. No, everyone knows that if you have a weed problem, you’ve got to get rid of them. But that’s not the way it works in the kingdom of heaven. Why not? What is this parable all about?

This is Jesus’ description of the visible Christian church to unbelieving outsiders. And you know what the kingdom of heaven, what the visible Christian church looks like to outsiders today, don’t you? They see countless different churches and denominations – all claiming to possess the truth – and conclude that if God really existed there’s no way he would tolerate this mess. They may stumble across preachers on TV or radio or YouTube – all teaching something different, all claiming to be right – and conclude that Christianity is no different than fast-food – that you can have it your way – that you can believe whatever you want, because it doesn’t seem to matter. They hear about priests molesting children, about pastors who abuse and fleece their members and who live in mansions and fly around the world in private jets – and they conclude that the church is no different than any other institution in this world where the rich get richer and the powerful get away with their sins at the expense of the people under their control. To the unbelieving world, the church is an ugly, weed-infested mess.

And it grates on any faithful Christian. Looking at the state of the church today, we readily understand the attitude of the servants in the parable, who say “You know what, we need to fix this problem, we need to rid the field of the weeds, the heretics and hypocrites – by force, if necessary.” But the King says “No, don’t do that.” Because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. So the Lord of the Church does what no self-respecting farmer would do – he allows unfaithful, untruthful, even immoral people to grow in his field, to call themselves Christians, and he does nothing to stop it.

That’s the reality the Lord shows to those crowds. He tells them in no uncertain terms: “Yep, what you see is what you get. If the church looks like a mess to you, that’s because it is!” Rather than present a fanciful and unrealistic portrait of the church to the unbelieving crowds, Jesus doubles down on their rather negative opinion. Why would Jesus do this? Well, we get a hint as to his motives in the verses we skipped over, where Jesus described the kingdom in terms of a mustard seed and yeast – things that are small and insignificant but very effective nonetheless (Matthew 13:31-32). To those who were always asking for and expecting big, impressive signs and wonders – Jesus says that the Kingdom of heaven on earth is not big and impressive, but, more often, small and rather uninspiring. And the reality is that is still true today.

The hymn Onward, Christians Soldiers (CW 537) is beloved by many Christians, describing us like a “mighty army” (537:2). But it’s hardly accurate. The Church doesn’t look at all like a mighty army. 2000 years after Jesus, we still don’t see the great big, full-grown mustard tree in which birds can easily find shelter. Nor do we see Jesus reaching down like the Green Giant to pull the weeds out of the church. Some of the most famous and influential church leaders state publicly that they support homosexuality and transgenderism and a woman’s right to kill her unborn child and the myth of evolution. Whole church bodies deny the virgin birth, the resurrection of the dead and the existence of heaven and hell. And we know that the King of heaven could weed them all out in one fell swoop. And yet he does nothing. And it’s frustrating and maddening.

That is the only reality those outside the Church get to see. Jesus doesn’t explain this parable to them. He doesn’t tell them how a field full of wheat and weeds relates to the visible church. But there is more here than the rather obvious lessons that the weeds are left for the sake of the wheat; or that at the final harvest everything will be sorted out and made right. There are three lessons for us based on the future reality that Jesus shares only with his disciples. A gospel truth, a law truth and an assuring, steadying truth.

First, anyone can see that contemporary churches built on an explicit “consumer-oriented” approach – where it’s all about you – seem to be the model for success today. You will find emerging churches that emphasize personal holiness, an intentional decision for Christ, the promotion of personal faith rather than the historical, Christian faith. They take some parts of the Bible, such as personal behavior and commitment – the law – very seriously, while quickly dismissing the key doctrines of justification by faith and free forgiveness delivered through Word and Sacrament. And these types of movements seem to be thriving at a time when Christianity as a whole seems to be on the decline.

And yet, the hidden reality is that a consumer-oriented, law centered ministry often devolves into pulling up the wheat with the weeds. You can understand that if you’ve ever been subjected to that kind of messaging. When your holy living, your commitment to Christ, the strength of your faith, what you are doing for God is the constant emphasis – sincere Christians can be driven to the point where they throw up their hands and say: “I don’t think I qualify! That’s not me! I can’t do it!” If you recognize with Isaiah that all of your good works are no better than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); if you know with Paul that no matter how many times you repent, you continue to do evil things you don’t want to do (Romans 7:19); if your faith feels smaller than a mustard seed and all you can do is say I do believe, help me with my unbelief (Mark 9:24); and you’re still being told that it’s all about your strength, your effort, your faith – then what else can you conclude but that you’re really a weed and not wheat? You’d be given to despair, to depression, to leaving the church for good. And, intentionally or not, the servants end up damaging the wheat in their desire to rip out the weeds.

Here’s the reverse gospel reality: the wheat, the Church, isn’t built on individual holiness, repentance or faith but on the historical life, death, and resurrection of Christ which is delivered to sinners through the stubbornly objective means of grace: the gospel in Word and Sacrament. Jesus calls believers the sons of the kingdom. You don’t become a son by striving but by birth. It’s a gift that’s given, not earned. Our personal holiness is truly no better than filthy rags – but God clothed his only Son in our rags and drapes the robe of his righteousness over us in Baptism. Our repentance is never full enough, never sincere enough to pay for even one sin – but Jesus, having lived a life with absolutely nothing to repent of, died to take away every last one of your sins, even the ones you aren’t aware of and haven’t repented of (Psalm 19:12). Our faith will always be fickle, so it’s a good thing that it’s Jesus’ faith that really matters. He believed in his Father’s plan to send him to earth to live and die for you; he believes that he paid for every last one of your sins on the cross; he believes that because he lives, you too shall live (John 14:19); he believes that there is no condemnation for those who believe in him (Romans 8:1). And he’s the Son of Man – he will be our judge. So whose opinion do you want to believe – his or yours? As Martin Luther said so often, when it comes to salvation, don’t look inside yourself at that fickle frail thing we call faith – look instead to the object of your faith – to Jesus – whose work of redemption is finished once and for all and delivers it to you through the firm, objective, unchanging means of grace. [1]

That’s the Gospel reality Jesus hides from the world. But there’s a hidden element of Law here, too. This text has been used to defend the failure to exercise church discipline – that we shouldn’t try to rebuke, correct, or excommunicate those who are openly heretical or impenitent, but simply let them live however they want to because “you don’t want to pull out the wheat with the weeds.” Jesus reverses that unbiblical use of this parable. He teaches that being left alone is not the same as being forgiven. Both weeds and wheat are left alone to grow for now, but their outcomes are very different. Just because his mighty hand hasn’t reached down and pulled you out of his field doesn’t mean that he’s okay with you defending, excusing, or remaining in your sins. Just because you are growing and even flourishing in God’s field doesn’t mean that you won’t be weeded out at the end of the age and thrown into hell’s fiery furnace. Jesus says that only the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who are the righteous? They aren’t the ones who say, “I am living with my boyfriend or girlfriend, but I’m still a Christian.” They’re not the ones who argue, “I don’t make any effort to attend worship or receive the Sacrament, but I’m still a Christian.” They don’t say, “I don’t really believe everything the Bible says, but I’m still a Christian.” But neither do they claim that their holiness, repentance or faith is enough to earn them entrance into heaven. No, the righteous are those who regularly and faithfully confess their sins and believe that only the holy life and innocent death of Jesus – which they receive through Word and Sacrament – is sufficient to save them at the end of the world.

Finally, Jesus offers us a steadying truth. One which boils down to “No, we’re not going crazy.” We’re not losing our minds. It’s not just your imagination that this world is growing more and more evil – it is, just like the Bible said it would (2 Timothy 3:12-13; Luke 24:1-35). Not only does he tell us not to expect life as Christians to be a bed of roses, but he tells us that there must be divisions in the visible church to separate the (orthodox) right-teaching from the (heterodox) wrong-teaching (1 Corinthians 11:19) and that even in orthodox churches there will always be hypocrites – weeds and wheat. Jesus tells us this so that we won’t despair when we see it happening; so that we won’t be surprised. But then he steadies us with the assurance that he will send his reapers to remove the sons of the Evil One as easily as you pull weeds after a soaking rain. And when they come, everything will be made right – the weeds will be pulled out and burned and the righteous will shine with the glory of Jesus’ righteousness in the Father’s kingdom forever.

This is the future reversal that gives us comfort right now. So the reality that we see today – a church that seems to be a mess – shouldn’t lead us to despair but to believe. You’re not crazy – the visible church is a messy mixture of wheat and weeds – just like Jesus said it would be. But one day the Lord will make all things right – and that’s our sure and certain hope. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear and believe this reverse revelation of reality. Amen.

[1] What Luther Says, p. 1262

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 - What Kind of Soil Am I? - July 26, 2020

Just like last week, the Word of God before us describes the inner workings of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And, just like last week, the context is key. Outwardly, Jesus’ ministry is still a train wreck. Not only have the Pharisees begun plotting his death (Matthew 12:14) and accused him of working for the devil (Matthew 12:24), but now he’s had to shock his own family into the realization that faith is thicker than blood (Matthew 12:46-50). And again the question is: what’s going on here? Why isn’t Jesus, the long-promised Savior, having more success saving people? Why are so many deaf to the Gospel of free salvation? Jesus answers these questions with a series of parables (Matthew 13:1-53) – stories in which an earthly situation and a spiritual truth are laid side by side for comparison. And as we hear the parable of the Sower, the natural question is: what kind of soil am I?

To the parable. The most self-evident part of this parable is that there are four kinds of soil. So let’s start by taking a soil sample. The first kind is hard soil, the kind packed down from being walked on repeatedly. This soil represents people who hear the Word of God, but don’t understand it. They don’t put two and two together. They hear about sin and the law, but don’t believe that God’s judgment applies to them or the evil things they have thought, said and done. They hear about Christ dying on the cross for the sins of the world – and they don’t understand how that relates to forgiveness 2000 years later. When the Word of God is nothing more than an abstraction, something which doesn’t really relate to your life here and now – like a weather alert for a different part of the country –  it can be snatched away by Satan as easily as blackbirds snatch up grass seed lying on the sidewalk. Is that you?

Or are you shallow, rocky soil? Have you connected God’s judgment of sinners to yourself personally? Have you seen that your sins have rightly earned you condemnation now and eternally? Have you discovered that Jesus’ perfect life has covered your imperfect one through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism (Galatians 3:27)? And have you connected his innocent suffering and death to your guilty life – with the wonderful realization that because he suffered God’s wrath you never will? Well, then the joy of salvation has probably sprung from your heart as quickly as a seed sprouts in warm, rocky soil. But emotion is no substitute for deep roots, for true understanding. In order to endure, faith must be rooted in a deep understanding of what the Word of God really brings into your life. The Word of God brings the peace of salvation, to be sure – but it also brings trouble and persecution. And if your faith goes no deeper than warm and fuzzy feelings, there is very real danger that under the burning sun of trial and trouble it with wither and die.

Or maybe you’re neither hard nor shallow soil. Maybe your life is infested with thorns. You’ve heard the Law and know you’re hopelessly damned. You accept that there is no way you can be good enough to go to heaven. But you’ve heard the Gospel too and believe that Jesus came into the world to save sinners just like you (1 Timothy 1:15). And you’ve grown in this faith. You’ve even thrived. But having the certainty of eternal life is no guarantee that you won’t have worries in this life. Even deeply rooted, thriving Christians get Covid-19 and cancer, and have marriage, work, and financial troubles – and the blunt reality is that the Gospel doesn’t offer much practical help with these things. But money does. And when you are led to chase after the illusion that money is the answer to all of life’s problems (Ecclesiastes 10:19) – then, your faith, your trust in God to provide, can easily be choked off and die.

Or you could be good soil. You’re the good, black dirt that is so desired and so rarely found. You understand the Law, which leads you to constant, daily repentance. You don’t excuse, defend or try to make up for your sins; you simply confess them and lay them on Jesus. You also understand the Gospel, which leads you to regularly and joyfully receive the forgiveness Jesus won for you on the cross and delivers to you in the water of Baptism, the words of Absolution, and the bread and wine of Holy Communion. And, as a result, you’re reproducing the love, peace, joy, forgiveness, hope and mercy (Galatians 5:22-23) that you have received from Jesus in abundance - just like one sunflower seed produces thousands more.

So, what kind of soil are you? It certainly sounds like a reasonable question, but there’s a problem with it. It’s the wrong question. It’s not because we’re not dirt – we are! From dirt we were taken and to dirt we will return (Genesis 3:19). As Kansas sang in the 70’s, “All we are is dust in the wind.” [1] The problem is that no matter what kind of dirt you are, dirt doesn’t produce anything on its own. You can go into your backyard, till up a rich, black patch of soil, water it and let the sun warm it – but nothing is going to grow.

Actually, that’s not exactly true. Dirt doesn’t produce anything beneficial on its own – but it does have the terrible power to produce a bumper crop of weeds. That’s the kind of soil we were when God found us. We were hard-packed, rocky, weed-infested, good-for-nothing dirt. That’s not an insult, that’s simply the truth of Scripture: You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked when you followed the ways of this present world (Ephesians 2:1). But when the Sower came into our lives and planted the good seed of the Gospel, he pulled out the weeds and declared us good in the eyes of God. Paul describes that miraculous conversion in 1 Corinthians 6: and some of you were those types of people. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

And that, while stemming from the wrong question, is the right answer. This parable isn’t really about dirt – it’s not really about us – at all, but the Sower and the seed. And there are two things to take note of regarding the Sower and his seed; things that help us better understand how the Kingdom of God operates in this world. First, this Sower would make a pretty terrible farmer. He would probably lose his farm within a year. Why? Well, he’s pretty reckless with his seeding. When food was scarce, as it often was in Palestine, farmers would take great care to only sow their limited seed on good and promising soil. Even today, farmers drive hundred-thousand dollar tractors equipped with GPS positioning to ensure that not a single seed is wasted. But the Sower in this parable scatters his seed on every imaginable type of soil. He’s a very inefficient farmer.

This reminds us that, humanly speaking, Gospel ministry is a pretty inefficient endeavor. While most businesses operate with very rigid profit vs. expense expectations, where most people would be never invest in something that has a 75% chance of failure (as the Sower faced) – participating in Gospel ministry requires you to throw those business principles out. Just as Jesus, who is the real Sower, spread his seed rather recklessly over all types of soil, so we still do today. Both here, in in-person worship, and through the blessing of YouTube broadcasts, we open our wallets and practice the organ and plan our Sunday school lessons and prepare budgets and clean our sanctuary and cut our grass and share our faith individually with and for all people – with the understanding that a large percentage of the time it’s going to fall on deaf ears and hard hearts. But just as Jesus spread the good news of the salvation he came to bring to all types of people consisting of all types of attitudes – so we continue to do the same today. How could we not? Remember that none of us were good soil when Jesus found us – he had to pull out the weeds and till us and water us to make us into the relatively workable soil we are today. Don’t forget that! By God’s grace we have been made good soil; with grace we sow the Gospel into every variety of soil in the world. That’s the first important takeaway from this parable.

The second is that, no matter the condition of the soil, the seed is always powerful. First, let’s be clear about what the seed is. Jesus says very clearly that the seed is the word of the kingdom. The seed is the Word of God. The seed is the Law and the Gospel. Nothing else will do. Nothing else can possibly transform worthless dirt into good, productive soil. And that’s informative for us, too. Many believe that if the church were just to follow so-called “Church Growth” principles, she would take root in this world and really thrive. These principles tend to focus on analyzing the soil and carefully curating the seed which will be sown to suit it. We’re told how important it is to conduct demographic studies to understand the type of people we are trying to reach; how important it is to design worship in a format that people are comfortable with rather than on Biblical principles; how important it is to offer all of the social services and programs people want. And while none of those things are wrong in and of themselves, they, by definition, are not the seed of the Gospel. A church will quickly die if it spends more time and effort analyzing the soil rather than sowing the seed. But what’s most troubling is that “Church Growth” principles tend to lead to a genetic modification of the seed – with the assumption that if the soil doesn’t want to hear about sin and grace, about absolute and unchanging standards of right and wrong – then that seed ought to be modified and replaced with something more acceptable. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with careful planning and researching and surveying to see what kind of people, what kind of soil we are working with – the fact remains that we’re dealing with dirt. Dirt is dirt with no ability to produce anything good. The only thing that has the power to change any variety of dirt is the pure, unmodified seed of the Word – both Law and Gospel.

And so the question this parable should lead us to ask is not “what kind of soil am I” or “what kind of soil is the person I’m trying to reach,” but “is the good seed of God’s Word powerful enough to do what it says?” And the answer is, then and now and always, “Yes!” As God promised through Isaiah his Word will always succeed in the purpose for which [he] sent it (Isaiah 55:11). It can produce faith in hard-packed soil. This happens when people will come to church – often against their will, whether for a wedding or funeral, a Baptism or Mother’s Day – and the Word penetrates their tough and rough exteriors before the devil can swoop in and take it away. It can produce faith in shallow, rocky soil. Faith sprouts in people who come to church just once. The joy of forgiveness sprouts in hearts that are cluttered with all kinds of earthly things, so that the seed lays just on the surface. But still, faith sprouts there. It can produce faith in soil that is surrounded by thorns. There are people who have been swamped by worry and deceived by riches – and yet simple faith in Christ still blossomed and grew. According to “Church Growth” experts, it’s just a waste of seed trying to sow on these types of soil. But because the heart of the seed is Christ, the Son of God who sacrificed himself, spilling his blood, for sinners, the seed is so powerful that even though it’s thousands of years old, it can still sprout and grow in any type of soil today.

Because, in the end, it’s the seed, not the soil, that matters. The seed does it all. The seed can produce amazing results. The good seed of the Gospel planted in you at your Baptism, watered by the Absolution, and fed by the body and blood of Christ – can, and will, do things we may think are impossible. The seed makes you good and clean in God’s eyes even if you still feel dirty with sin. The seed will give you confidence that God will provide, even in times of physical or financial or emotional distress. The seed will raise your body and take it to heaven even though all you can see is a six-foot hole in the dirt with your name on it.

So stop asking, “What kind of soil am I?” Instead, ask, “Is the seed, the word of the kingdom, being sown on me? Are the Law and Gospel being planted my heart daily and weekly? Is the forgiveness Jesus won on the cross and provides for me in Baptism and Absolution, regularly watering my soul? Is the fertilizer of his body and blood feeding the seed of faith he has planted?” If those things are true then I can assure you of two things: 1) You’re not the kind of worthless dirt you once were; and 2) the seed is already producing more fruit in your life than you could ever imagine or even see. And that’s the right answer to the wrong question. Amen.

[1] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kansas/dustinthewind.html

Matthew 11:25-30 - Two Big Secrets about Christianity - July 19, 2020

While these are some of the best-known, most-quoted, and most often printed on wall-decor words in the Bible, taken out of context, this talk about yokes and burdens and rest doesn’t make much sense. To fully grasp Jesus’ words here, we must ask “Why did Jesus say these words at that (specific) time?” Well, remember that last week Jesus had just sent the twelve apostles out on their very first solo missionary journeys (John 10). But while they were gone, Jesus’ own ministry seemed to be falling apart. First, John the Baptist had been imprisoned, and while in prison seemed to be doubtful that Jesus was who he claimed to be (Matthew 11:2-6). Second, Israel as a whole was utterly apathetic and indifferent to both John’s rather serious wilderness ministry and Jesus’ ministry which he conducted openly, eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 11:19). They were so obstinate that Jesus says, rather sarcastically, to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call to others, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not mourn (Matthew 11:16-17) – his point being that no matter the minister’s style, the people’s hearts remained unmoved by the Law and the Gospel. And, as if that weren’t enough, Jesus pronounced his famous “woe’s” on Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum – the towns in which he had performed most of his miracles (Matthew 11:20) because of their stubborn impenitence. By all appearances, Jesus’ ministry was a miserable failure. And so, it is at this apparent low point in his ministry that Jesus chooses to reveal two big secrets about Christianity.

One of the major themes in Matthew’s Gospel is the arrival of the Kingdom of God / Heaven on earth. Already in the first chapter Matthew says that in Jesus “God [is] with us” (Matthew 1:23). And the obvious questions are: if God is really here on earth in Jesus – then why does his ministry seem to be such a failure? Has something gone wrong? Has God lost control? What’s going on? In the first several verses of our text, Jesus pulls back the curtain to show us what’s going on behind the scenes.

I won’t reread those verses, but I believe the key lies in a word Jesus uses twice: it’s the Greek word apocalypse – which means revealed or disclosed. Jesus says that it was pleasing to his Father to hide the secret of salvation from clever and learned people and to instead reveal it to little children and that he alone can reveal the Father to whomever he wants to. What does this mean? I suppose, when you think about it, this isn’t as much a mystery or secret as it is a sad reality. The clever and learned who rejected Jesus were those who thought that they didn’t need him because they were fully capable of saving themselves. They were people who refused to repent, refused to confess their sins and therefore refused to trust Jesus and throw themselves on his grace. They were like the “clever” two-year-old who is fully convinced that they can carry two dozen eggs from the car, up the stairs, through a living room littered with toys, safely to the kitchen. They don’t recognize their weakness and their need, not just for a little help, but for total salvation from certain disaster. Their rejection of help results in help being “hidden” from them. On the other hand, when Jesus sat and ate and spoke with open, acknowledged sinners, the tax collectors and prostitutes, their eyes were wide open to their need. They were fully aware of their sinfulness and unworthiness, and desperate for a solution outside of themselves. To these people, these little children, the Father was pleased to reveal his gift of salvation. And the secret is: this wasn’t plan “B”, this was his plan all along!

