Category Archives: Sermons

What if Jesus comes back today?

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Folder Download Bulletin

Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

Most people don’t think the world is going to end in judgment, with Jesus literally coming back to the world to put an end to it. And they live like they don’t think judgment is coming, as if they didn’t have to answer to the Judge at all. Now, many are convinced that the earth will be destroyed, but they think mankind is going to destroy the planet, or maybe an asteroid will do it, or a solar event, and that mankind’s only hope of survival is becoming a multi-planetary species. (I think that’s what Elon Musk has suggested.) Even among those who do believe that God is going to bring this world to an end, many are under the impression that there’s going to be some apocalyptic event, a global disaster, or “Armageddon,” or “Rapture,” or a sinister world leader stepping forward as the Antichrist to crush the Gospel, before the day of judgment comes, so that, when these things happen, it’ll be obvious to everyone that the end is about to come. And so