But even that answer just leads to another, deeper question, doesn’t it? The question that has tortured countless Christians for centuries. You know the question, right? Why? Why are some people saved and not others? If all people are lost and dead in sin (Romans 2:10), if all people desperately need the salvation only Jesus can offer, if Jesus died for all (1 John 2:2) – why is it hidden from so many and revealed to so few? Here is Jesus’ answer: Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him. Satisfied? Does that solve all of your questions about why some accept the Gospel and others reject it? Why many truly intelligent people despise Christianity and, still today, confessed and penitent sinners believe it?

It may not seem like Jesus answers those questions here, but he does. Jesus says that everything has been entrusted to [him] by [his] Father. Everything – life and death, health and wealth, the past, the present and the future, the control of governments and empires and viruses and elections and protests – it’s all in Jesus’ hands. More importantly, the authority to grant the gifts of faith, forgiveness and salvation – is his. And only those to whom Jesus chooses to reveal the truth of salvation will in fact receive it. Now, our clever and learned minds tend to find two problems with that. First, it doesn’t leave any room for our pride. No one can say “I found Jesus, I chose Jesus, I made a decision for Jesus” – at least not if you believe his words here. According to him, the only reason you believe the Gospel is because he chose to reveal it to you. Second, our clever and learned minds want to automatically fill in the other half of the equation: “Well, if Jesus chooses some to believe and be saved; then, logically, he must intentionally not choose others, and therefore he is directly responsible for their unbelief and damnation.” That may sound logical. It may sound intelligent. But it’s definitely not Biblical. That’s not what the Bible says here or anywhere else (see Ezekiel 33:11; 1 Timothy 2:4). The Biblical, albeit logic-defying, answer to the question of why are some saved and not others is that when a sinner receives and believes the Gospel, all the credit goes to God; and when others don’t believe and are damned, the fault is theirs.

The point being that coming to – and remaining in – saving faith is not a matter of human discovery, choice, or decision – but a matter of God’s grace. If you don’t like the answer to the question of why some are saved and not others – then just consider this: what do we all, by nature and by behavior actually deserve? When the Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), then no one can justly call Jesus “unfair” for choosing some to be saved. That’s grace! Salvation belongs to him, it’s his right to choose to whom he will reveal the Gospel. To claim otherwise is blasphemy. (It is to deny the dual assertions of Scripture that yes, God does indeed want all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) – and, if a person is damned, it is completely, totally, absolutely their own fault (Acts 7:51; John 3:17-18).)

This is the first big secret of Christianity, a secret that, sadly, remains hidden from many today. Saving faith is not a matter of discovery or decision or logic or effort but a matter of divine grace and revelation. Why are you here this morning to confess your faith and receive the saving gifts of God in Word and Sacrament? Because Jesus chose to reveal the secret of salvation to you. Why are so many others, who have also heard this saving message with their ears, not here? Because they have rejected Jesus and the salvation he offers. Over the next few weeks we will discuss the practical implications of this truth as we study several of Jesus’ parables. But for today, it’s enough for us to believe that Christianity is not discovered but revealed.

Now, that truth may leave some of us a bit shaken. You might be wondering, “How do I know that Jesus has chosen me – that I’m not just an imposter or pretender? What do I have to do to make sure that I’m included among the little children to whom salvation is revealed?” It’s a common question, and the answer is the secret that Jesus reveals in the last three verses of our text: come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You can know with certainty that Jesus will welcome you because his invitation goes out to all!

This is a secret, not because of God, but because of human nature. We are born with the innate idea that if we are going to be saved, we’re going to have to do it ourselves (theologically speaking, this is called the opinio legis). You see this wicked opinio legis in Eden when Adam and Eve try to hide their shame and nakedness from God by hiding and covering themselves with fig leaves (Genesis 3:7). You see it in the people of Israel when they trust their sacrifices rather than God’s grace to provide reconciliation and forgiveness (Isaiah 1:11-13). We see it blatantly in the Pharisees and teachers of the law who had placed the unbearable burden of both God’s Law and their own fabricated rules and regulations (Matthew 23:13-39). We see it very clearly in our culture today where there is apparently only one right way to live, speak and even think. We still see it today in many Christian churches which lead people to base the certainty of their salvation on whether they are living up to God’s expectations; whether they are praying enough, giving enough, believing enough, progressing enough in becoming better, holier people. I see it when I ask people why they haven’t return to worship, why they haven’t requested private communion, why they feel no need to hear the Gospel and receive the Sacrament – and they answer “Don’t worry pastor, I still pray, I still read my Bible on occasion, I’m still sending in my offerings, I still try my best to be a good person.” You realize what all of that is, right? It’s all about works and obedience. Yes, you can earn heaven for yourself if you pray and study and give and love…perfectly. But, the dirty little secret is that that is an unbearable burden, a yoke that no human being can bear. If you’ve spent any amount of time believing that, trying to do that, then you understand why Jesus describes people like that as weary and burdened.

The second, big secret about Christianity is that it’s not about work but rest. Jesus is not the county health department. He doesn’t say “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you more guidelines, instructions, and mandates.” He doesn’t say “Come to me and I will teach how to improve your marriage, make more money, or become a better version of yourself.” He says Come to me…and I will give you rest. Now admittedly, putting on a yoke doesn’t sound like rest, but it is! Jesus says, literally: take my yoke upon you and learn from me, that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. How do we find the rest Jesus promises? By learning about him – which is the definition of a disciple. By definition, a disciple is not a “doer”, but a “learner.” When we learn about Jesus – we learn that he is gentle and humble. So gentle and humble that he came down from heaven to live under the burden of the Law in our place (Galatians 4:4-5). So gentle that he, the Lord of the Law, kept every commandment every day of his life so that we wouldn’t have to in order to be saved (Romans 5:19). So humble that after he had perfectly carried the yoke of the Law to his Father’s approval, he then shouldered the weight of our sin and guilt and carried it to the cross (Romans 4:25). So humble that he suffered the wrath of God and the fire of hell to free us from the threat of condemnation (Romans 8:1). So gentle, that he promises never to turn away any poor, miserable sinner that comes to him for forgiveness and rest – no matter who we are or what we’ve done. Yes, this is the great big, foundational secret of Christianity – that it’s not about your work, but Jesus’; not about what you do for him but what he has done for you. And what he has done for you is carry the burden of obedience to God’s Law and the burden of your sin and guilt through the cross and to the finish line for you. All has been done. It is finished (John 19:30). Jesus calls his yoke light and easy because he’s already done the heavy lifting of earning your salvation. And that’s the big secret of why you’re here: not to work, but to rest in that wonderful truth.

So now you know the two great, big secrets of Christianity. Christianity is not discovered by our effort but revealed by Jesus out of pure grace; and, it’s not about our work, but about Jesus’ perfect and completed work. Take these secrets to heart, and you will have true and eternal rest for your soul. Amen.  

Matthew 10:34-42 - Confessing Jesus Brings - July 12, 2020

We’re in the long season of the church year called Pentecost. The paraments are green to indicate that it’s a season of growth. It’s a time for us to grow in our faith by applying what Christ has done for us to our everyday lives. As our first two lessons indicated – and which our sermon text confirms – this growth is not easy; it’s not smooth; it’s not painless. It’s going to mean conflict and struggle. Put bluntly, it’s a time for us to grow up; to grow up and out of a childish and naïve understanding of what it means to be a Christian in a hostile world ruled by the devil (John 12:31). Jesus doesn’t pull any punches here, he says that if you confess his name you can expect three things to come into your life. The question each of us has to wrestle with is: is it worth it?

Our text is the conclusion of Jesus’ Missionary Discourse – his final instructions to the twelve apostles before he sends them out on their own for the first time. He has just promised them that everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:32). And now he tells them what kind of reaction they can expect as they do that confessing throughout the cities and villages of Israel. But it’s more than that. Jesus is also speaking to us. He’s telling us what Christians of all times and places can expect when they confess Christ. Do not think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. What? Jesus didn’t come to bring peace? Didn’t Isaiah call him the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)? Didn’t the angels sing glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind (Luke 2:14) at his birth? So which one is it? Did Jesus come to bring peace or not? How do we solve this paradox?

It all depends on how you define peace. If you define it like the world does – as the absence of war, financial security, good health, mental and emotional tranquility; or these days, a cure for Covid-19 or an end to the protests – then no, Jesus did not come to bring that kind of peace. And, actually, if that’s what you’re here for, you might as well leave now, because we don’t have that to give. Jesus didn’t come to bring earthly peace, but a different kind of peace – the peace of forgiveness, peace between God and sinners, the peace that nothing in this world can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:39). Jesus explains the distinction in John 16: I have told you these things (that the disciples would be persecuted), so that you may have peace in me. In this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world (John 16:33). This resolves the paradox – in Jesus we have peace; in this world no peace, but trouble. And in our text, he identifies one of the specific troubles as a sword.

What does that mean? What does a sword do? It cuts, it divides, it separates. (Think of how Peter tried to separate Malchus’ ear from the rest of his body (John 18:10)). Divides, separates what? We see plenty of divisions in our nation today, don’t we? Political, economic, racial, etc. But this sword cuts much deeper than any of those, this sword touches every single human. We get a hint of this division already in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit they separated themselves, divided themselves from God and “made peace” with the devil. God wouldn’t let that stand. He wouldn’t let the crown of his creation ally itself with the prince of darkness. So what did he do? He declared war: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel (Genesis 3:15). So you see this amazing truth: the sender of this sword, the source of the single greatest division between people on earth – between believer and unbeliever – is not the devil, but God.

Now, we’d probably be just fine if this sword were aimed at drug dealers and pedophiles and anarchists and Muslims, but Jesus points this sword much closer to home: I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Now, understand this correctly. Jesus’ goal is not to divide and destroy families. And thank God for the families that stay together and pray together and go to church together. But sadly, just as often, division and bitterness result when Christ is confessed. I know that many of you have personal experience with that sword. You have baptized and confirmed sons and daughters who have turned their back on their Savior to chase after the things of this world. You have siblings who are avowed atheists. You have spouses who think going to church is stupid and childish. Many of you have felt the sword strike division in your own homes and your own heart – and it hurts.

Why is it this way? Why isn’t it obvious to everyone, especially the people we love, that in view of the fact that one day we will all die, the only logical thing to do is follow and confess the only one who can give us eternal life? Why does your family resent and dislike and mock you because you do? Two reasons. First, they don’t want to hear or be reminded that their chosen lifestyle, their behavior, their beliefs are sinful in the eyes of God. Whenever you confess the truth of the Law, you’re are a reminder that they stand under God’s judgment. Second, you stand before them as a living, breathing example of someone who confesses their desperate need for a Savior. And many people don’t want to hear that. They want to think they’re good enough on their own. They want to believe that their best efforts can save them. And whenever you confess the Gospel you’re reminding them that they’re not and they can’t. Is it any surprise that they resent you? So grow up, Christians, don’t be surprised when the Gospel of peace proves to be a divisive sword in your own home and family.

And even if you’ve been blessed to not experience the sword in your own home, it’s clearly drawing blood in our nation, isn’t it? Not too long ago scholars used to describe America as a post-Christian nation – meaning that while some of the remnants of Christian values and morals remain, Christianity was no longer the primary worldview in public affairs. I don’t think that description is accurate anymore. I believe our society has become actively anti-Christian. It’s not just in the obvious ways: that the Ten Commandments have been torn out of courtrooms or that there was a rainbow flag flying over our state capitol during the month of June – or even that there are over 2000 abortions performed in our country every day. [1] (Based on the doctrine of the two kingdoms, I don’t believe we have a right to insist on the first two. And the third, abortion, is not a matter of faith at all, but a matter of natural law and human rights.) It’s that when you confess Jesus Christ as the only Savior you’re automatically labeled an intolerant bigot. It’s that in this new “cancel culture” you can lose your job just for confessing Christ as the Savior of all – as one Milwaukee area man did just a few weeks ago. It’s that state and local officials are dead-set against allowing tax payers to use their own tax money to send their children to Christian schools and that these same people have, during this pandemic, specifically targeted churches to hinder their operation. The world doesn’t just want Christ and his cross removed from public buildings anymore, it wants them removed from the public consciousness altogether. But again, this shouldn’t surprise us, this is the world Jesus warned us about.

It’s somewhat ironic then, that while the world is trying to get rid of the cross, Jesus tells us whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Today we fashion bright and shiny crosses to adorn our churches and decorate our homes and tattoo them on our bodies – we take pride in the cross. But in the Roman Empire, the cross was a symbol of shame; it had only one purpose: to kill. That’s Jesus’ point here. If you want to follow him, you must be prepared to die. This dying happens in two ways. First, there’s a certain dying that happens as the sword of the Gospel separates us from the people close to us and from the unbelieving world. And, who knows, one day it may become more than just verbal, social and legal harassment; one day they may come for our church, our homes, even our lives. Certainly we know that throughout world history, violent persecution of Christians is the rule, not the exception. Just as others have carried this cross in the past, we may be asked to carry it in the future.

But there’s another, more personal, aspect of the cross that we bear when we confess Christ. And that is the putting to death of self, our sinful nature – the old Adam, as it’s called. What does this mean? It means putting to death the sinful desires we were born with that want to take control of our lives. The lust, hatred, jealousy, anger, greed, selfishness, drunkenness (Galatians 5:19-21) – those desires that rise up so naturally in our hearts – they need to be put to death each and every day. How? Only God can do this, and God has chosen to do this through Baptism. But, contrary to popular belief, Baptism is not a one-time event but a slow execution that lasts a lifteime. Luther explains, “Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (SC Baptism 4). As brutal as the war between the powers of heaven and hell is out there – the fiercest struggle is taking place right here: in our hearts. Going to war with self daily, putting the old Adam to death through repentance – that is the nature of life for baptized Christians, that is the cross we all bear for confessing Christ.

And so, according to Jesus, we are in a lose / lose situation: whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If all you’re looking for in Christianity is your best life now; a nice, comfortable life with no problems – then, ironically, you’re going to lose out on true life. You will never know, never experience the eternal life Jesus wants you to have. But when you lose your life, now; when you don’t define yourself by who you are or what you have or what you’ve done, when you give up thinking that you’re good enough for God, when you throw yourself on Christ alone, when you properly view your 70 or 80 years here primarily as preparation for eternity – then, and only then, you will find true life.

And that’s the life Jesus came to this earth to win for you. And do you know how he did it? Not coincidentally, with the three things we’ve been talking about: a sword, a cross, and a life. We may face some degree of hostility from our families and from the world for our confession – but it doesn’t compare to what Jesus endured. His family called him crazy (Mark 3:21). His own brothers didn’t believe in him (John 7:5). One of his disciples betrayed him (Luke 22:47) and his best friend disowned him (Matthew 26:69-75). But never once did he let his natural love for those closest to him overcome his love for God – and his perfect life is now yours! Right now we may endure harassment and persecution from the world, but 2000 years ago the world took Jesus, physically assaulted him, falsely convicted him, brutally whipped him, and nailed him to a cross. A cross that wasn’t just composed of wood and nails but of the sins of the world. All the sexually immoral, hateful, angry, greed, selfish things we have thought and said and done – Jesus suffered the wrath of God and the fires of hell free us from them. He didn’t just feel like he was dying on the inside – he did die, he gave up his life suffering the eternal death we deserved. But then…three days later, he took his life up again.

And that’s the new life Jesus brings to you today. It’s his life, the resurrected life. It is life that is not affected by divisions in the family, by persecution from the world, by sin or even death. And as a baptized Christian, not only will you rise to live and rule forever with Jesus, but this new life is yours right now. Your confession of Christ may cost you family ties here on earth, but that confession ties you, binds you, unites you to the family of believers you see around you and to all of the prophets and apostles who have gone before you – they are your true family. The world may mock and scorn you – but you know the truth; that this world and its desires pass away (1 John 2:17). So, I’ll ask again, is it worth it, knowing that confessing Christ will bring a sword and a cross into your life? Not only is it worth it, we thank God for the privilege to suffer the sword and bear the cross in this world because through it, Jesus brings us true life, life that starts now and will never end. Amen.

[1] https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states?gclid=CjwKCAjwxqX4BRBhEiwAYtJX7YDTiRsRONq_hBBH4z_aYowqqqaw9aV6p2u9jc_kpXMyizJokD6IVRoCBV8QAvD_BwE

Matthew 10:24-33 - Encouragement from Jesus to Witness to the World - July 5, 2020 (Pastor Glen Schmiege)

What is a witness? A witness is one who hears or sees something.  Jesus called his disciple to be his witnesses to his forgiveness, love, death and resurrection to the world. He has called us to do the same. Jesus reminds us of what we will encounter as we share what Jesus has done, how he forgives and how he has loved us. He takes on the very challenging emotion of fear. Fear can stop us from ever being a witness to what Jesus has done for us. Fear is one of the most challenging of human emotions whether you are a child or an adult. Hasn’t that been your experience? It’s such a common happening in our lives, in every stage and aspect of our lives, and I don’t care how tough, how confident, how independent an exterior a person displays, everyone experiences fear on some level and to some extent. The question is: How do you deal with it? And, how do you help others who are dealing with fear? The best way to help a person who is afraid is to simply to be there, i.e. showing them you care, giving your support, assuring them that they aren’t alone during their difficult time. The ongoing practice of God and a recurring theme of Scripture from Genesis all the way through to Revelation is to show he cares and reassures us of his love for us.  In fact, in our text for today, Jesus says, “Do Not Be Afraid,” three times…showing us, in three very distinct ways how He is there for us…giving us three very compelling reasons why we have absolutely no reason to be afraid. Encouragement from Jesus to Witness to the World

It’s important to keep in mind the context of Jesus’ words here in this section of Matthew which begins back in chapter 9 and leads into chapter 10 where Jesus sends out His 12 disciples to preach the Gospel. And, in doing so, He sends them out with some instructions as to how they were to carry out their work as well as a warning of what they would face as they carried out their work. Jesus said to them in Matthew 10:16 , “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “You WILL be persecuted.” Do you think the disciples were surprised when Jesus took the discussion in this direction? The Bible doesn’t specifically answer that question for us, but we do know that Christians today (including us) are sometimes surprised when things don’t go in our favor. We even get bitter at God sometimes for allowing us to suffer. We’re shocked that tolerance seems to extend to everyone, except to Christians.

But what did you expect?! Doesn’t Jesus give us a ‘heads-up’ on all of this? Didn’t He say that “The love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12 )…that “Many will fall away from the faith” (Matthew 24:10 )…that“If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household”? If you don’t want to be treated like Jesus, of whose house and family you are a member, then don’t be a follower of Jesus… Now, of course, I’m NOT encouraging that in the least bit. I’m just saying that it comes with the territory and that the alternative is infinitely worse. In fact, it’s a one-of-a-kind, priceless privilege to be a member of God’s household…to be lumped together with the Creator and Savior of the universe…yes, even to suffer for the sake of Christ…to be guided by His Word and comforted by His promises. Jesus gives us that guidance and those promises in our text for today. He says, “Do Not Be Afraid of them,”i.e. of those who persecute you, because “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” I can’t help but to think of the Psalmists who lamented the success of those who hated God…those who plotted against God’s people…those whose mocking of God seemed, at times, to go unchecked. Yet, King David still assures us that “the power of the wicked will be broken” (Psalm 37:17 a)…that “their swords will pierce their own hearts” (Psalm 37:15 )…that “evil men will be cut off”(Psalm 37:9 a). And he also says that “those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land” (Psalm 37:9 b)…that “they will be protected forever” (Psalm 37:28 b). Certainly we can think of the people in our family, neighborhood, work place that we have tried to bring the truth of God’s love in Jesus. They can even respond by saying I believe in Jesus but who want nothing to do with Jesus. Their rejection does not diminish the comfort that Jesus gives us here in this verse, i.e. that the truth always prevails that the truth will, one day, be made known to all people…that the truth for which Christians have suffered for thousands of years will, one day, be that by which we are saved. So, “Do Not Be Afraid,” Jesus says, your day is coming…your eternity awaits.

“Do Not Be Afraid,” Jesus says, “of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” And He also goes on to say at the end of our text, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “If you’ve ever been ashamed of me… If you’ve ever turned away from an opportunity to talk about me… If you’ve ever cowered in fear, keeping your faith to yourself, then, yes, you have reason to be afraid.” And the scary part is that we all know that this isn’t a question of ‘If?’, but a question of ‘When?’ and ‘How many times?’. How many times have I disowned Jesus in my life? How many times have you disowned Jesus in your life? How many times have we been afraid of how our faith and witness would be received? How many times have we assumed that our witness would be ineffective, so we didn’t even bother with it? How many times have we blamed God for our lack of witness saying that He just hasn’t given us the gifts for it? That is scary…that does give us reason to be afraid because each of us is very well aware of what we have said – or not said – about our Savior.

But you’ll notice here that Jesus seems to be a little confused when He says, “Do not be afraid,” and then he says, “Be afraid,” and then He says again, “Do not be afraid.” Well, He’s not confused…He’s just speaking to both our old sinful self as well as to our new spiritual self. My old sinful self cowers in a corner and tells me to be afraid of God because of my sin…while my new spiritual self, along with Jesus, says, “Do Not Be Afraid” because, while the Lord doesn’t tolerate sin, He has already punished His Son for my sin and yours…enabling Him to forgive and forget our sin. When you, along with that tax collector, cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner,” the Lord Jesus turns to you and says, “That mercy is already yours because the guilt has been removed, the burden has been lifted, the sin has been forgiven.” And this comes from the One, the only One, who holds the keys to eternal life.

“Do Not Be Afraid,” Jesus says a third time, “[because] you are worth more than many sparrows.” Despite what many ‘experts’ say, the key to longevity is the fact that we, as soul-carrying creatures, are the pride and joy of God’s creation. Just look at how sufficiently, how meticulously, how lovingly the Lord cares for the sparrows who, by earthly standards, are a rather insignificant part of His creation. See how He provides for those creatures who don’t save for retirement… See how He protects those whose lives could be ended so easily and so quickly by so many other creatures on this planet… See how life for just one of those seemingly insignificant birds begins and ends only with His permission and knowledge… And then be reminded of the fact that “you are worth more than many sparrows” put together. “Do Not Be Afraid” for “even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” The fact that God knows such insignificant information about you demonstrates just how much He loves you…how fiercely He protects you…how closely He holds on to you…how generously He provides for you…and how anxious He is to present to you your crown of eternal life!

Fear is one of the rawest of human emotions, one that creeps into every aspect of our lives. And yet,  as simplistic or impossible as it may sound, we really have absolutely no reason to be afraid of anything, even of death itself because when Jesus says, “Do Not Be Afraid,” He backs up this Gospel command with some incredibly comforting and reliable assurances…assurances to bless and keep you close to Him beyond the limits of life on this earth and into the glory of life everlasting. The encouragement from Jesus to witness to the world is a constant in our world as we witness to the greatest message which changes lives eternally.  Take Jesus encouragement to witness to the world starting with your own world confident of his promise to be with you. 

Matthew 9:35-10:8 - Jesus Sends Out Harvesters, Then and Now - June 28, 2020

Then and now. Past and present. That distinction has become quite an issue in recent days, hasn’t it? Music, movies, literature, statues and even maple syrup bottles from the past are being rewritten, revised, removed and even destroyed, supposedly because they don’t match the societal values of today. There are three fairly obvious reasons this movement is foolish and misguided. First, as the 19th century poet famously said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [1] Destroying the past makes for a bleak future. Second, while you can rewrite history books and tear down statues – you cannot really change the past; what’s done is done. Finally, the point that relates to our text today – this movement fails to recognize that there are real and fundamental differences between past and present – and to impose the supposedly “enlightened” values of 2020 on past generations is intellectually lazy and dishonest. In the same way, Jesus, the Lord of the harvest, sent out workers into his harvest field in the past and he will continue doing so until the end of time, but there are real, substantial differences between “then” and “now.”  

We start with then. “Then” is about 28 A.D. Jesus has been traveling throughout Israel preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. At first it might appear that this is just a generic description of Jesus’ ministry, but there is actually a close link between his message and his miracles. In Jesus, heaven has come to earth. In heaven, there is no sickness or disease – no cancer, no Covid-19, no diabetes, no arthritis, no miscarriages – none of any of the awful effects of sin that make our lives miserable today. Therefore, where Jesus is, heaven is, and where heaven is, sickness and disease cannot be. Like pouring water into a glass displaces the air, Jesus displaces evil. These miracles served as signs; to signify the reality of his kingdom’s spiritual blessings, Jesus gives physical ones.

The problem is that, both then and now, people tend to focus on the physical rather than the spiritual – looking for earthly rather than heavenly blessings from Jesus and his Church. They may say, “But didn’t Jesus feed and heal hundreds during his ministry?” Yes, he did. But he didn’t heal or feed or raise everyone. And even those he did got hungry and sick and died again. But he did come to do something for every suffering soul in this world – he came to die to save them from eternal death (1 John 2:2). That was the real goal of Jesus’ ministry, as Matthew comments: When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were troubled and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus was concerned about the crowd’s spiritual condition – not merely because they were sick without a doctor, depressed without a therapist, or poor without a banker!

At the same time, it’s not surprising that the unbelieving world has a mistaken idea of what the real problems of life really are. Global warming is truly terrifying to those who have no hope for a new world to come (Revelation 21:1). Dying of Covid-19 is really the worst thing that can happen to someone who doesn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. Stopping the hatred of other human beings is the most pressing issue for those who don’t much care that the wrath of God burns against them for their sins. And it’s so easy for us to fall into the same trap, isn’t it? Even though we pray the Lord’s Prayer regularly (Matthew 6:9-13) – of which only one petition is concerned with earthly things (the fourth) – how often don’t we get wrapped up in the earthly problems we face, looking to God for material rather than spiritual blessings, for a happier life now than eternal life in heaven?

Then again, this misplaced focus is nothing new. Jesus had to redirect the focus of his first disciples, too. He urges them to beg the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Why did Jesus have to tell them to pray for more ministers of the Gospel? Because while they could certainly see the sick and helpless crowds, they couldn’t see the underlying spiritual suffering – that these people needed spiritual leadership, not just medical assistance. By offering this encouragement to pray, Jesus is refocusing his disciples on the real problems in this world: sin and guilt and eternal death.

And…then, in the very next verse (10:1), he answers their prayer. He sends out workers, twelve of them into his harvest field. Their mission was to be an extension of his own. He sends them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel just as he had been exclusively teaching in their synagogues. He sends them to preach…‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’ just as he had been preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He sends them to heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse lepers. Drive out demons. Just as he had been healing every disease and every sickness.

They were to proclaim that in Jesus, heaven had come to earth. Why? John says that this is why the Son of God appeared: to destroy the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8). What is the devil’s work? You might think it’s what you see on the nightly news: disease, destruction, rioting, racism, death. But those are only symptoms of the far greater problems of sin and unbelief, spiritual apathy and indifference, idolatry, hatred of God and his Son – that’s the devil’s real work because that’s how he leads helpless sheep to hell with him. That’s the work Jesus came to destroy – and that couldn’t be accomplished by miracles.

If it could, there would have been no need for the Son of God to become flesh and blood. He simply could have spoken from heaven and banished all disease and sickness and death forever. But, again, those are only symptoms of the tragic fact that we have failed to live up to God’s standard of holiness, that we stand guilty and condemned under his Law, that we owe him a debt we couldn’t pay in a million years. But Jesus could and Jesus did. That’s why he came. While we must confess that we have done evil and failed to do good – Jesus did no evil and never failed to do good. He lived the perfect life God demanded and God in his grace has credited that perfect life to our account. The result is that in a world filled with rules and laws and guidelines and should’s and ought’s that place ever new and heavier burdens on our consciences, the Gospel of the kingdom says that there is no law, no command, no obligation that Jesus hasn’t already kept in our place. Jesus has set us free from the demands and threats and punishments of the Law (Romans 8:2).

And the same is true for the debt we owed God. People sometimes wonder how a loving God could actually punish unbelievers in hell for all eternity. The answer is simple: the punishment matches the crime; we’ve wracked up a debt so large that we could never pay it (Psalm 49:7-8). But what we could never do, not in all eternity, Jesus did on Calvary. As God himself Jesus was able to suffer an eternity of damnation on a cross in a matter of hours. Jesus’ suffering and death was holy, perfect and complete. The result is that no one – not the devil, not the ungodly world, not even your own conscience – can hang the threat of hell over your head any longer! There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)! The price has been paid! The blood he shed “then” continues to wash away sins “now.”

That’s the beating heart of the gospel of the kingdom. And just like then, Jesus is still moved with compassion for the masses of people who are like sheep without a shepherd – that is, those who are still oppressed by the devil’s lies and don’t know that their sins are forgiven and their debt is paid – and he still sends workers out to restore and harvest lost sheep with this Gospel. But there are some important practical differences in how he does this.

First, Jesus and his apostles proclaimed: the kingdom of heaven is near! What do we preach? The kingdom of heaven is here. What? How can that be? Where are the visible signs of the kingdom? They are there, if you know where to look. In Baptism, God himself raised you from spiritual death to spiritual life through water and the Word. In the Absolution God himself announces that you have been cleansed of the incurable disease of sin. In Holy Communion, the Son of God offers you his own body and blood to eat and to drink for the healing of your conscience and the strengthening of your faith. These are the visible, tangible signs that Jesus is still displacing the evil of sin and unbelief today – still bringing the blessings of heaven to earth “now.”

Second, “then” Jesus sent out the apostles only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now he sends workers to gather disciples from all nations (Matthew 28:19). Third, and perhaps the most misunderstood difference is that “then” Jesus sent his apostles with the power and authority to do miracles. Today we have no such authority. In the three letters directly addressed to NT pastors, there is no command or promise regarding healing, raising or cleansing. What you will find is the command to preach the word…Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2). What you will find from our Lord’s own mouth after his resurrection is the command to go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you (Matthew 28:19-20).

So what are we to make of all this? There’s an uncomfortable tension “then” and “now.” If now is so much different from then, should we just erase the miracles and the healings from our Bibles – like some are trying to do with American history? Or maybe, should we demand that pastors today to do miracles and wonders to validate their message? The answer is “no’ to both. No, we shouldn’t erase the miracles and ministry of Jesus’ apostles – because their miracles and their message are still the foundation of saving faith today (Ephesians 2:20). And no, we shouldn’t expect pastors today to be running around doing miracles today – not only because they have no command or promise from God; but because even if I could make you all rich, all the money in the world can’t buy eternal life; even if I could rid the world of Covid-19, people would continue to suffer from cancer and heart disease and violence; even if I could raise the dead, they would just die again another day.

More importantly, if I had the power and authority to make your life here on earth perfect and pain-free, what wouldn’t you long and hope for? The eternal life that is to come. Sure, I suppose more people would be interested in our church if I could cure Covid-19 – but I’m glad I can’t. Because when you come here, it shouldn’t be because you expect to have all of your worldly problems solved, it should be to find answers to the eternal problems of sin, death and hell. The mission of the church has never been to give you your best life now – but to proclaim that Jesus came to permanently destroy the devil’s work and that one day he will return to raise all the believers and take them to heaven where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4) – where you will have your best life forever. And then, now and always, the hope of the glory of heaven that Jesus won for us is the only thing that can give us true comfort and joy – especially in the trials and troubles of this present time. Thank the Lord for sending workers to gather a harvest of souls with this true Gospel message. Amen.

[1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana

Matthew 9:9-13 - Learn From Matthew - June 21, 2020

Today is Father’s Day. When you think of your own father, and consider what you would like to say to him or thank him for today, what would it be? It’s a little different than what we tell our mother’s on Mother’s day, isn’t it? We generally thank our mothers for taking care of us when we’re sick, for making our meals, for keeping us alive. But fathers, what was their contribution? In general, I believe we think of all the things our fathers taught us: how to throw a football and cast a fishing lure, how to ride a bike and drive a car, and, hopefully, above all, to know and love God and his Word. Fathers, today you get a break from teaching, today we all get to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn some life lessons from one of the more unlikely apostles: Matthew, the tax collector.

So, what exactly can a person learn from a tax collector? First, humility. We see Matthew’s humility in what he writes and in what he chooses not to write about himself. Mark and Luke, in their parallel accounts, call Matthew by his given name: Levi (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27), which means “associate.” But Matthew never calls himself Levi but always Matthew, which means “Gift of the Lord.” We assume that this is the name he received once Jesus found him and rescued him from his sins, from certain death and from slavery to the devil. He recognized that his new life of faith was completely God’s gift to him – and so, Levi is now Matthew from now on. We also see Matthew’s humility in how he describes himself. Each of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record a list of the twelve apostles (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:13-16) – and while every list identifies Judas Iscariot as the one who would betray Jesus, only Matthew’s own list identifies him as a tax collector (Matthew 10:3). In this simple way, Matthew confesses that he was a lost sinner before Jesus came into his life and called him to faith.  

We see Matthew’s humility in what he writes about himself…and in what he leaves out. In Luke’s account of Matthew’s calling, he notes that Matthew left everything, got up, and followed Jesus (Luke 5:28). In Matthew’s own gospel however, while he records that other apostles left everything to follow Jesus (Matthew 4:22), he doesn’t say anything remotely praiseworthy about himself. In his view, what he did was not worth mentioning. Rather it was what Jesus did for Matthew, calling and converting him from a despised tax collector into an apostle, that’s what Matthew remembered and wrote down.

There’s a lesson for all of us – and especially fathers, isn’t there? How quick aren’t we to boast about all we are, all we’ve done – while conveniently leaving out the ugly, dark, and unmentionable parts of our past – not only in the stories we tell our children but even in our own minds? Let us therefore learn humility from Matthew. Let us learn that the only name that really matters is the name our Lord gave us when he called us to faith in Baptism (Revelation 2:17); that if it wasn’t for our Savior’s regular gift of forgiveness, we would still have to identify ourselves as idolaters and adulterers, as murderers and thieves, as failed husbands and fathers (1 Corinthians 6:9-11); may we finally learn that if there is anything worthwhile that we have done, it is only by the grace of God working in us (1 Corinthians 15:10). This Father’s Day, let us all learn humility from Matthew.

The second lesson we can learn from Matthew has to do with sacrifice. Even though Matthew himself didn’t see it worth mentioning, Luke tells us that he left everything, got up, and followed Jesus (Luke 5:28). While tax collectors were generally reviled in Jesus’ day just as much as debt collectors are today – there’s no doubt that Matthew was giving up a very profitable career to follow Jesus. Fathers, are we willing to do the same? No, I’m not asking whether you’re willing to quit your job and head to the seminary or become a missionary. I’m asking whether you are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to put God’s Word – and leading your families into God’s Word – before everything else in your life? Do you read Bible stories and sing hymns and pray with your children – or do you delegate spiritual matters to your wife? When you go on vacation do you take the lead in continuing family devotions and seeking out a church to attend – or do you lead your family to take a vacation from Jesus when you’re away from home? When Sunday school resumes in the fall, will you stick around to deepen your own understanding of Scripture in Bible class – or are you teaching by example that Bible study is just for kids? I could cite dozens of studies that show that when children grow up they are more likely to imitate the religious habits of their fathers than their mothers – but I don’t think I have to. Just think about what your own father’s habits and routines were and then consider your own habits and routines today. Fathers, the Bible makes it clear that you are the spiritual leaders, the pastors, of your families (Ephesians 6:4) – learn from Matthew to sacrifice whatever it is that might get in the way of carrying out that eternally important job.

But…and this is a big BUT…but don’t do it in order to make God happy. Don’t make these sacrifices in order to earn your heavenly Father’s favor. That’s idolatry. It’s idolatrous to believe that our meager sacrifices appease God. That’s what the worshipers of Baal and Asherah and Molech believed in the OT which led them to sacrifice their children, engage in sexually immoral behavior with temple prostitutes and shout and slash themselves to get their god’s attention (Leviticus 20:1-3; Deuteronomy 12:31; 1 Kings 18; 14:23-24). This is still what people do today when they promise to do this or that for God if only they will heal them of a sickness or give them a promotion or do this or that for their children or grandchildren. It’s not that God doesn’t sometimes require us to sacrifice; it’s that none of these sacrifices can satisfy God’s anger over our sins. Peter writes: if God did not spare angels when they sinned but handed them over to chains of darkness…and if God did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah…along with seven others…and if God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, by turning them into ashes when he made them an example of things to come for the ungodly (2 Peter 2:4-6) – do you really think that God’s wrath can be appeased by any feeble sacrifice of time, money or energy we make? Those who think they can placate God’s wrath by sacrificing goats or bulls or their children or their time, money and talent fail to understand how much God hates sin. The same God who drowned the entire population of the world, except for Noah’s family; who sent fire and brimstone to burn up Sodom and Gomorrah still burns with fury today at the sin he sees in our world and in our lives. Make no mistake, God hates both sin and the sinner (Psalm 5:4-5) – and nothing we could ever sacrifice could ever appease him.

God is so angry at sinners that the only thing that could appease his anger is God himself. Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), it took God in human flesh to live a life that stood up to his standard of perfection (Matthew 5:48).  And when it came to paying for sins, neither the blood of goats or bulls nor the blood, sweat and tears of people like us could pay for even a single one because we are all tainted by sin (Hebrews 10:4). The only sacrifice that could appease God’s righteous anger was Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross. And the good news is that Jesus’ sacrifice worked! As Paul says since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).

And that, fathers, is why we will be willing to sacrifice anything to follow Jesus and take our families with us. That’s the lesson Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees when he said go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. God doesn’t desire sacrifices from us to appease his wrath – he desires to be merciful to us for Jesus’ sake. And once you know and believe that wonderful truth – that’s when your sacrifices don’t feel like sacrifices at all. That’s when you are glad to skip out of work early (perhaps sacrificing a potential promotion or pay-raise) to lead your family in prayer at the dinner table. That’s when you sacrifice your own hobbies and interests in order to spend time with your children and be their God-given role model. That’s when we have a room full of men for a voter’s meeting (as we did last week) and a council full of men willing to give of their time and effort to lead this church. All of that happens not because you don’t want God to be angry with you but because you know and believe that because of Jesus – he’s not.

And if you have any doubt that God desires to be merciful to you, then you will get tangible proof in just a few minutes. The Pharisees despised Jesus for his willingness to eat with tax collectors and sinners. They believed that if Jesus really was the Messiah – that he would only eat with righteous people – like themselves; not with those who were clearly “sinners,” like Matthew and his friends. You fathers may believe that the responsibilities God has placed on you are too much for any man to bear. And you’d be half right. It’s far too much for a sinful man like me or you to bear – but it’s not too much for the God-man, Jesus, to bear. And that’s why he invites you to come up here to this table to eat with him. Because you’re sick and need a doctor. Because Jesus came to call sinners, and we all qualify.

In fact, our Lutheran forefathers cited these verses as the very reason that we should eagerly and often receive the Lord’s Supper. The Formula of Concord says that these words of Jesus prove that communion was ordained for those who “have a weak faith and are shy, troubled, and heartily terrified because of the great number of their sins. They think that in their great impurity they are not worthy of this precious treasure and Christ’s benefits. They feel their weakness of faith and lament it, and from their hearts desire that they may serve God with stronger, more joyful faith and pure obedience. These are truly worthy guests for whom this highly venerable Sacrament has been especially instituted and appointed” (FC SD VII:69).

Learn about God’s mercy from Matthew. Learn that Jesus doesn’t hold his nose as he sees stinking sinners like us come up to eat at his table. Learn that he instituted this meal of his body and blood not for the self-righteous, not for those who think they can do without it, but for the unrighteous, for those who know they are doomed without it. The Lord Jesus didn’t give his body and shed his blood for healthy people, but for people like us, who are sick with sin; who desperately need this powerful medicine to wash away our sins and assure us that eternal life is ours.

Today is Father’s Day – and today all of us, but especially we fathers, can learn from Matthew the tax collector. Learn humility – that’s it not about you but about what God has done for you and is doing in you. Learn to sacrifice – not to appease God’s anger but because Jesus already has. And finally, learn that Jesus doesn’t call you to follow him, to hear his Word, to the high honor of being a father to his children – to make you earn his love – but to have mercy on you, to give you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Above all, learn that this sermon was not really about Matthew at all – but about Jesus and his mercy to unworthy sinners like him and us. Amen.  

Matthew 7:15-29 - The Will of God - June 14, 2020

Today we formally begin the second half of the Christian church year, the long season called Pentecost. The paraments are green, which is intended to make us think of vibrant life and growth. In the first half of the church year we focused on Christ’s work for us – which gives us life. Now in the second half we focus on Christ’s words to us – words which stimulate and create growth in our lives. Today Jesus answers a common question: what is the will of God for my life? This question has caused many people a lot of stress. Why? Because they’ve been taught to believe that God’s will is a great big secret hidden in a vault in heaven to which you must somehow find the correct combination of prayer and obedience and sacrifice in order to access. That makes the will of God something scary, something daunting, something that is a burden instead of a blessing. And that is all completely, absolutely false. The will of God, what God wants you to do and not do, is no secret; it is printed for us, plain as day, in Scripture.

If you’ve ever wondered about God’s will for your life, what exactly were you wondering about? In general, people wonder what school their kids should go to, what job they should take, what house they should buy, what person they should marry, where and when they should retire – and other, earthly, temporal issues. People get all worked up because they believe for some reason that there is only one God-pleasing choice in these things. But think about that for a moment. What kind of good and loving God would place countless choices in front of you (which all appear to be right and moral and godly) but there’s really only one right choice – which he has chosen to not reveal to you? Have you ever had a boss like that; who expected you to guess what he wants, what he’s thinking? It’s unbearable! If that were how God worked, how could you not go crazy with anxiety and worry? How could you not be driven to the brink of despair and even hating God? How could you ever be confident that you were making the right, God-pleasing choice? You couldn’t!

But you don’t have to live with that anxiety. God tells you clear as day what his will is for you in his Word. For example, in our text Jesus tells you that he wants you to watch out for false prophets. Don’t listen to or follow people who preach and teach falsely. That’s clear, isn’t it? Ah, but you might be thinking: “How will I know?” Easily, at least, easily according to Jesus: by their fruit you will recognize them. You will know a false teacher by what they teach – just like you recognize that grapes don’t come from thorn bushes. So stop thinking that everyone who comes to you in Jesus’ name is actually teaching the words of Jesus. Stop listening to preachers who point you away from the objective power of Baptism, Absolution, and Communion and point you instead to the subjective power of your faith. Stop reading self-help books that promote trust and confidence in yourself rather than in God. Most importantly, stop being spiritually lazy; test everything and everyone and don’t think that you aren’t possibly smart enough to discern which prophets are true and which are false. Jesus doesn’t say, you must recognize them, he promises that you will recognize them and that you should stay away from them (Romans 16:17). That’s God’s will for you. Have you been doing that? If not, repent!

Related to God’s will that you watch out for false teachers is his will that you don’t build your life on a false foundation, a foundation of sand (Matthew 7:24-27). God’s will is that you build your life – your marriage, your family, your career, your worldview – on His Word. So stop allowing the latest social media trends to shape your habits and routines. Stop setting your moral compass according to the values you find expressed in the popular culture. Stop trusting supposed scientific and medical “experts” – who are proven wrong time and again – to keep you healthy and safe. God’s will is that you would instead build your life on his Word. Have you been doing that? If not, repent!

I can hear the excuse: “Yeah, but the Bible is a big book. How can I possibly know all of it?” Fair enough. Then start with the chapters to which our text serves as a conclusion: the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5 through 7 Jesus speaks in crystal clear language about God’s will. He wants us to rejoice and be glad when we are insulted and persecuted because great is [our] reward in heaven (Matthew 5:11-12). He wants us to let [our] light shine…so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). He doesn’t want us to commit murder with our hands or in our hearts (Matthew 5:21-26). He doesn’t want us to lust, to get divorced, or to swear needlessly (Matthew 5:27-37). He wants us to turn the other cheek and love [our] enemies (Matthew 5:44). He want us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth, and then not worry (Matthew 5:7-34).

That is God’s will for your life, as recorded in black and white in the Sermon on the Mount. If three chapters is too much, then go to Exodus 20. There God’s will is recorded for you in just 10 “words” (Exodus 20:1). God’s will is that you have no other gods, not misuse his name, remember the Sabbath day, honor your parents, not murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not lie and not covet (Exodus 20:1-17). That one sentence summarizes God’s will for you and me and all people of all time.

God’s will for your life is not a great big mystery – he’s laid it out clear as day in his Word. But what God wants you to do is only half the story – there’s also a very important thing he definitely doesn’t want you to do. In the middle of our text Jesus takes us to Judgment Day and tells us that among those waiting in line at the pearly gates will be some pretty impressive-sounding people. They will be saying, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and drive out demons in your name and perform many miracles in your name?’ Are you thinking what I’m thinking? “What chance do I have compared to them?” I have a hard enough time finding 10 minutes each day to read my Bible and it’s a definite struggle to pay attention to a 20 minute sermon – and here are these people who not only heard the Word but preached it! I’ve found it impossible to reject the devil’s temptations to do things I know are wrong – and these people not only resisted the devil, but drove out demons! I have enough difficulty obeying the regular old 10 commandments – here these “super-saints” have not only done God’s ordinary will, they have done miracles! I’ll be standing in the line for heaven thinking that maybe I’m in the wrong line and these people will look Jesus in the eye and boast “‘Lord, Lord,’ look at everything we did for you!”

And Jesus doesn’t deny it! Jesus doesn’t say that they didn’t preach in his name, or didn’t drive out demons or do miracles. However, he does make it clear that their extraordinary “doing” of God’s will failed to gain them entrance into heaven. In fact, instead of earning them the right to skip to the head of the line for entrance into heaven, Jesus says depart from me, you evildoers. Why? They had thought they were building on a solid foundation by doing God’s will, but when judgment came, they found they had really built their lives on sand.

So what’s the point? That doing God’s will isn’t that important after all? Of course not. God is serious about his will – deadly serious that we do what he commands (Exodus 20:5-6). Paul makes the point for us in Galatians 2: we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law (Galatians 2:16). Simply put: God does not want you to try to save yourself. Why not? Because no matter what you do, how sincerely you do it, how long you do it, how perfectly your life lines up with Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount or the 10 commandments – it is never enough (Romans 3:22-23). It cannot save you. No matter if you’ve done everything the “super-saints” in our text did; no matter if you’ve never had an affair, never committed murder, never stolen even a pack of gum, never perjured yourself – you can never be saved by what you’ve done. Your obedience, your works are a worthless, sandy foundation.

God does not want you to try to save yourself by your works. God’s will, instead, is to save you by His works. So before you ever think of asking “What is God’s will for my life; what does God want me to do?” – you should really ask “What has God already done for me?” Jesus makes this exact point in John 6. When the crowd asks him what should we do to carry out the works of God? Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent...for this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day (John 6:28-29, 40).

Imagine again that you’re standing in line at the pearly gates on Judgment Day behind a group of “super-saints” bragging about all their good works – and all you can think about is how miserable your life looks in comparison. Do you see that that humble, penitent attitude is actually God’s will for you (Matthew 5:3, 6)? That the realization that you can’t do God’s will perfectly is the confession of a true saint in God’s eyes (Matthew 25:37-40)? If you’ve come to that realization, then you only need one more thing: faith, faith that while you haven’t done anything good enough for God, Jesus has. It was God’s will to send Jesus to this earth to do what you could never do: know and do the will of God perfectly (John 3:16; Hebrews 4:15). [Jesus] was handed over to death because of our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). Now God wants you to pray to him boldly in Jesus’ name (Matthew 6:9). Now God wants you to stake your eternal life on the fact that while your good works are nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), Jesus’ blood and righteousness are more than enough to cover your sins and clothe you with the holiness you need to enter heaven (Matthew 22:11-14).

Our text makes one final point. The reason the evildoers are not allowed into heaven is because Jesus says I never knew you. Getting into heaven is not about whether you think you know Jesus or not; it’s about whether he knows you. How do you know if Jesus knows you? Jesus says that whoever has their sins forgiven in the Absolution has them forgiven in heaven as well (Matthew 16:19). Paul says that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27). He also says that whoever eats the bread of Communion shares in his body and whoever drinks the cup shares in his blood (1 Corinthians 10:16). Jesus doesn’t know you by your works; he knows you by his work for you and in you. Through baptism, absolution, and Holy Communion, you can be absolutely certain that while Jesus will dismiss the boasting “super-saints” from his presence on Judgment Day, he will call you by name, take you by the hand and lead you into the kingdom of heaven.

So, what is God’s will for your life? I’m not going to pretend that I (or anyone) know what school your children should go to or what house you should buy or what job you should take or where you should retire. And yet, God’s will is really no mystery at all. His will is to save you through the merits of Jesus Christ which he gives to you in baptism, absolution and communion (1 Timothy 2:4). It is also his will that you follow the clear and explicit commands he has laid down in his Word, not in order to earn your way into his kingdom but because you are already there for Jesus’ sake. And when you build your life on the rock; the inspired and unchanging Word of God and the finished work of Christ – then nothing; not rain nor wind nor floods nor viruses nor protests nor an uncertain future can tear you from the solid foundation of your salvation. And living and dying with that faith is God’s will for your life. Amen.

Matthew 28:16-20 - The Holy Trinity - June 7, 2020

It’s probably just a legend, but there is a story told about the church father St. Augustine related to the Trinity. It’s said that he was walking along the beach one day, trying to figure out the Trinity. In the midst of his pondering and wandering, he happened upon a little boy running back and forth from the sea to a spot on the beach. The boy was using a sea shell to carry water from the sea to a hole he had dug. Augustine asked him “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole.” “Foolish child,” chuckled Augustine. Then it dawned on him that he’d been trying to do something equally foolish: trying to fit the infinite God into the finite space between his ears. [1] He realized that it is impossible for a finite creature to “figure out” the infinite Creator.

If that’s true, why focus on the doctrine of the Trinity at all? Why celebrate it, discuss it, set aside an entire Sunday for it, if it’s too big to fit into our puny little minds? Well, the Athanasian Creed gave a pretty good reason, didn’t it? “Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.” Anyone who denies the doctrine of the Trinity is not a Christian and cannot be saved. This applies both to those religions who explicitly deny the Trinity such as Jews, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses as well as to those who implicitly or silently deny the truth, such as the Boy and Girl Scouts or the countless thousands who confess belief in a nameless, generic “god.”

“Yeah, but neither the word Trinity nor triune (“three-in-one”) are found in the Bible.” If you’ve ever had the privilege of speaking with a Jehovah’s Witness, you may have heard them make that argument. They’re right. The word isn’t found in the Bible. But, without question, the doctrine is. On the very first page God the Father is speaking; the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters; and the powerful, creative Word is God the Son (Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1-2). At Jesus’ baptism, we see God the Son in the Jordan River; God the Spirit descending in the form of a dove; and we hear God the Father speak (Matthew 3:13-17). And here in Matthew 28, Jesus clearly and explicitly identifies the one true God (“name” = singular) as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  

We set aside one Sunday each year to celebrate the Trinity because this doctrine is fundamental to salvation. To modern ears, the Athanasian Creed may seem unnecessarily long, dogmatic and even judgmental and intolerant. But that’s because modern confessions are sloppy, sentimental and focused on me rather than God. People today don’t want be told what to believe. People today want their theology to fit on a bumper sticker or a hashtag. We want our god and our religion like we want everything else: personalized to our liking. But this creed stands in the way and says “Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.” It denies the right of anyone to “build their own God.”

Nor is Christianity an innovative religion. The creeds we use each Sunday are over 1500 years old. The Athanasian is the most recent, from the 5th century. The Nicene Creed is from the late 4th century. The Apostles’ is from the 2nd century. The Christian faith is not made up as we go. It’s not invented on Saturday night for use on Sunday morning. There is no such thing as a “new” doctrine. The only thing “new” are the newly baptized and confirmed who are taught to confess the unchanging Christian faith along with us. Christianity is not a movement but a divine institution, built on an unchanging body of teaching handed down from one generation to the next (Ephesians 2:20; Jude 3), from the Church to all nations. There is no such thing as contemporary Christianity or emergent Christianity or post-modern Christianity or any of the other adjectives that are used to try to make Christianity seem cool and relevant. There is only the one, holy, Christian and apostolic faith – and “Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.”

That’s why we set aside one Sunday each year to consider the fundamental and undeniable doctrine of the Trinity. But at the same time, don’t misunderstand – we aren’t here today to try to comprehend the Trinity. While no one can deny the Holy Trinity and be saved, no one can understand it either. In Isaiah the Lord says that just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my plans are higher than your plans (Isaiah 55:9). Paul echoes that in Romans 11, saying from him and through him and to him are all things (Romans 11:36), but admitting that his judgments and ways are beyond comprehension (Romans 11:33).

These are the first two takeaways regarding the Holy Trinity: it’s undeniable and incomprehensible. Are you comfortable with that? Are you comfortable with the fact that you must believe and confess something you cannot understand or else you can’t be saved? Taken by itself, how can we be? How do you react when someone launches into an in-depth explanation about something you just don’t understand? Generally, I think we either get frustrated or just ignore it. Augustine was right. We cannot fit the infinite God into our finite brains. We can’t fit eternity into time. We can’t fit that which is “uncreated” into a creature. We can’t…but God can and God did. Paul says that all the fullness of God’s being dwells bodily in Christ (Colossians 2:9). In Jesus, eternity stepped into time; the uncreated God placed himself into the womb of a woman; the finite is capable of the infinite. In terms of the Augustine story, the entire ocean could fit into a hole if Jesus was the one doing it.

Jesus is the only access sinners have to the undeniable and incomprehensible Trinity. No one comes to the Father, except through me, he says (John 14:6). While John admits that no one has ever seen God he goes on to say that the only-begotten Son, who is close to the Father’s side, has made him known (John 1:18). With Jesus there is no reason to deny the Trinity nor to wrack your brain trying to understand it. You don’t have to deny it as un-Biblical because Jesus, the one who died for the sins of the world and rose again, is the one who gives the clear command to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And we don’t have to understand it because Jesus never tells us to focus on or figure out the Trinity, instead he points us to himself. Apart from Jesus, no one can know God. Apart from Jesus, the Triune God has chosen not to be seen or approached by sinners. This doctrine is only comforting through Jesus. That’s what he did for the eleven on that mountain in Galilee. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some hesitated because they were uncertain. Why the hesitation and uncertainty? Probably many reasons, among them the big ones people of all ages have had: is God really in control? What is his will for my life? Does he even exist or care? Jesus comforts his disciples by telling them about 1) all he has, 2) all he wants, and 3) his always being with them. This is where we find comfort in considering the Holy Trinity. If you ask these questions about the mysterious, incomprehensible Triune God, there is more fear than comfort; more mystery than certainty. So don’t do that. Go where Jesus points you: to himself.

He says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. You know those pictures of divine hands holding the world? Do you know whose hands those are? Not the hands of the unseen God; the incomprehensible Trinity, but the hands of Jesus (Hebrews 1:3). That means that it isn’t some nameless, faceless divine being who is ruling a world which has been torn apart and thrown into chaos in recent months by the reactions and overreactions to a virus and a tragic and senseless death in Minneapolis. The hands that hold your life are the same that emerged from the womb of the virgin Mary and grew calloused in his father’s workshop; the same that welcomed children and healed the sick and calmed storms; the same hands that were stretched out and nailed to a cross for your sins, that came to life three days later, that ascended into heaven extended in perpetual blessing. Your life and this world are not in the hands of some incomprehensible, mysterious “god” – but in the hands of Jesus.

By completing his mission of salvation, Jesus received all authority. He could have chosen to do anything with it – what did he choose? He chose to use his authority to send his saving Gospel out to all nations, to make disciples by baptizing and teaching them so that, on the Day of Judgment, they may be saved. This is good news! This is what God wants for your life and the life of people in every nation – that they be gathered as his disciples through baptism and teaching so that they may be saved.

Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you’ve heard plenty of preaching and teaching on these words that don’t resonate as “good news” but rather leave you feeling guilty and burdened – perhaps wondering if you really are a disciple or not. That’s the result when you read these words as Law. This is done in three ways, the first two revolving around mistaken ideas of “discipleship.” First, in the sense that we, Christians, are now under the impossible obligation of converting the world. “Get out there, knock on the door of a perfect stranger, engage them in a conversation about the most personal and polarizing issues in the world, and don’t leave until you have them confessing Christ and committed to attending church on Sunday!” Relax, it’s not our job. Only the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments has the power of conversion (1 Corinthians 12:3). Our job is simply to baptize and teach. The second abuse is to treat discipleship as if it were a burden rather than a privilege. As if, in the end, the true God is just like every other false god and needs us to do his bidding to keep him happy. No, Jesus is not a cult leader; he doesn’t gather disciples for his own good; he gathers disciples for their good. Doesn’t Baptism make that clear? Baptism is something he does for us, not something we do for him. It doesn’t make us slaves but children (Galatians 4:21-31). It’s not our promise to lead holy lives for God but God’s unbreakable promise that he has already declared us holy for Jesus’ sake (1 Peter 3:21).

Ah, but what about teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you – that sounds like the Law. Sounds like something we need to do for Jesus. There are two things that indicate that Jesus is not talking about obeying the 10 commandments here. First, he says all the instructions I - that is, Jesus, and not Moses – have given you. And, second, the word he uses is better understood as instructions, not the NIV’s “commands.” What instructions might those be? Come to me…and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Be baptized, and wash away your sins (Acts 22:16). “Take and eat, take and drink…for the forgiveness of your sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). The commandments of God were an unbearable burden, that’s why they were shrouded in smoke and lightning on Mt. Sinai. But the instructions Jesus tells us to teach to all nations from this mountain are not burdensome, they are simply encouragements to receive his gifts. It’s like instructing a child to open his birthday presents. No child would view that as a burden, would they?

Finally, Jesus promises that he is with [us] always until the end of the age. This tells us two things. One, baptizing and teaching – in other words, Christianity – will continue until the end of time. Viruses and protests and riots and worldly institutions may rise and fall, but even the gates of hell will not overpower [the church] (Matthew 16:18). We will always have the means of grace by which Jesus brings us to the Triune God. Two, it tells us that this baptizing and teaching will always be effective. It will always be powerful. These are not just the tools of the Church – they are the tools through which the all-powerful Lord of heaven and earth works to build and sustain his Church. When the Church baptizes, Jesus personally takes lost sinners and brings them into the family of the Trinity. When the Church announces the forgiveness of sins, it is Jesus, the one who will return to judge the world, who is declaring you “not guilty.” When the Church hands you bread and wine, Jesus is handing you the very body and blood he shed on the cross for your forgiveness.

Trinity Sunday can be intimidating. We confess that we must believe something we can’t understand or else we can’t be saved. We use big, headache inducing words like uncreated, infinite and begotten. The doctrine of the Trinity is both undeniable and incomprehensible – and that can be intimidating. But it doesn’t have to be. We don’t have to try to wrap our minds around the infinite and incomprehensible God because the infinite and incomprehensible God wrapped himself in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Jesus, our crucified, risen, ascended and all-powerful Savior makes us comfortable with believing, confessing and praising the mystery and majesty of the Holy Trinity. Amen.

[1] https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/h065rp.Shell.html

John 15:18-16:11 - Now What? - May 31, 2020

It’s hard to believe, but only 5 months ago life was relatively normal. It was January and it was cold – but it was normal. Then the dominoes started falling. China reported its first death from the coronavirus and ordered the citizens of Wuhan (a city of over 11 million people) to stay home; the WHO declared a global health emergency, cruise ships were quarantined outside of ports around the world and national lockdowns spread like wildfire. And you know the rest of the story. And now that restrictions are beginning to loosen – the question the minds of many is: what is life going to look like now? Will things ever return to “normal”? Now what?

That’s not a new question. The disciples had been with Jesus day and night for almost three years. And now he was leaving them to continue to carry out his work of spreading the Gospel – the Gospel that he was going to the cross to bleed and die for. But they were clearly wondering what life was going to be like without Jesus, without his visible presence. And so, one last time, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus speaks words of truth and comfort to his disciples and to us; he teaches his disciples of all ages exactly what to expect.

We should expect to be hated. Six times in the first seven verses Jesus uses the word “hate.” Hate is not a nice word. It’s a word mothers tell their children not to use. When someone hates you, they don’t want anything good to happen to you. In fact, they want bad things to happen to you – and may even help them happen. Who does the hating and who is the target? The world is the one doing the hating and the targets are Jesus himself, his Father and his disciples. The world isn’t just annoyed at you; unhappy with you; cold toward you. It hates you. Jesus even warned that a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. This is our situation now that our Lord has ascended into heaven. The world hates the fact that we exist.

Why? Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you. The world hates us because it views us as traitors; we are no longer on their side, the side of the devil (John 14:30); but on the side of Jesus. The world hated Jesus because he preached Law and Gospel – and the world will hate us for same reason; because we testify about Jesus and proclaim the Law, which condemns all people (Romans 6:23); and the Gospel, which saves all people (John 3:16). The world doesn’t hate you because of who you are, but because of what the Holy Spirit has made you: a Christian.

Jesus shows us the hidden truth about the unbelieving world – and this truth calls for a dramatic change in worldview. Many Christians believe that if we can just do enough nice things for the world: feed it, give it money, provide daycare for their children and facilities for their yoga and art classes – then the world will grow to love us. (But Jesus says that the world only loves its own – therefore, if the world loves us, alarm bells should go off (John 15:19)). The world is never going to love Christians because the world will never stop hating Christ. That’s hard to hear. It’s no wonder that sorrow filled the hearts of the disciples, is it? (Or that sorrow often fills our hearts?) And yet, while we may grieve over the world’s hatred, we should not be surprised by it. Instead, we should expect it. We should expect that we’re not going to find many friends this world. We should expect that a world under the control of the devil will be openly hostile to Christians (John 14:30). We should expect to be discriminated against, mocked and ridiculed. This simmering hatred became especially clear in these last few months of the Covid-19 panic. While you could still freely go to the local Planned Parenthood to have your unborn baby murdered, and even after you were permitted to go golfing or take a hike in a state park, you were still specifically forbidden from attending church to worship your Savior. Nor should we be surprised if, as we resume worship services, some of our “worldly” neighbors look to inform the authorities about our gatherings. The world hated and murdered Jesus; the world hates us because we preach Jesus. That’s what we as New Testament Christians should expect.

“Well,” you might be thinking, “I really thought that our first in-person service would be more uplifting! What’s the good news?” The good news is that Jesus has not left us to face this hostile world alone. He sends the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to come to us and help us. The Greek word he uses is paraclete – literally, “one who stands beside you.” How does the Holy Spirit help us to face the hatred of the world? In three ways: when he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment. The question is: what does this mean and how does this help us?

Jesus explains: he will convict the world…about sin, because they do not believe in me. The world hates us because it thinks that we are the real sinners. Have you noticed how eager the media was to vilify and humiliate pastors and churches who dared to continue worshipping during this pandemic? While we in no way condone outright disobedience to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1-7), it was stunning to see them treated almost like terrorists. The world is very good at making Christians feel ashamed and guilty. The world wants to dictate the church’s role in the world. It loves to make us feel guilty for not doing enough to help the poor, to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless. The world tries to make us feel guilty for not adopting their “progressive” views by flying a rainbow flag and embracing LGBTQ lifestyles. You see it and feel it, don’t you? The world makes you feel guilty and ashamed because you aren’t tolerant like they are; you aren’t generous like they are; you aren’t loving like they are.

How does the Holy Spirit help us out with this? He arrives on the scene and convicts the world, not you, of sin. What sin? Is it not practicing proper social distancing, not feeding enough poor people, not housing enough homeless, not condoning and supporting enough “alternative” lifestyles? No. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of the only sin that damns: unbelief. Because the world does not believe in Jesus, the only one who can remove and forgive sin, it remains guilty and worthy only of condemnation. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s message to the unbelieving world is whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16). But for you, the Holy Spirit has a very different message. To you who have been baptized, who are repentant, who cling to Christ in faith for forgiveness – the Holy Spirit’s message is simply: whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16).

Second, the Holy Spirit helps us by convicting the world…about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me. The world thinks righteousness is doing something for a good cause. The world thinks they are righteous if they spend a few hours on a weekend walking or running to defeat cancer, if they post a virtuous hashtag on social media, or if they play a round of golf to fight Covid-19 (as Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, and Phil Mickelson did last weekend [1]). And you might be shouting inside “what’s wrong with those things?” Nothing. There is nothing wrong with battling cancer and virtuous hashtags and golfing against Covid-19 (although I’m not sure that golf has been proven as an effective treatment for the virus). The problem is that the world believes that doing these things makes them righteous before God and that anyone who doesn’t join them is unrighteous.  

How does the Holy Spirit help us here? He responds like Jesus did to the rich young ruler and says: no one is good, except one – God (Luke 18:19). The only one righteous before God is God in human flesh: Jesus. The only good works virtuous enough to pass God’s judgment are Jesus’ works. The reason we no longer see Jesus is that he was good enough to go to heaven because he was perfectly righteous in God’s sight. Jesus is righteous…and – this is the heart of the Gospel – through faith, he is our righteousness before God (Romans 3:21-22). Any work done apart from faith in Jesus, no matter how good and virtuous it may appear, is nothing more than a filthy rag in God’s eyes (Isaiah 64:6). Paul goes so far as to say that everything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). In stark contrast, everything a believer does – everything you do out of gratitude for what Christ has done for you and according to his will – no matter how ordinary, how mundane, how unnoticed by the world, is righteous in God’s eyes (Matthew 25:40; Hebrews 13:16). Christians who simply live their lives: raising their children, earning a paycheck, worshiping their Lord and loving their neighbor have more righteousness before God than the entire unbelieving world – not because we are better than anyone else (we confess each week that we are not) but because our righteousness comes from Christ. Keep that truth in mind the next time the world tries to make you feel guilty for not being as “righteous” as they are.

The final way the Holy Spirit helps us is by convicting the world…about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. The world believes that we Christians are the ones who are judged by God. That’s why it thinks it is doing God a service if it murders us (John 16:2). And, admittedly, it sometimes feels like we are under God’s judgment. Often we suffer hardship, sickness and death while those in the world go about living happy, healthy, carefree lives (see Psalm 73). But the Holy Spirit comes and says that they are the ones who have been judged because their prince, the devil, has been condemned once and for all. Oh sure, he may growl and prowl around looking very frightening and victorious (1 Peter 5:8), but the Holy Spirit testifies to the world that he stands defeated (Revelation 12:9).

How can that be true? It certainly seems like the devil is having his way, doesn’t it? Well, what power did Satan have over us? Could he take away our faith? No. Could he rob us of our salvation? No (John 10:28-29). The only power he had over us was to accuse us of our sins before God – like he did with Joshua, the high priest (Zechariah 3:1). But he’s lost that power because Jesus has already paid for my sins and your sins and the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Without any sins to accuse us of, Satan is powerless. He and the world he rules have been overcome, judged and condemned by Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 16:33).

Jesus has left us in a world that hates us, but he has not left us alone. On Pentecost he sent us a Counselor, the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus says it is good for you that I go away. What? Wouldn’t it be much more comforting, much more helpful to have Jesus here with us? We might think so. However, if Jesus were still on earth he could not be with you in the hospital, on vacation, or under lockdown at home. When Jesus walked this earth his ministry was limited by time and space. He could only be in one place at one time. (He could not be in Galilee healing the lepers (Luke 17:11-19), in Jerusalem giving Bartimaeus his sight (Mark 10:46-52), on the Sea calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and at Nain raising the widow’s son (Luke 7:11-17) at the same time.)

Now we have Jesus with us, serving us, wherever we are, through the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s really the most important way the Holy Spirit helps us today: he delivers Jesus to us. It’s not about feelings or visions or dreams or the sound of a violent wind or tongues of fire. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will testify about me. Wherever the Word and Sacraments are, there you have the Holy Spirit testifying about Jesus and bringing to you the gifts Jesus won for you. This is happening right here right now, and in the homes of those who will watch this service later, and in hospitals and around the dinner table and driveway bonfires – wherever Christians share the Gospel with others. What Jesus did for only a few people during his time on earth the Holy Spirit now does throughout the world through Word and Sacrament. So yes, it is good for us that Jesus has gone away – because now he is with us always to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

Now what? It’s a question on the minds of many. In regard to the re-opening of society, I don’t have any answers. I can’t even guarantee that we will be permitted to gather together again next week. Here’s what I do know: the world hates us – and always will hate us – because it hates Jesus and we belong to Jesus. But we are not alone. He sends help; he sends the Holy Spirit. So that now, even though we can’t see Jesus, we know he is with us through the power of the Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacraments. Now what? Now, go in peace, because you know exactly what to expect: worldly hate and heavenly help. Amen.

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/25/golf/tiger-woods-paton-manning-phil-mickelson-tom-bardy-golf-spt-intl/index.html

Luke 24:44-53 - Jesus Is Now "The Man Upstairs" - May 24, 2020

We’ve all heard the expression “the man upstairs.” It’s regularly used to refer to God. But do you know where the expression comes from? It comes from the days when the boss’s office was located far above the factory floor. “The man upstairs” made all the decisions, directed everything that happened down below, and was the one everyone had to answer to. I know some may find it disrespectful to refer to God as “the man upstairs” – but given his authority and responsibility, doesn’t it seem to be a fitting analogy? Today we are celebrating the Ascension of our Lord – the day, 40 days after his resurrection, when Jesus bodily ascended into heaven in view of his disciples to be crowned with glory far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion (Ephesians 1:21). The Ascension proves that Jesus is now “the man upstairs.” The question is: Is that a threat or a comfort?

There’s no doubt that having a man upstairs can be threatening. In the traditional factory setting, the office of the man upstairs had large windows so that he could look down and observe everything that was happening on the factory floor. He could see all of his workers all of the time. There was no hiding from him. That’s threatening. And that’s how it is for us. There is nowhere that we can hide from Jesus, our “man upstairs.” In Psalm 139 David writes where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell – there you are! (Psalm 139:7-8). The author of Hebrews tells us that there is no creature hidden from him, but everything is uncovered and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we will give an account (Hebrews 4:13).

There is no way to get away from the omnipresent, penetrating gaze of the man upstairs. There is no employee only “break room.” There is no dark corner where you can go to hide. There is no “punching out” from work and then leaving to do whatever you want. Like the song by the Police from the 1980’s said “Every breath you take…every move you make…every vow you break…I’ll be watching you.” [1] Everywhere you go on the factory floor of this world is within eyesight and earshot of the man upstairs. And, unlike Visa (the credit card company), He’s not only every place you want to be, [2] he’s every place you don’t want him to be.

Which is why, as natural born sinners, just like lazy or disobedient employees, we have an innate desire to get out from the ever-present glare of the man upstairs. We see this tendency first in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the trees (Genesis 3:8). You see it in the toddler who just naturally knows that if he’s going to do something he knows is wrong, he better keep very quiet and do it out of sight of mom and dad. You see it in the teenager who refuses to let his parents see, much less touch, his phone. You see it in the crazed desire of many to achieve absolute personal privacy. You see it in the Christians who neglect Word and Sacrament in an attempt to hide their lifestyle from their fellow believers, their pastor and their God.

And it’s true, you may be able to hide almost anything from your parents, your spouse, your boss, your pastor; but you cannot hide anything from Jesus, the man upstairs. He knows every thought that passes through your mind (John 21:17); he sees everything you do (John 1:48); he hears every word you speak, before you speak it (Psalm 139:1-4). Oh sure, the devil will coax you to believe that it’s only wrong if you get caught; that what your boss or your spouse don’t know can’t hurt you; that as long as you don’t actually follow through on the sin it’s ok to fantasize about it. But if you fall for the devil’s lie, you’re just setting yourself up for a big shock when you die and Jesus calls you into his office and demands an accounting for every thought, word and deed (Romans 14:12).

Just like in those old factories, the Man upstairs won’t accept excuses or justifications for our disobedience. He doesn’t care how terrible your childhood was. He won’t excuse your hoarding of food and supplies or your abuse of food or alcohol or your abusive attitude toward your family because you’re stressed out by this virus crisis. Whatever reasons, excuses, or justifications you have for disobeying “the man’s” commands, the only thing you deserve to hear is: “You’re fired! You’re finished!” (Romans 6:23).

It can be threatening to have an all-seeing man upstairs, can’t it? Who can live under such a relentless, merciless inspection of their thoughts and hearts and lives every minute of every day? From a human perspective, it leads to one of two reactions: hopelessness or hate. Hopelessness sets in when you believe that because there is no way you can please the man upstairs, you’re doomed. Since you can’t go seven seconds, much less seven days, without sinning in thought, word, or deed, you know you can never please him. It’s hopeless. (That’s one reason many people who are involved in very legalistic churches (where you’re always being told to do this or that to make God happy) often end up leaving the church and Christianity completely: they’ve lost all hope.) Hate sets in when you think of Jesus like a cruel boss who is constantly riding your back, following your every move, second-guessing every decision, criticizing you for every mistake. This is the God Luther was taught to know and fear. The God Luther knew held him to a standard of perfection that was impossible for him to meet – and demanded that people undergo brutal physical, emotional, and spiritual penance in order to satisfy his anger. So Luther hated rather than loved God. [3]

It’s clear that knowing that Jesus is “the man upstairs” can be a threatening thing…but it doesn’t have to be. It can be very comforting. So what’s the difference? Is it based on you; what you think of him, how obedient you are? Anyone who has ever worked for a cruel boss knows that this isn’t true. You can be as obedient and hard-working as possible – but none of it will matter if your boss is simply either inept or merciless. No, it all depends on who the man upstairs is. Take the current pandemic crisis for example... Who is our man upstairs? He’s God, the Maker of heaven and earth (John 1:3). He built the factory; he designed its operating system. The man upstairs is the unquestioned expert at running, directing, and fixing the factory. Jesus knows this world inside and out.

Of course, many bosses may know the factory inside out, but many of them don’t know – or don’t care – about the workers. They’re ivory tower, white collar types who could care less about the blue collar types who work below. But our man upstairs is no ivory tower, white collar type. He’s not only true God, he’s also true Man. This means that not only does he understand this world perfectly, he also understands you perfectly. John tells us: [Jesus] did not need anyone to testify about man, because he himself knew what was in man (John 2:25). By becoming true man, the man upstairs experienced everything we do; our hunger, our pain, our sorrow, our frequent feelings of helplessness and loss (Hebrews 4:15). He knows how we were formed. He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14) – and so he understands our fear of death, he understands why panic and fear may well up in our hearts on account of the coronavirus – in fact, he faced that fear himself in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). The man upstairs knows you, intimately, personally. He knows – and cares – about your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and your fears. The man upstairs is both true God and true man – he’s a capable and compassionate boss.

But the comforting nature of having a man upstairs doesn’t only depend on who he is, but also how he got there. We’ve all heard stories of nepotism and favoritism in business and politics (and even in the church) – where a person gets a position of authority, not based on merit, but based on family or friendship. Those who work under these types of leaders often hate them because they know they didn’t deserve the position. But Jesus didn’t receive his position of power by birthright – even though he could have. (He has always existed upstairs and had every right to stay there because he was the boss’s Son (Philippians 2:5-11).) But he gave it all up. He gave up all the power and glory that rightfully belonged to him as the Son of God and he humbled himself, he became an “undercover boss” in order to descend to the factory floor to carry out the grimiest, sweatiest, and most back-breaking work possible.

What work was that? What’s the hardest job in this world – the one that no one has ever successfully accomplished? Living obediently under God’s holy Law (Galatians 4:4-5). That was supposed to be our one and only job – but because we couldn’t carry it out, Jesus came to do it for us. He did your job so well – in fact – that you have already passed inspection by the man upstairs (Romans 4:25). Ah, but your conscience and the devil may cause you to doubt this. What about your poor job performance? What about all those times you actively worked against your Father’s will? What about the countless shameful, horrible things you have thought, said, and done? After Jesus did your job for you he stepped in to take the punishment you deserved. He wasn’t just scolded out or demoted – he bled and cried and died for you on the cross. He left his safe, secure position upstairs to buy you back from the hell you deserved with nothing less than his life. And, by his perfect life and his sacrificial suffering and death, he earned a permanent place for you in his Father’s factory in heaven (John 14:1-4).

Knowing that there is a man upstairs watching your every move is comforting when you know who he is, how he got there – and, finally, what he’s doing there for you. Jesus’ ascension was not his retirement party. The one who paid for your sins with his blood isn’t in heaven golfing or fishing or binge watching Netflix. So what is he busy doing? The Bible tells us about two things, specifically. First, Paul says that God placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church (Ephesians 1:22). Jesus is ruling the world – yes, even during this crisis – in his own hidden way for the good of the church. And, in Romans, he tells us that Jesus is at God’s right hand…interceding for us (Romans 8:34). Jesus is still busy defending you before his Father’s throne based upon his all-atoning sacrifice for your sins.  

And that’s where we find a specific connection to our text this morning. Luke says he led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. These hands are our ticket out of this world of misery to the bliss of heaven. Especially in times of fear and panic: remember Jesus’ hands – these are the hands that still bear the holes of the nails driven through them, the hands that were spread wide on the cross to pay for the sins of the world – these hands are now pleading your case before the Father; these are the hands that reached down to wash you and claim you in Baptism; these are the hands that seal your forgiveness with the sign of the cross in absolution; these are the hands that hand you his own body and blood to eat and to drink in Holy Communion. Because what we’ve done with these hands have rightly earned us an immediate, one way ticket to hell – Jesus holds up his pierced hands and says “Father, I already suffered hell for them; you must have mercy on them and forgive them!”

So yes, while it can be threatening to know that there is a man upstairs watching and judging our every thought, word and action, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, because it’s Jesus, it shouldn’t be. Because Jesus left his office upstairs and came down to do our job for us and pay the price for our forgiveness, we have no reason to fear him. He’s not there to judge us but to rule the world for our eternal good and to intercede for us before his Father. And that is why the disciples – unlike when Jesus left them to be crucified (John 14:1) – returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Because Jesus had opened their eyes to see the truth of Scripture, they now knew that the man upstairs was not some nameless, faceless, malicious boss – but their friend, their teacher, their Savior. They knew that the One who had done so much for them on earth could and would do even more for them from his position of power and authority in heaven. This is the source of our certainty and the reason for our joy as we celebrate our Lord’s Ascension! Amen.

[1] https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/the-police/every-breath-you-take

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/business/media/visa-trims-slogan-to-expand-meaning.html

[3] Luther’s Works, 34:336

John 14:15-21 - Jesus Has Not Left Us as Orphans - May 17, 2020

Few people face as daunting and difficult a road through life as orphans – children who are without mother or father. Whether through accident or neglect, orphans are left to face life on their own. They have no one to provide for them, guide them, protect them – and maybe most tragically, no one who is simply there for them, in good times and in bad. Throughout history, many people, and especially Christians, have recognized the extraordinary challenges placed before orphans and built orphanages to care for them. [1] Unless you happen to be an orphan, it’s impossible to imagine how helpless and alone they must feel in a big and scary world. And yet, in a small way, isn’t that how we often feel in this world, especially these days? We have been commanded to avoid social contact with other humans – for many of us, including our families and friends. We have been forbidden to gather for worship with our brothers and sisters in faith. Maybe most clearly at this time, the three entities (I would label them idols) that were supposedly able to guide, protect and heal us: government, medicine, and science – have utterly failed to protect the most vulnerable and to large extent have done significant harm to countless American lives and livelihoods. Is it too strong to call them idols? I don’t think so. They demand your fear, your love, and your trust – which we are to give to God alone (Exodus 20:2) – and yet, like all idols, are unable to make good on their promises (Isaiah 44:6-20). More than ever, we should see the wisdom of Psalm 146: do not trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save (Psalm 146:3; NIV84). And the question many Christians are asking is: where is Jesus in all of this? Has he abandoned us? Has he left us helpless and alone? Jesus knew that disciples of every age would ask this very question, and he answered this question in advance, the night before his death.

On Maundy Thursday in the upper room, the disciples were feeling like they were about to become orphans. Jesus had told them that he’s going away, to a place that they could not follow (John 14:33). Remember, Jesus had called these men away from their homes and families and occupations – and now, he’s leaving them to carry on without him. It’s no surprise that they are troubled by this, feeling helpless and abandoned. But Jesus calms their fears by promising that even though he’s leaving them; he’s not leaving them alone. He gives them – and us – three comforting and enduring promises.

First: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. The Greek word translated “counselor” here is paraclete (literally: “to stand beside”). It’s a tough word to bring into English, because it has such a broad scope of meaning. That said, I’m not sure “counselor” is the best choice here. Most people today think “therapist” when they hear “counselor” – and the Holy Spirit is certainly not a therapist (his job is not to make you feel better about yourself). I would suggest that a better translation would be advocate: one who “stands beside” you; especially in a legal sense.

Jesus says the Father will send another Advocate, implying that we already have one. Who? John writes: If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1). Jesus is our first, our primary advocate, our defense attorney. Jesus stands beside us. When we stand before God’s Judgment seat and the Judge tells us to rise, Jesus stands up with us. When we plead guilty (as we must – Romans 3:9-18); guilty of sins we know and feel and guilty of sins we are unaware of (Psalm 19:12) – Jesus lifts his hands and says “See Father, I suffered, I bled, I died in the place of this guilty sinner.” Jesus serves as our Advocate by pleading our case before the Father, pleading that He judge us “not-guilty” for his sake. And Jesus’ resurrection serves as proof that he was successful – his resurrection proves that God has declared us “not guilty” (Romans 4:25).

But here in John 14 Jesus is promising another Advocate – who would serve in a different way. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. Paul explains the Holy Spirit’s work in Romans 8: the Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16). While Jesus pleads our case before the Father, the Holy Spirit pleads the Father’s case – the Gospel – to us. So the question is: how do you get this attorney, this advocate, on retainer? How do you know the Spirit is with you? Some believe that the Holy Spirit is the warm sensation you get in your belly when you “feel” close to God. Others imagine that the Holy Spirit “speaks” to them through thoughts and dreams. But that’s not what Jesus says, is it? Jesus doesn’t promise the Holy Spirit to those who imagine him or feel him but to those who love [Jesus] and hold on to [his] commands. What commands is Jesus talking about? What commands did Jesus leave only to those who love him – to believers? To put it another way: how does the Holy Spirit argue to us, assure us, that we are forgiven and saved? The 10 Commandments? No, those were left to us by Moses; and those commands are written, albeit dimly, in the hearts of all people (Romans 2:14-15). What commands did Jesus leave to comfort believers?

There are many, but here are a few: Go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you (Matthew 28:19-20). Just as the Father has sent me, I am also sending you…Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgiven them, they are not forgiven (John 20:21, 23). Take, eat, this is my body…take, drink, this is my blood…do this…in remembrance of me (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). These are a few of the commands Jesus has given exclusively to his disciples, to the Church. And, through these means, the Holy Spirit assures us that the Gospel is not only true, but that it is true for us! The Spirit comes through the instruments Jesus has chosen: his water, his blood, his body, his Word – to assure you that God’s plan worked, Jesus paid for your sins with his death, you are forgiven! When you receive these gifts frequently and faithfully, the Holy Spirit is with you – whether you can feel it or not. Why? Simply because Jesus has promised it.

Ok, but what about his second promise: I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will see me no longer, but you will see me. Have you seen Jesus lately? Have you been able to walk and talk with him like the disciples did? Has he appeared at the foot of your bed to give you concrete answers to your prayers? Have you been able to get a timeline from him on when this whole coronavirus lockdown will end? Doesn’t this promise seem to support the claims of the unbelieving world that Jesus is truly just a myth, a fictional character – because no one has seen him for 2000 years?

Well, how did Jesus show himself after Easter, after his resurrection? In every instance he would appear for a brief time and then disappear again. He wasn’t physically present with his disciples 24/7 even during the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension. In fact, Jesus made a point of directing those who witnessed his resurrection away from his visible presence and to the Scriptures which prophesied that it had to happen this way (cf. Luke 24:25, 32, 44-47; John 20:17). These appearances of Jesus during the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension prepare us for how Jesus would continue to be with us from then until the Last Day. They illustrate for us how it would be that we would see him but the world wouldn’t. That comes out in the last verse of our text: the one who has my commands and holds on to them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love him and show myself to him. Once again, there’s something there in the Greek that you can’t see in the translation. “Show myself” comes from the Greek word emphanidzo. Jesus promises to “emphasize” himself to his disciples.

How? How, for example, did Jesus emphasize himself to the disciples on the road to Emmaus? He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:44-45). That day Jesus opened the disciples’ eyes to see how he was emphasized in the Scriptures. Today, Jesus emphasizes himself to those who open up those very same Scriptures. How? Scripture serves as a lens of sorts, which helps us to see Jesus’ presence among us, a presence the world cannot see. Scripture says that we see Jesus whenever we hear his called servant or any Christian announce the forgiveness of sins (John 20:23). Scripture says that we see Jesus as a Good Shepherd gathering his children into his arms, adopting spiritual orphans into his family, whenever sinners are baptized in his name (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:26-27). Scripture says that wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name – around his Word – that he is there with them – so that even if it’s just you and your family in your pajamas on the couch watching this service – Jesus is there with you (so put some pants on!) (Matthew 18:20; John 20:31). And it’s not just in the church, either. We can see Jesus in the governmental leaders whom God has appointed to serve and protect us – even if we may disagree with some of their decisions and mandates (Romans 13:4). We see Jesus, the Great Physician, in the doctors and nurses and scientists who are working tirelessly to heal those who are sick and find a cure for this virus (John 5:1-9; 1 Peter 2:24). We see Jesus in the Christian moms and dads who have been forced to become parents, teachers, doctors, coaches, and pastors to their children – many for the first time and all at the same time (Isaiah 49:15). The world cannot see Jesus today. But we can, because through the lens of Scripture can see behind the scenes; we can see his almighty hand working behind the scenes of everything that happens in this world.

Our text closes by circling back to the beginning: The one who has my commands and holds on to them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love him and show myself to him. How do we show our love for a Jesus we can’t see? By using the means, the Baptism, the Bible, and the Communion that we do see. To the degree you treasure these things you are treasuring Jesus. To the degree you neglect them you are neglecting Jesus. And, when you treasure Jesus in these means, then Jesus gives one final promise: that you will have the Father’s love too. How? Well, the Father is the one who put this whole plan together, from creating this world for you to live in to sending his Son to redeem you and the Holy Spirit to call you to faith and salvation – every part of it was the Father’s plan. He sent Jesus to die and rise for you and he sent the Holy Spirit to deliver the victory to you – through Word and Sacrament. So hold on to these means – because when you see Jesus emphasized in Word and Sacrament, you also see your Father’s boundless love for you.

In these days of the “Safer at Home” lockdown, many of us may feel like orphans – isolated and alone, unsafe and unloved. The devil and the world work tirelessly to make Christians believe that because they can’t see Jesus that they are alone, they are abandoned. But Jesus has not abandoned you. He has sent the Holy Spirit to stand beside us, to assure us that the Gospel of free forgiveness and salvation are not only true, they are true for you; through the lens of Scripture we see Jesus actively working for our good everywhere in our world, and, last but not least, he leads us to see the Father’s love – love led him to sacrifice his own Son to save us. You may feel like an orphan, but you’re not. You are a dearly loved child of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Schmidt, Alvin J. How Christianity Changed the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 2004) pp. 131-134

John 14:1-12 - Troubled Heart? - May 10, 2020

Today is Mother’s Day. What are some of the things you will thank your mother for – if possible – this year? For bandaging up your skinned knees? Helping you with your math homework? Finding a lost sock or missing toy? For just being there ready to listen to any problem? Could I suggest that we thank our mother’s this year for something strange: for the problems they weren’t able to fix? Why would we do that? Well, what does a mother – a Christian mother, anyway – do when her children come to her with problems she can’t fix? I would hope that your mother said what my wife says to our children: “Well, let’s take a moment to pray to Jesus and ask him to help?” That seemingly small thing is one of the most important things any Christian mother can do for her children: not fix all their problems – because she can’t – but point to the One who can, to Jesus. Our world is certainly filled with trouble and troubled hearts today, troubled by issues so vast and complex that no mother can fix them. And so, with all due respect to you mothers, we need someone better than you today. We need the only One who can calm truly, deeply troubled hearts; we need Jesus.

The words and events of John 14 took place on Maundy Thursday. Jesus and his disciples are still in the upper room when he tells (really, commands) them: do not let your heart be troubled. Now the obvious question is: why would their hearts be troubled? The answer lies in the context, in the previous chapter. They were troubled, they were stressed out because Jesus had just taken on the role of a servant and washed their feet (John 13:1-17), had announced that one of them would betray him (John 13:18-30), that he was going to be leaving them soon (John 13:31-35), and had predicted that their unofficial leader, Peter, would deny him three times. In other words, the disciples were troubled by Jesus’ humility, his calm willingness to be betrayed, tortured and crucified, and, most of all, by the idea that in just a short time he would be leaving them.

That’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? What was the apparent source of the disciples’ troubled hearts? The Gospel; the good news that God had sent Jesus to suffer and die for the sins of the world. In spite of the fact that from the first promise in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15), the entire OT predicted that the Savior would suffer (cf. Isaiah 53); in spite of the fact that Jesus had told them repeatedly that he was going to Jerusalem to die – they continued to believe otherwise; they continued to cling to a false hope that somehow God would bring about a happier outcome. Because the disciples didn’t believe that it was God’s plan for Jesus to suffer and die to save them, they stumbled over Jesus in unbelief (1 Peter 2:8). Instead of rejoicing that Jesus loved them enough to die for their sins, the disciples were troubled that Jesus’ life was going to come to such a tragic end. So, in the end, it wasn’t the Gospel but the disciples’ false faith that caused their hearts to be troubled.

What’s troubling your heart today? I would venture to guess that you might think it’s any number of things: your children, your marriage, your job, your finances – maybe the awful impact the response to this virus has had on nearly every aspect of life. Why do I say that you only think that those things are the source of your troubled heart? Because the source of any and every troubled heart runs much deeper than those issues. The real reason your heart is troubled – and, for that matter, the real reason the hearts of people around the world are troubled during this crisis is not because of a virus. The real source of the trouble is sin. In fact, viruses themselves are the result of the Fall into sin, when God told Adam: the soil is cursed on account of you…by the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the soil, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:17, 19; see also Romans 8:22). Sin is the source of every disease, disaster and pandemic our world has ever seen and sin is the reason that death is hanging over all of our heads like a grim reaper. And that fear of death – and the dread of what comes afterwards – is what really lies at the root of every troubled heart – of every age.

The problem is that just like the disciples in that upper room, the devil often leads us to think that our biggest troubles aren’t sin and death (Romans 6:23). Why is it so dangerous to think that the source of our troubled hearts is our children, our marriages, our mental or physical health, our finances or a virus? It’s not because those aren’t real troubles…they are! Rather, it’s because, just like those disciples, it will quickly lead to false belief. If the source of your troubled heart is merely physical, financial or social – then what kind of Savior will you seek? Undoubtedly you will seek a mere earthly savior, someone to save you from temporary, earthly troubles.

Tragically, this is the Jesus of much of modern Christianity. This is the Jesus of practical, relevant sermons. This is the Jesus that has been preached in America since the days of Dwight Moody in the 19th century. This is the Jesus you find in virtually every book on the shelves of Christian bookstores. This is not a Jesus who comes to earth to go to war with sin, death and the devil but a Jesus who came to make you happy and healthy, joyful and successful. And how does that false version of Jesus address your troubles? Not by anything he actually did that was recorded in Scripture. Not by taking on your human flesh and blood. Not by keeping God’s law perfectly for you. Not by paying for your sins with his blood. Not by appeasing God’s wrath against your sins. Not by destroying sin, death and the devil forever by rising from the dead. No, the Jesus who solves your temporary, earthly troubles does it by teaching you how to solve your problems yourself. This kind of Jesus becomes a new Moses, a new law-giver (John 1:17). So that, if your trouble is an out of control toddler, then Jesus becomes a counselor who teaches you 10 steps to civilizing the little brute. If what troubles your heart is a marriage that’s lost its flame, then Jesus can give you some romantic advice to add fuel to the fire. If what troubles your heart is the loss of a job, the fear of a virus, or failing finances – then, honestly, you really don’t need Jesus at all. Then you just need the number for the unemployment office, Dr. Anthony Fauci, or Dave Ramsey. And if we see Jesus as nothing more than the fixer of all our temporary, earthly needs, then we become guilty of the very same thing those disciples were guilty of on Maundy Thursday: false belief and false hope – because that’s not who Jesus is or why he came.  

This becomes clear when we hear the cure that Jesus prescribes for the disciples’ troubled hearts. Listen again: do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you also may be where I am. You know where I am going, and you know the way. Does Jesus say “Don’t worry, I didn’t really mean it when I said that I was going to be betrayed, tortured and suffer and die at the hands of evil men? Don’t worry, Peter, you won’t really deny me three times, I was just kidding. Don’t be troubled, I will rip up God’s eternal plan of salvation so that I don’t have to leave you.” No! Nor does he promise his disciples that he will remove all the troubles from their lives on earth in the future. In fact, Jesus doesn’t address their immediate, “felt-needs” at all.

What does he do instead? He cures their troubled hearts by pointing them beyond the borders of this world. He assures them that in spite of the fact that there would be dark days ahead; that they would see wicked men betray, torture and crucify him; in spite of the fact that life in general would continue to be difficult and especially so for them because they were to be his witnesses throughout the world (Acts 1:8); in spite of the fact that death would still loom over their heads as the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) – they still didn’t need to be troubled. Why not? Because the very reason Jesus was willing to suffer crucifixion at the hands of evil men, to leave his disciples was to prepare a place in his Father’s house for them, a mansion with their name on it. In the end, the hope of eternal life is the only true cure for a truly troubled heart – simply nothing else will do.

The practical, relevant Jesus is no help against real issues of sin and death that trouble your heart. A Jesus who teaches you how to overcome your troubles on your own is no true help either. Like your mother (hopefully) taught you, you need something better. You need the Jesus of our text. The Jesus who says that he is one with the Father and whoever has seen him as seen the Father (John 14:10-11) – and proves that claim by his words and works – especially his resurrection from the dead. You need the Jesus who gently reveals that the true trouble with your heart is that your heart is wicked and depraved (Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19), and then prescribes the only possible cure. What is that cure? Jesus mentions that he was going to prepare a place for you. What does that mean? Certainly the One who created the universe with his almighty Word didn’t need to gather an angelic work crew to pour a foundation or finish the roof on your mansion. No, the preparations he needed to complete were to suffer and die to take away your sin – because sin is what has separated us from God – kept us quarantined, locked out of his house – in the first place (Genesis 3; Isaiah 59:2). This is the cure for your troubled heart. You don’t need a Jesus to teach you or give you a better life in this world, you need a Jesus who has removed the barrier between you and God with his blood – so that – no matter what temporary, earthly issues are troubling you today – you can look forward every day to spending all eternity in your Father’s house in heaven where there are no troubles at all.

Your heart may or may not be troubled at this moment (although I think everyone’s nerves are a little frayed), but, when it is, you need to know where to go for the cure. Don’t go somewhere that gives you tips on how to deal with the temporary troubles of life yourself – go to the place that deals with the true troubles of the heart: sin and death. When you heart is troubled go to the place where in confession you can openly and honestly lay your sins before God with the confidence that he will never blink at what he sees there and instead will tell you to “go in peace, your sins are forgiven.” When you heart is troubled run back to the unbreakable promise God made to you in Baptism, that he has called you by name, that you are his, that no one can snatch you out of his hand (John 10:28-30), or rob you of your place in heaven. Go to the place where you receive the true body and blood of Jesus – the only medicine that can lift your heart out of the gutter of this troubled world and focus it on the glorious and unending life that will be yours when Jesus returns. Those are the true cures for truly troubled hearts.

I’ve found it kind of interesting that so many people believe that we are living through some sort of novel or unique time in history. We’re not. There have been worldwide pandemics – not to mention wars and depressions and famines – throughout human history. More importantly, we need to understand that the true source of all troubles and the cure haven’t changed a bit since Genesis 3. Sin and death are what truly trouble us and the only cure is a Savior who destroys those enemies once and for all. The cure can’t be found in a mythical Jesus who promises that everything will be all right, that things will eventually return to normal – that Jesus doesn’t exist. The true cure for a troubled heart can’t be found in a Jesus who tells you that you need to solve your own problems. The true cure isn’t found in a vaccine, in wider testing, or in another round of stimulus checks. The only true cure is found in the true Jesus who went through the trouble of taking your place under God’s judgment so that you might take his place in heaven far away from all troubles. And you know where you can find this cure, too: in the Words of Jesus, in the waters of his Baptism, in the body and blood he gives you to eat and to drink. And when you have the assurance that not even sin and death – much less a virus – can rob you of your heavenly mansion, well, then there’s really no reason to be troubled at all, is there? Amen.    

John 10:1-10 - Jesus Is the Door - May 3, 2020

On the church year calendar, this Sunday is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” It’s a wonderful picture of our Savior’s person and work. It’s one of the first ways children learn to know, to understand, to picture Jesus – that they are little lambs and Jesus cares for them. It appropriately depicts Jesus as a caring, compassionate and protective Lord and Savior. However, in these first 10 verses of John chapter 10, Jesus employs a different metaphor to describe his work for us. Today, Jesus calls himself a door.

It’s kind of a strange metaphor, isn’t it? If you were to visit someone’s home (assuming we can do that again someday), you might notice how green their lawn is, you might comment on the open concept design, your eye might be drawn to a piece of art or a family picture, but who comments on, appreciates, or even really notices a front door. (Here’s a test: do you know what color your own front door is?) Nevertheless, even if we don’t pay much attention to them, doors are vital, “essential”, to our safety, security and health. They keep the cold, dangerous people, and, today, the coronavirus out; and keep warmth, health, and happiness in. But the image Jesus is drawing on here is even more vivid than our front doors today. In Biblical times, after the shepherd would bring his flock into the pen for the night, he would lay down at the entrance; he literally served as a door to keep harm out and the sheep in. Nothing could get into the pen without going through the shepherd.

Actually, to be perfectly accurate, Jesus doesn’t just say that he’s a door. He says I am THE door for the sheep – in the original Greek he’s asserting in a not-so-subtle fashion that he’s the only door, the exclusive door…and there is no other. The context is key to unlocking this somewhat mysterious illustration. Jesus had just given a blind man his sight in John 9 – and what did the Pharisees, the church leaders do to this formerly blind man? They threw him out of the church, they excommunicated him for speaking the truth about Jesus (John 9:34). In response, Jesus called out the Pharisees as false teachers; as creating false doors based on obedience to the Law to lead people to strive to earn heaven. He warned that them that because of their impenitence and unbelief your sin remains (John 9:41). Sound harsh? Yes. But that is the only possible outcome for anyone and everyone who refuses to come to God through the only door, through Jesus. There is no other way in.

There was a time when most people, and certainly most Christians at least understood that truth – even if they didn’t like it. There was a time when it was widely understood that the claims made by the various religions – Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity – were clearly contradictory; they couldn’t all be true. But things have changed. Today, while many would still allow that Jesus is a door to God, to heaven, to eternal life, they would use the same breath to reject him as the only door. Today it is considered narrow-minded, intolerant, unloving, and even un-American to confess that Jesus is the only door; that Christianity is the only true religion.

What do you think? Is that true? Is it unloving and intolerant to proclaim Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, as the only door, the only way to God and to eternal life? Are you unloving and hateful if you insist that guests use your front door to enter your home and not a bedroom window? Unbelievers love to set up a false dichotomy, a deceptive “either-or” choice when it comes to Christianity. They like to make it seem like you can either love your neighbor or love Jesus – but not both; you can be an American patriot or a Christian – but not both; you can be a reasonable, intelligent person who appreciates the blessings of science or you can trust the Bible – but not both. This false dichotomy, this false choice is, I believe, one of the reasons that so many Christians are so hesitant to confess their faith before the world. We know that just like in every age, identifying as a Christian today will often also get you labeled as bigoted, anti-science, and unpatriotic.

But if you fall into that “either-or” trap, you’re completely missing the point. The issue is not whether you can be a good and responsible citizen and a faithful Christian at the same time (you most certainly can!), but is Jesus the only door or not? Is he the only way to salvation or is he just one option among many? The Bible is unwavering on this point. This is what Peter confessed while he was on trial before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem: there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Paul told Timothy: there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5). And Jesus himself says a few chapters after our text I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me (John 14:6).

So what does this mean for us? It means that while we certainly support and defend the First Amendment right of anyone to worship and believe anything they want (or choose not to believe anything) we also fearlessly confess that the Bible forbids believing in, worshiping, and praying to anyone or anything other than Jesus – not because we hate other religions – but because no other door leads to salvation. He is the only Door, no matter how many people believe otherwise. And that is, admittedly, a rather “un-American” concept. In America we have chosen to decide most things by counting votes, by popular approval. Thousands of Wisconsinites left their home lockdowns on April 7th to cast their votes in local and state elections. Whether a competitor stays or leaves a reality TV show is often left in the hands of viewers who can vote on their phones. And, it’s true, in many situations, popular opinion can be a helpful guide.

But not when it comes to God, to salvation, to eternity. If we allow popular opinion to shape our faith, we will – almost inevitably – wind up doomed and damned. Just consider how often the majority was dead wrong in Bible history. In Numbers 13 there were 10 spies who refused to believe God’s promise to give them Canaan, and only two, Joshua and Caleb, who believed (Numbers 13-14) and the Israelites paid the price for listening to the majority opinion by wandering and dying in the desert (1 Corinthians 10:5). In 1 Kings there were hundreds of prophets who said Baal was God while there was only one man, Elijah, who confessed the Lord as God (1 Kings 18:19, 22). Jesus stood alone against the entire Sanhedrin, the full leadership of Israel, and we certainly know who was proven right in that situation – and it wasn’t the majority (Matthew 26:59).

Majority opinion is not a valid test for the truth…and neither is sincerity. Without a doubt, the Muslim terrorists who drove airplanes into the Twin Towers on 9/11 were absolutely sincere about their faith. Jews and Mormons and Hindus can practice their religions more sincerely than many Christians. But, again, sincerity is not a valid test of truth. You can sincerely believe that you are immune to Covid-19, but that faith won’t stop it from killing you. The devil loves to lead us to look to other religions and other denominations and ask “Why aren’t we more sincere like them?” “Why don’t we host AA meetings in our church? Why don’t we send people to 3rd world countries to dig wells and build hospitals? Why aren’t we more outwardly pious: why don’t we mandate prayer times like the Muslims or have strict dietary laws like the Mormons or even carry out as many acts of charity as many non-Christians do?”

Do you know what the common error in each of those questions is? It’s simple really. Where’s the focus? The focus is inward; on us; on what we do; on good works. And it’s just a big distraction from the real, core issue. If you read the Bible from cover to cover, you will never hear Scripture say that Christians are better than other people – or will be saved – because they are more sincere than unbelievers or because they do more good works. That’s not Christianity. Christianity teaches that good works cannot get anyone into heaven (Titus 3:5). Our confession is that the only way anyone can get into heaven is through Jesus. All the good works in the world, all the bold and religious sincerity, all the prayers in the world cannot save anyone. Only Jesus can.

Jesus is the only Door that leads to salvation. And the reasons for this should be clear. No one else left heaven to come into this world to give his life as a ransom for sinners (Matthew 20:28). No one else carried the sins of the world to the cross and spilled his blood there to pay for them (1 Peter 2:24). No one else was despised, beaten, and crucified in our place (Isaiah 53). No one else endured the wrath of God as our substitute (Romans 3:25). The blood of no one else can atone the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). And, most importantly, no one else proved the truth of his word by rising from the dead (Matthew 28:1-10). That’s what Jesus is saying in these words from John 10. He is declaring the absolute exclusivity of Christianity. He is stating in vivid terms – in terms that even a child can understand – that there is only one way to God, one way to be saved – and he is it! By God’s grace, you and I believe and confess this truth because Jesus has called [us] by name in Baptism and [we] know his voice as we hear it in the pages of Scripture.

At the same time, that’s only half of the equation. Yes, Christianity it absolutely exclusive; but it is also 100% inclusive. In other words, Jesus is the only door, but this door is open to all. Our prayer, then, is that the Holy Spirit would open first our eyes, hearts, and minds – and then, through our confession, the eyes, hearts and minds of many others – to understand and believe this truth about Jesus, the only Door. In Jesus, anyone can have forgiveness and life, not as a result of their own efforts or obedience but his. In Jesus, everyone can be certain that the wrath of God has been quenched forever by his death on the cross. In Jesus, every single person can be sure that they are included because he didn’t just come to suffer and die for some, he came to suffer and die for the whole world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2). In Jesus, it doesn’t matter how black your sins are, how woefully lacking your good works are, how weak your faith is – because it’s not about you, your works or your faith; it’s about him and his work. In Jesus, everyone in the world who is suffering from the reaction to the virus pandemic can find the comfort that even if Covid-19 were to take their job, their savings, their health – even their life – it cannot take eternal life from any believer.

That’s the difference between Jesus and all the imposters out there. He draws the contrast this way: A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. While imposters and false teachers come only to fleece the flock and enrich themselves, Jesus comes to give; to give abundant life. What is abundant life? Is it wealth, health, happiness? No! It’s the peace that comes from knowing that in baptism God called you by name, made you his child, and wrote your name in heaven’s book of life (Revelation 21:27). It’s the freedom from guilt that results from hearing that God has declared you “not-guilty” in the Absolution – so that you don’t have to spend your life trying to earn God’s favor. It’s the rock-solid and tangible assurance of Jesus’ redeeming life, death, and resurrection which he puts in your hand and your mouth in Holy Communion. No other religion has this. No other religion has a God who became one of us, gave his life for us, rose again for us – and now and until the end of time leads us like a Good Shepherd by giving himself to us in Word and Sacrament. Jesus is the only Door to heaven and the most unloving, hateful, and murderous thing we could ever do is deny that he is both an exclusive and inclusive Savior.

Jesus is the only Door. I know, it’s a kind strange metaphor – but, when you think about it, it makes sense. Doors keep bad things out and good things in. Doors lead you to people you love. Doors grant access that can’t be found anywhere else. Jesus is your Door – the only Door – to God and to eternal life. Continue listening to his voice, his Word, and know that whatever happens in our world and whatever happens to you, in him you have an open door to abundant life now and forever in heaven. Amen.

Acts 5:12, 17-32 - The Holy Spirit Changes Lives - April 26, 2020

On that first Easter, an angel spoke to the women, who came to a tomb expecting to anoint a dead body. The impact of that day was life changing. From fear and doubt to joy in their risen living Savior. But not every one of the disciples and apostles came to the same conclusion at the same time.  In fact on that first evening the Apostles were behind locked doors. They were afraid of the very same group of people who had put Jesus to death on a cross.  The ten Apostles minus Thomas saw and believed but Thomas was not there.  A week later we have the event of our gospel lesson when Thomas saw and believed that Jesus was his Lord and Savior. In that setting Jesus told Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Jesus was addressing you and me who would hear the message of Jesus without seeing his risen body and believe that Jesus is our Lord and God. That message is good news for you and me who have our doubts and fears even today. 

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit, had Luke share the New Testament fulfillment of the gospel promises in the New Testament Church. Throughout the book of Acts we see again and again: “The Impact of Easter”. Today we consider the boldness of the Apostles. We come together on this day not here in the Church of Risen Savior in McFarland but on line at this time of Covid 19 and shuttered homes. We come together virtually with many thoughts and concerns about changes in our lives every day. The most powerful change that happens is the one God works in us.  The Holy Spirit Changes Lives I. The doubting Apostles into bold witnesses II. The spiritually blind into bold confessors of the Christian faith

We listen to the words of Luke describe the events of Acts chapter five today. He is not describing the same attitude of the group of people we saw at the empty tomb or in a room behind closed doors.  What changed? Jesus appeared to his disciples and Apostles again and again and again over 40 days. Jesus ascended in Acts 1. Jesus gave them marching orders: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  On Pentecost they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit made all of the Old Testament clear to the Apostles of why Jesus the Son of God had to walk this earth, suffer, die and rise again. In Acts chapter 3 and 4 Luke records miracle after miracle of the Apostles. The Apostles were given those gifts through the office of Apostleship. What changed? The Holy Spirit who had worked through the words of Jesus now worked in them and through them with the same gospel message. What changed? The Holy Spirit changes lives. The Holy Spirit changed fearful Apostles into bold witnesses.

God’s Word written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit caused Luke to write:  “The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this new life.’ (Acts 5:12, 17-20).” The miracles of the Apostles were the work of God. The group of 120 people in Acts 1 had become over 5,000 people. The ruling party called the Sadducees could not deny the miracles of the Apostles. The Sadducees were a priestly group but more concerned about political power. They were Jewish leaders and they rejected the truth of God’s Word. They gave some allegiance to the books of Moses. Yet, at the same time they rejected the truth of the resurrection which Jesus had proved to them from the books of Moses. They were stiff in their opposition of the Apostles. They put them in jail. The same God who had raised Jesus from the dead sent his angel to set free the Apostles from jail.  The angel told them: “Tell the people the full message of this new life.”

Jesus began his ministry when he called his disciples around him. He told them to repent of their sins. He pointed out their imperfect relationship with a Holy righteous God. Jesus used people like Peter who denied Jesus. My dear friends we are not any less in need by nature than those first disciples. Without the knowledge of God which he brings to us we are not only fearful but clueless.  The Holy Spirit by bringing us first to confess our sins and look to God for forgiveness. Jesus uses the good news about what he has done on the cross to bring us to faith through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit changes lives through the message of Jesus. We would continue to be unbelievers. We would continue to claim not to know there is a God.

What is the impact of Easter on our lives? We have been set free from the law of God that would condemn us through the saving work of Jesus. The Holy Spirit brings this message to you and me through called men of God who have been called to proclaim this message. God uses male and female believers to encourage and strengthen us in our sharing time in the Word of God. The message of new life in Jesus proclaims us to be free to serve Jesus with our gifts and abilities. The message of new life unites us into Christians boldly working together like the early Christian church worked together proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. That is why you exist as a congregation. That is your purpose. The Sadducees did not want to be made guilty of this man’s (Jesus) blood. By nature we are no different. By grace God the Holy Spirit changes us. The difference between the apostles and us. They were witnesses of everything Jesus did. Just like eyewitnesses in a court room who tell what they have seen.   We have been called to faith through the work of the Holy to believe their testimony. We are called to confess that same truth about Jesus and his resurrection. We are called confessors of that faith in Jesus. 

Change took place throughout the Apostles walk with Jesus. He walked with them and then sent them to share that same message of new life in Jesus. By nature we are spiritually dead without any ability to do God’s will. By nature we are enemies with God and not able to cooperate or desire God. We continue in our lives opposed to God until God the Holy Spirit brings the message of repentance and forgiveness. We may continue many years in our life opposing God. Don’t be like the Sadducees because those who oppose God will not win. They tried to wipe out the message of Jesus by killing him. God raised him from the dead. The Sadducees tried to quiet the Apostles by putting them in jail. The angel of God opened the jail to release them and send them proclaiming the message.

The Apostles were told to stop proclaiming this message about Jesus. The apostles followed the commands of God to respect the leaders that God had placed over them. “Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.’”  The Holy Spirit changes our lives with the preaching of the gospel in Word and Sacraments. The opposition we face is real and significant whether from the world or the government. God wants to use you and me in bringing that message of new life to the next generation. Bring that message to your children and the people in your community. Grow in a knowledge of that truth by continuing in searching the Scriptures in your homes and at Risen Savior when you will have an opportunity to do so in the future. Tell the message of this new life to friends and neighbors. But first begin with believing and living this message of truth. The impact of Easter is powerful because God has given the message its power. Believe the message. The Holy Spirit changes lives. There are many opportunities to witness to people whose lives in this time of Covid 19 are disheartened and discouraged by financial debt,  job loss, or even a virus effect on their body or loved ones. Perhaps they have doubts about God and His love for them. The Holy Spirit changed the doubting apostles into bold witnesses. The Holy Spirit changes lives: He changes the spiritually blind into bold confessors of the Christian faith. He has changed your life so that other people in your world may come to know the love of the living, risen Savior.

Luke 24:36-49 - The Powerful Word Makes Everything Clear - April 19, 2020

The Powerful Word Makes Everything Clear

I.                  Even in the presence of fear and amazement

II.               So that we see clearly our Risen Lord

Behind the locked doors in Jerusalem were disciples who were talking about what the Emmaus disciples were saying about Jesus appearing to them on the way to Emmaus while they were talking to each other Jesus  stood among them. They were startled. They were frightened. They were troubled.  Look at these fear filled disciples. They were in danger. The same people who had put Jesus death wanted to find them and destroy this Jesus’ movement and they proved their actions later on. But Jesus was in their midst. This just could not be. He must be a ghost. It couldn’t be Jesus. Jesus addressed their troubled hearts and spoke to their doubts by inviting them to look at his hands and feet. This is Jesus the one who died on the cross. Jesus invited them to touch him and see that he had flesh and bones. He wanted to remove all their doubts and all their fears.

Jesus when he recognizes their joy and amazement which caused confusion ate some food. He wanted to prove to them that he was the same Jesus who was born at Bethlehem and walked this earth with them in his ministry. He was the same Jesus who died on the cross. Jesus did want them to be sure of what had happened by using the same proof that you and I have to search and study and to trust. He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."  45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 

Not only is this the same person who ate and drank with his disciples during his earthly ministry; his message is the same. Jesus reminds them of how his entire ministry is a fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. The first public sermon preached by Jesus as recorded by Luke began with this thematic statement: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (4:21). Jesus moves through the various books of the Old Testament, opening the minds of his disciples to show how all has been fulfilled in himself. The Old Testament is promise; the New Testament is fulfillment. The message is the same: repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus took time to reassure his disciples with his presence and with the Scriptures. Could Jesus have used these words of Isaiah 52? It is certainly possible. Isaiah wrote “See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him--his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness--  15 so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand (Isaiah 52:13-15).” Could Jesus have quoted Psalm 16? IT is certainly possible. The Psalmist wrote: “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.(Psalm 16:8-11).”

Jesus uses the testimony of those same disciples along with the Old Testament Scriptures to give us a firm footing in our faith in the slippery doubts and confusion of life that cause us to be fearful, anxious, worried, uncertain, and slowed down in sharing the certainty, confidence and sure hope of salvation Jesus wants us to share. Jesus before he appeared to the disciples had just opened the Scriptures to the Emmaus disciples. There hearts burned while he spoke to them. Jesus opened the Scriptures once again to his disciples who were hiding behind locked doors because of real fears and troubled hearts.

When the rich man in hell requested that someone from the dead should go and speak to his five brothers, Abraham replied that “if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (16:31). When Jesus appears here to his disciples, he does not simply show himself to be a living person; he opens their minds to an understanding of the Scriptures. Today we do not have the privilege of seeing the body of our risen Lord face-to-face, but we have the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which bear witness to him. These are sufficient for our faith and our witness. The Powerful Word Makes Everything Clear. Even in the presence of fear and amazement

Think of those things that can overwhelm us in our Christian walk with the Lord. It is so easy to be entangled in sinful thoughts words and actions. When we are it is to lock the door of forgiveness by hiding behind our guilt. Jesus wants today to be the day that those doors of fear and guilt are unlocked. He wants to set us free with the message of his death and resurrection.

I have seen that locked door open many times in my ministry. I have seen it in a Bible information class when people hang on to the misunderstandings of the past and there own desire to make themselves right with God. I have seen the door of fear and guilt unlocked and the certainty of salvation embrace the troubled soul with the certainty of forgiveness and the certain expectation of eternal life with Jesus. I have seen many an elderly person troubled by the failing body and the pain of disease overcoming their confidence be set free from the locked doors of worry and fear by the trusting promises in Jesus their Savior.

Jesus wanted his disciples to be sure of who he was and what he had done and how it was all a fulfillment of the Scriptures so that they could use that same message to set free the people in Jerusalem and Samaria and all parts of the world. Jesus concludes by giving to his followers a command and a promise. Their task will be to preach to all nations, witnessing to all they had seen and heard. It is an awesome assignment that Jesus gives, but along with it comes the promise that the disciples will be “clothed with power from on high.” The book of Acts (also written by Luke) tells the story of how the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to go with the gospel. The journey of Jesus ended in Jerusalem; the mission of the church will begin in that same city and finally reach to the ends of the earth.

In the same way Jesus wants us to absolutely sure of our relationship with him that we might not spend all our time worrying about our uncertainty but be able to be instruments of God in bringing that message to people who have been deceived by those who have rejected the message that Jesus is the Son of God who really died on the cross at a time in history. There are people who are being lied to that Jesus did not rise from the dead. There are really people who believe that Jesus if he did live still has a body lying in a tomb in Jerusalem. Not true. Why? The Law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms proclaimed that Jesus had to suffer and die and rise again so that this message of repentance and forgiveness would be preached to all nations.  

The Powerful Word Makes Everything Clear. Even in the presence of fear and amazement. So that we see clearly our Risen Lord.  Even though we find fear filled disciples behind those locked doors. We also find a Risen living Lord who removes doubts and fears by opening up the Scriptures to the truth of who he is and what he had to do to suffer, die and rise again for us and all people. Today at a time when we can’t go to this house of the Lord as a congregation of believers we can go to the Scriptures. There in the Scriptures we return to Jerusalem to find certainty and confidence for our daily lives in the comforting words and direction of our living Lord and Savior. In this times of lockdown and Covid 19 fears we can go directly to our Lord for prayers of healing and wisdom. Why? Because Jesus suffered for our sins, died on the cross and rose from the dead on Easter just as the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures declare. Confident Jesus is with us every day let us use these challenging times to witness to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

John 20:1-18 - Unforgettable Sights; Unbreakable Word - April 12, 2020

We’ve seen some pretty unforgettable sights over the past few weeks, haven’t we? For one, you’ve had to suffer through watching me doing my best impression of a news anchor and preaching to a camera – something I’d definitely like to forget. But there’s a whole host of other sights that I don’t think any of us will ever forget: cities of millions looking like ghost towns, hospital hallways overflowing with beds and patients, the military building field hospitals on our own shores, stores filled with people clad in gloves and facemasks, the ubiquitous graphs and charts of coronavirus curves and infection rates. And then there are the truly tragic images: refrigerated semi-trailers serving as makeshift morgues and the daily reports of deaths due to the Covid-19 virus. Unforgettable sights. None of us who have lived through this pandemic will ever forget it. But as unforgettable as the sights of the coronavirus crisis of 2020 have been, there’s an even more unforgettable sight, one that can shift our focus from the panic and death that has overwhelmed our world to one of hope and joy. While we may not be able to gather in church this Easter to shout Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! – this is still an unforgettable Easter, for today we see an empty tomb and a Risen Lord.  

What’s the scariest part of this whole pandemic? Is it overwhelmed hospitals? The shortage of ventilators? The shuttered and depressed economy? The chance that we will run out of food or toilet paper? No. The scariest part of this pandemic is the same thing that has always been the scariest thing about life in this world: the prospect of death. The prospect of death is why authorities have directed millions of people to stay in their homes, why church doors are locked on Easter, why hand-sanitizer and facemasks are rarer today than gold. Death and the uncertainty of what happens after death is the real source, the root of the fear and panic that has been sweeping through this world from the moment Eve took that first bite of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6).

And let’s not sugarcoat it: we’re all going to have to face death, whether from this virus or something else. Death is a fixture in this world and there is not a single thing the human race has been able to do to prevent it. And unless we face this mortal enemy through faith in Christ, it will paralyze us; it will lead us to live and behave with irrational panic like the rest of the unbelieving world. Death has always been a part of life in this world. The only difference is that today, it is right before our eyes like never before in our lifetimes. We’ve all seen our fill of death. But that’s not the question. The question is: are you ready to face it yourself?

This is not a new question. Mary Magdalene knew all about facing death. She had faced a living death when her mind and body were possessed by seven demons (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2-3). Through Jesus’ teaching and preaching she had undoubtedly come to understand that the source of death was the sin living deep in her heart (Romans 6:23). She had been there on Calvary to see the powers of darkness crucify the Lord of Light (John 19:25). Mary Magdalene saw every gruesome detail. She heard hammers pound the nails through his hands and feet. She listened to them mocking and blaspheming her Lord. She saw his skin blister under the scorching sun. She heard her Savior cry out for a drink and declare his victory and give up his spirit. She had faced Jesus’ death. But, as we see on Easter morning, she had not yet learned to face death with Jesus.

Mary faced death like so many people in our world do today: without faith, without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And she wasn’t alone. Peter and John faced the death of their Lord with the same hopelessness. In fact, each of them are facing death with such despair that they hope to find answers in the last place they should have expected to find any: a tomb. You can’t see it in the English, but in the Greek the phrase “into the tomb” is used six times in our text. All three expected to find answers in that tomb; they expected to find these answers with their eyes. And what did they find? Some folded linen cloths, an empty tomb; but no Jesus, and no answers. For Mary, Peter and John – they’re eyes deceived them – not bringing them answers but only more doubt and fear. Why? Well, John tells us why: they still did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.

Mary, Peter, and John had seen the evidence with their eyes – but they still didn’t believe. They thought, like many today still do, that if you just see the evidence, if you could only see Jesus – then that would seal the deal on Christianity. If Jesus would just appear to you, then you’d believe. Then you’d be a firmer and more devout Christian. Then you’d take opportunities to hear the Word and receive the Sacrament more seriously. Then you would start to treat the next life, eternal life, as more important than this fleeting, chaotic, death-filled life. That’s what we may think, but that’s certainly not what Jesus thought or taught. He didn’t appear at all to Peter or John that morning. If faith could be created by sight, then, not only would we expect that the Jewish leaders would have believed (they didn’t (Matthew 28:11-15)), but we should fully expect to see Jesus today. But faith doesn’t come from seeing. Scripture is very clear on that point. In Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus he comes right out and says: if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31). Paul adds in Romans 10: faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

And we see that truth borne out in our text, don’t we? How was it that Mary Magdalene went from a sobbing mess to a bold witness of the Gospel with the message that [she had] seen the Lord? What changed from verse 2 to verse 18? It wasn’t the empty tomb. It wasn’t the angels. It wasn’t even seeing Jesus with her own eyes. (She thought he was the gardener.) Fear and grief and unbelief had closed Mary’s eyes to the truth. What opened them?

Picture the scene for a moment. There’s Mary, bent over, looking into the tomb, having a conversation with two angels (which, incidentally, isn’t it odd that this didn’t strike her as odd?). Then Jesus appears behind her. She gives him a glance, but after asking Jesus where she could find Jesus’ corpse, she apparently turns back to the tomb – because the text says that it was only after Jesus had said “Mary” that she turned back to face him. You understand the significance of this little detail, right? Mary only recognized Jesus when her eyes were turned away from him. She didn’t recognize her Risen Lord with her eyes – but with her ears.

Just one word from Jesus, four little letters (six in Greek), had done what all the visual evidence in the tomb couldn’t do: revive and restore faith in Mary’s heart. What was so significant about this word: Mary? It didn’t answer any of her questions, did it? It didn’t tell her how the stone had been rolled away. It didn’t tell her where they had taken his corpse; or who “they” were. But it told her something far more important: the only thing she (and we) need to know: her Lord was alive. This truth is the key, the linchpin, the foundation of Easter and the entire Christian faith. The only thing that truly matters in this world is not finding a vaccine or getting back to normal but the fact that Jesus is risen. Why? Because the alternative is even more depressing than the dire reports on the evening news. Paul spells out the cold, hard truth if Jesus is not alive: if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is pointless…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…if our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). If Christ has not been raised, then you have wasted your life worshiping him and reading his Word and bringing him your offerings. If Christ has not been raised, then you still have to figure out a way to pay for your own sins – because Good Friday was “good” for nothing. If Christ has not been raised, you had better take every precaution to guard your health these days – because this life is all you get.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20). This is a truth you can’t see with your eyes but that you hear with your ears in the Word. That’s how it worked with Mary. Jesus says one word, her name, and she whirls around and immediately blurts out “Rabboni!” (which means, “Teacher”). Jesus had revived Mary’s faith with one word and Mary, in turn, confessed, gave evidence, of her faith with one word. Her eyes may have deceived her, but her ears couldn’t. This was her Friend, her Teacher, her Lord, her Savior – risen and living and talking to her. You can almost imagine how all of his other words and teachings came flooding back into her mind, can’t you? Specifically: how he had promised three times (Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19) that he would rise from the dead after three days in the tomb, and now he had kept his promise.

What does this mean for us? What does this mean in a time when we seem to be surrounded and hounded by fear and panic and death? What should this mean for you if your retirement nest egg has been wiped out or you’ve lost your job or you’re afraid to leave your house? How can this truth possibly alleviate, much less solve, the fact that we are stuck in our homes and aren’t able to gather together for an Easter breakfast and to shout “Christ is Risen Indeed” and sing “I know that my Redeemer Lives” as loudly as we can with our fellow believers? What does it matter that Jesus keeps his promises when the world is falling apart around us?

Nothing in the world matters more. Jesus – risen, living, victorious – means that sin, death, and the devil have been defeated (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). It means that we will never have to pay for our sins, because he already has. It means that the worst the coronavirus can do to us is send us to our heavenly home. It means that the devil might be able to close down churches, but he cannot ever destroy the Church – because he can’t stop the Gospel from being preached and heard.

But you will never see this truth until you hear it with your ears. The inspired, inerrant and unbroken Word of God should be our focus in these days of crisis – and not just the pictures of panic and death that are presented to our eyes. Without the Word you will see this pandemic as nothing more than the result of some tragic accident at a “wet-market” in Wuhan, China – rather than what it actually is: God getting on his megaphone and calling the world to repentance (Luke 13:1-5). Without the Word you won’t see that God gives rebirth and renewal through Baptism (Titus 3:5) – you will just see plain, ordinary water. Without the Word you will hear the Absolution as nothing more than wishful thinking, not the very words of God (John 20:23). Without the Word you won’t see anything more than bread and wine in Holy Communion – you won’t see it as the medicine of immortality (Matthew 26:28). Without the Word you will think that the Church is not as indestructible as Jesus made it out to be (Matthew 16:18), and that attending faithfully is clearly not all that “essential” if a tiny, microscopic virus can shut it down.

But the Word changes everything. I think one of the blessings of this pandemic is that we are led to “reset” our understanding of what is “essential” and what is “non-essential” to the Church’s mission and ministry. Easter lilies and Easter breakfasts and the roar of the organ pounding out “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” are all good things, but they aren’t essential to the Church or your salvation. As long as we have the Word, we have life. In a broader way, I think we’ve seen how shutdowns can turn into opportunities. “Stay at home” becomes a chance to “serve your neighbor.” One church has become dozens of churches as families gather around the Word in their own homes. Fathers become pastors. Mothers become Sunday school teachers. Opportunities to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15) abound. Tears turn to rejoicing. Fear turns into hope. Doubt turns into faith. All because one Sunday morning long ago Jesus Christ turned death into life.

We’ve seen some unforgettable sights in the past several weeks. Trauma and panic and death. But I pray that the sight that sticks in your mind today and every day is the sight of the empty tomb and your Risen Savior. You may not be able to see him, but I want you to hear Scripture loud and clear: Christ is Risen! And that means that your sins are not only forgotten, they are forgiven. Your health and well-being are not in your hands or the hands of a doctor some government bureaucrat – they are in the hands of the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Death is not the end, but the beginning. Mary couldn’t hold onto Jesus, but you can. You can hold on to him in his Word. Open your ears to his Word and you too will see your Risen and ever-living Savior. That’s a sight you won’t forget for all eternity. Amen.

1 Corinthians 11:17-32 - Real Things Have Real Consequences - April 9, 2020

Real things have real consequences. Fake, imaginary things don’t. Whether or not you believe in space aliens, unicorns, Big Foot, or the Easter Bunny – doesn’t really matter. Because those things are not real. Sadly, many people in our supposedly enlightened and “scientific” age have placed much, if not all of Christianity into the category of fake or make-believe. The six day creation, the flood, the Exodus, the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, and especially his resurrection from the dead, have been labelled as myths – or, at least, are regarded by many as purely subjective – that they are true only if you believe them to be true. God does not permit such thinking. Every Word of the Bible is true whether we believe it or not (John 10:35; 1 Peter 1:16). Tonight we will closely consider one of the things that many people have placed into the category of make-believe mythology: the real presence of the body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. Paul’s premise is simple: real things have real consequences.

In these words from his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is making assertions, not suggestions. He is asserting with the authority of an apostle (1 Corinthians 1:1) that the body and blood of Jesus, thus, Jesus himself, is truly present every time Holy Communion is celebrated whether you believe it or not. He simply repeats Jesus’ own words: This is my body, which is for you…this cup is the new testament in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. Jesus’ body and blood are truly present in this sacrament whether you believe it or not.

One fine illustration of this objective reality comes from the field of pharmaceuticals. If your doctor gives you a bottle of oxycodone, that’s what it is, and it will have its biological and mental and emotional effects on you whether you believe in it or not. If you take the drug according to the prescribed amount and timing, the results are generally beneficial. However, if you disregard the doctor’s instructions and abuse it, you are putting your health in real danger. In the same way, if you receive our Lord’s Supper, the next time we can in a safe and legal way, in accord with his directions – that is, to examine yourself, to recognize his true body and blood, to believe that this meal really conveys the forgiveness of sins, and to practice doctrinal fellowship – then you will receive eternal blessings from this meal. However, should you fail to examine yourself, Paul says, you may very well become physically weak and sick, you may even fall asleep in death as a result. Real things have real consequences.

Perhaps this helps us better understand why from the very beginning, the Church has practiced what is called “closed communion.” “Closed communion” is the practice of only inviting those who are instructed and penitent and of the same faith to receive the Sacrament together. Sadly, many Christians today have never heard of closed communion. But it’s not a novel idea. Jesus practiced closed communion even in his original institution of this meal. Only the disciples Jesus had personally instructed for three years were invited to receive this Supper (Matthew 26:20). Not even Jesus’ own mother was invited to receive this sacrament.

At the same time, we are certainly not saying that everyone who is excluded from this meal is necessarily going to be judged, that they are going to hell. Most of the time closed communion is about the theological and doctrinal divisions that exist among Christians –divisions that Paul says must exist in order to separate the faithful from the unfaithful (1 Corinthians 11:19). In our time, the divisions are found along several very important lines: either Jesus was sacrificed once for all the sins of all the world on Good Friday (John 19:30); or, priests must sacrifice him over and over again – there is no middle ground. [1] Either Jesus wants babies to be baptized in his name as part of all nations (Matthew 28:19); or they aren’t sinful from birth and can’t believe and be saved – there is no middle ground. Either the Bible is the infallible and inerrant Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16); or it isn’t – there is no middle ground. Either Jesus’ body and blood are really present in this sacrament (Matthew 26:26-27) – or he isn’t – there’s no middle ground. There are always those who would like to just ignore these real differences, who invite everyone who “believes in Jesus” to receive this sacrament together. But that practice of “open communion” is unbiblical and unloving. Only those who are one in faith should join at one table to receive the Lord’s Supper together (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

That sounds pretty nit-picky. No wonder people think Lutherans are mean. But it’s not nit-picky or mean. Because real things have real consequences! Jesus is here and Jesus is God so that means that God is here! Do you remember what happened when God appeared to mere mortals in the OT? Abraham fell on his face (Genesis 17:3); Moses took his shoes off (Exodus 3:5); Uzzah was struck dead for simply touching the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6:7). Time after time, when people realize that Jesus is the Son of God in the NT, they fall down on their faces before him (Matthew 2:11; 17:6; 28:9). Clearly, coming into God’s presence is no trifling matter. If done inappropriately, it’s dangerous. That’s one of the reasons that we cover the elements with a sheet, that’s why when we approach this altar we do it with reverence, that’s why we require people to undergo rigorous instruction prior to communing, that’s why we don’t let children receive this meal, that’s why we close this meal to all who are not in our fellowship – because when God is really present, there are real, life-changing consequences. Anyone who eats and drinks this meal without proper preparation, without examination, without instruction, without doctrinal unity…eats and drinks this meal to their judgment (1 Corinthians 11:29) – in other words, instead of receiving it to their benefit, they are sinning by their participation. And continuing to receive this real body and real blood in such an unworthy manner, without repentance, can only result in eternal condemnation.

And now you may be saying to yourself “if that’s what’s at stake in this meal, I think I might just pass. Why run the risk?” There is a very good reason – or rather two words – to run the risk of judgment to receive this meal: for you. This meal is for you. Jesus has provided this meal for you – not for your judgment but for your salvation. Jesus is present not just so that you would remember his death on the cross for your sins but also so that you would receive in a tangible, visible way the assurance that your sins – every last one of them – has already been paid for!

And don’t we all desperately need that assurance regularly? Does a day go by when we don’t recognize what miserable sinners we are? Can any of us look at our children or our spouse or our coworkers – without feeling pangs of guilt and shame at what we’ve thought, said and done to hurt them? How many nights don’t we lay awake staring at the ceiling, thinking about some awful thing we did days or weeks or even decades ago – longing for some kind of relief from the guilt that tortures us?

Just like powerful medication is only for the terribly sick, so this meal is only beneficial to those who recognize and feel their terrible sins. This meal is not designed to make good people better. You are not invited to step forward only if you’ve been a very good boy or girl this past week. No. This meal is only for confessed sinners. This meal is only for those who know they are guilty; for criminals, for idolaters and murderers and adulterers and gossipers and thieves and greedy and covetous people. This meal is only for those who wouldn’t dare to look up to heaven but can only beat their chests and plead God, be merciful to me, a sinner! (Luke 18:13) This very real meal is only for real sinners.

Why? Because real things have real consequences. Where Jesus is really present with the new testament in his blood, there is real forgiveness for real sinners. Here real sinners like you and me receive the real, true body and blood of Jesus, the very same body and blood that were given and shed on the cross for the forgiveness of all of my sins and your sins once and for all (Hebrews 7:27). To be sure, Jesus doesn’t need us to receive this meal. He’s already forgotten your sins (Hebrews 8:12); separated them from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12); buried them in the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). We don’t eat this meal for Jesus’ benefit; this meal is Jesus, true God and true man, offering himself to you and for you. This meal is about God’s Son personally assuring you that he has freed you from the sins that torment your conscience and weigh on your heart. So that if he, your Savior and Judge, has forgotten your sins, so can you!

It’s been said that death is the great equalizer – that it doesn’t care whether you’re black or white, male or female, rich or poor. (The same has been said recently about the coronavirus – that it is no respecter of persons.) And while that’s true, it’s also true that Holy Communion is the great equalizer. When we step forward to this table, all external differences melt away; there is no difference between pastor and people, elders and greeters, men and women. Here at this table there is only one Jesus present – the one who gave his life for each and every one of us. He invites only one kind of person to receive this gift: confessed and believing sinners. And he sends us away as one body, one family, one in faith and hope and love (Ephesians 4:3-6). CFW Walther called Holy Communion the pulpit of the people. [2] With one voice we step forward to proclaim the Lord’s death for the sins of the world and with one faith we look forward to his second coming, when he will take us all home to heaven where we will feast with him for all eternity.

All of these things are true whether you believe them or not – not because I say so, but because Jesus has said so. Do this, he says. Eat my body and drink my blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Remember my sacrifice on the cross for your sins and look forward to my coming to get you and take you home. And until then, stand shoulder to shoulder with your fellow believers in confession and absolution, serve them in love just as I have served you, forgive them as I have forgiven you. These are the real consequences of the real body and blood that our Lord really gave and shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our very real sins. You can take it or leave it, believe it or not – but I sincerely pray that you do believe it, take it and eat and drink it as often as you can because all that’s necessary for you to receive all of the real blessings of this real and consequential sacrament is a heart that believes. [3] Amen.

[1] https://www.oca.org/questions/romancatholicism/sacrifice-of-the-mass

[2] C.F.W. Walther, Ein Handbuch zur Taglichen Hausandacht, ed. A. Croce (St. Louis: Concordia, 1893) 181

[3] SC The Sacrament of Holy Communion IV

Matthew 21:1-17 - Jesus' March to Calvary - Palm Sunday - April 5, 2020

“In like a lion, out like a lamb.” You’ve probably heard that old proverb used to describe the typical nature of the weather during the month of March. March is said to come in like a lion – like a wintry beast; and exits like a lamb – a mild, docile creature. (Surprisingly, it’s happened again this year. It appears that the month of March didn’t get the memo that the climate was supposed to be changing.) But I digress. We’re not here to discuss the weather or even to dwell on how much different this March was than any other we’ve ever experienced. We’re here to talk about Jesus. To follow him to Calvary. And as Jesus completes his “march” toward his final destination, he does the opposite of the calendar month, he comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion.

Jesus’ march to Calvary didn’t begin on the day we’re celebrating today, Palm Sunday. It began 30 or so years earlier, in the little town of Bethlehem. And in Bethlehem, it’s pretty clear that Jesus came to this earth like a lamb. Where was he born? In a stable, where animals, like lambs, live. What was his first crib? A manger (Luke 2:7) that animals, like lambs, eat out of. Who was his birth announced to? To shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock at night (Luke 2:8). And what happened shortly after King Herod caught wind of the birth of this King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2) and schemed to assassinate him? Joseph, Mary and Jesus fled to Egypt – like frightened lambs (Matthew 3:14). But easily the clearest proof that Jesus came in like a lamb is that the moment he began his ministry, John the Baptist pointed at him and said Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

And yet, while Jesus began his march to Calvary like a lamb, he goes out like a lion. And that’s fitting, because lions have almost always been associated with kings. Rather pompous kings have worn lion skins to massage their egos. 1 Kings describes King Solomon’s very lion themed throne: there were six steps to the throne. The throne had a rounded back and armrests on either side of the seat. Two lions were standing beside the armrests. Twelve lions were standing on the steps, one on each end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any kingdom (1 Kings 10:18-20). Kings and lions go hand in hand.

Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday like a king, like a lion, in a way that he never had before. He enters with a roar. Large crowds gather to welcome him into the capital city, shouting hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (By calling Jesus the Son of David, the people were recognizing him as not only the heir of David’s throne but also as the promised Messiah (2 Samuel 7:12-14).) A very large crowd spread their outer clothing on the road – the precursor of today’s royal red carpet. (This is how King Jehu was honored as king in 2 Kings 9:13). John reports that the people cut palm branches to welcome Jesus (John 12:13). Palm branches were the “stars and stripes” of Israel; they were waving their national “flags” as they welcomed their lion king.

In marked contrast to how Jesus had behaved previously in his ministry, frequently trying to avoid crowds (John 6:15), walking through and away from them (Luke 4:30), telling the beneficiaries of his healing touch that they shouldn’t tell anyone about him (Mark 7:36) – today, on Palm Sunday, Jesus walks right into the adoring crowds and accepts their praise. When the chief priests and experts in the law try to make him quiet down the crowds, Jesus responds with the roar of Scripture have you never read, from the lips of children and nursing babies you have prepared praise? In the past I’ve commented that a donkey was not an appropriate mode of transportation for a king. That a white stallion or a gleaming chariot would have been more appropriate. I’ve had to rethink that assertion. First, as we heard that’s how the prophet Zechariah predicted that Israel’s true King would enter into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9). In other words, God himself predicted that the Son of God would enter Jerusalem on a donkey – and it doesn’t get more “kingly” than having the endorsement of God himself. Second, when King David wanted to announce that Solomon, not Adonijah, was to be the next king, he indicated this by seating him on his own donkey (1 Kings 1:33).

Jesus may have come into this world like a lamb, but he’s going out like a lion. With absolute and fearless authority, Jesus cleans out the Temple; he acts like he owns the place. He even calls it my house (Isaiah 56:7). We might wonder why Jesus – who knew that he would be hanging on a cross in just six days – would waste his time cleaning out the temple courts. The temple courts had become the marketplace, the economic engine of Jerusalem. And what happens almost any time money is changing hands? Fraud and corruption. But even worse, those who ran the Temple had rejected Jesus as Savior and King – so that the Temple of God had really become a haven of unbelief. So, to put Jesus’ actions in today’s terms, he was “draining the swamp.”

But he went even further than that. What did Jesus do after he had cleared the money changers out of [his] house? He took it over: the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. Unlike Matthew’s reports of Jesus’ other miracles, he doesn’t include any details here. He doesn’t mention how the people he healed responded. He doesn’t tell us how the formerly blind immediately campaigned for Jesus or how the lame leaped up and ran around. Probably because the point is not just that Jesus had healed people, but that as the rightful owner of the Temple he had the right to clean it out and to make it once again into a place for worship and healing rather than a den of robbers. And even children recognize it (Matthew 21:15-16). 

Jesus may have started his march to Calvary with a lamb-like whimper, but he is finishing with a roar. But do you know what the irony is? It’s probably because he entered Jerusalem like a lion that he was killed. We’re in a presidential election year. Does anyone care about the candidates who have dropped out of the race? Do you see any ads on TV or run in the papers smearing those people? No. Why not? Because lambs aren’t dangerous. Lambs don’t require any attention. But lions. Those who threaten your position and your power, they not only earn smear campaigns, in the case of Jesus – it earned him a death sentence.

Jesus’ enemies wanted him dead. But they didn’t want to do it during the Passover festival – because they didn’t risk a riot among the hundreds and thousands of pilgrims who had gathered there (Matthew 26:5). Why were they so afraid of a riot? Probably not because they feared for their own personal safety – for, as we witness in the Garden of Gethsemane – they had their own private army to protect them (Matthew 26:47). No, they were afraid that the Romans would see a riot as proof that they had lost control and use it as a reason to remove them from their positions of power. But Jesus messed up their plans. By his lion-like behavior on Palm Sunday, he forced their hand. They had to act now, lest Jesus leverage his popularity to usurp their positions of power and authority among the people.

And who do you think orchestrated that timing? Not the chief priests but God. Only God could be creative and powerful enough to schedule the sacrifice of the Lamb of God at the very same time the people of Israel were busy sacrificing thousands of lambs in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. I think the whole idea of a feast dedicated to the shedding of the blood of lambs is a little disconcerting, perhaps even repulsive for many people today. Don’t you think that some of the Israelites may have questioned the necessity of killing a lamb and painting its blood on their doorposts – after God had already demonstrated his ultimate power over their Egyptian captors in the first 9 plagues (Exodus 12)? What was the point of all that “senseless” bloodshed? It was another example of the “foolishness” of God that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 1. God was far less interested in the physical act of sacrifice and the painting of lamb’s blood on doorposts than he was in the reaction of the people’s hearts to his Word. He was teaching them that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22) and without faith in blood there is no salvation (Romans 3:25). In other words, the sacrifice of lambs was an exercise of faith. After all, if you didn’t believe that God was going to send his angel of death over Egypt (Exodus 12:23) or that the blood of a lamb painted on your doorposts could save you, why would you bother?

The question for us today is: do you believe the Lord’s warning that when he comes again he will come in judgment and that all who are found guilty will be condemned to eternal death in hell? Do you believe that the blood of the Lamb of God which was painted on a cruel wooden cross on Calvary is truly powerful enough to wash away your sins, wipe away your guilt, and save you from certain death on the day of Judgment? If you believe that – if you believe both God’s warning and promise, both the Law and the Gospel – then the exercise of that faith is not the slaughtering of a lamb but to live in these days of uncertainty confessing and believing that the one thing you need the most right now is not a return to normalcy, is not for your kids to go back to school or you to go back to work, is not a check from the treasury, is not even a cure for the virus. If you believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world then you believe that the one thing you need most in this world is his blood. Because his blood is the only thing which can shield you from God’s wrath – whether that comes through death by coronavirus or in the last, great day of Judgment.

Where do you get this blood? You received this blood, the blood of Jesus when it was poured over your head in the sacrament of Holy Baptism (Romans 6:3; Colossians 2:12-13). The blood of Jesus flows through your ears and into your heart whenever you hear the absolution. And, when we are once again able to safely and legally meet together, you will receive that blood with your own lips in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in our world, our nation, our state, our church and even our homes today. No one seems to know what tomorrow will bring and if or when life will ever return to normal. But by sending his own Son into the world to take on the burden of our sin and guilt and pay for it with his blood – you can be sure of this: your sins are forgiven, your guilt is washed away, and when the Lord returns on Judgment Day – he will pass right over you, leaving you unharmed. Jesus began his march to Calvary like a lamb so that you could be sure that he didn’t come to punish you but to save you. He came into Jerusalem like a lion, cleaning out and taking control of his house, forcing his enemies to put their plan into action on his schedule – all of which proves that he is in control, he is the true King of Israel, the Lion of Judah (Genesis 49:9). God sacrificed him on the cross during the festival of the Passover so that you could be sure that his blood will shelter you from His wrath on the Day of Judgment. And in just 7 days we will once again shout those wonderful words: “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” (albeit probably at our TV’s or computers) to celebrate the fact that while Jesus may have silently walked like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7), but like a ferocious lion he has broken out of death’s prison and lives and reigns over this world for your good. The Lamb who died is the Lion who lives and reigns now and forever – even in today’s uncertain world. All hail King Jesus! Amen.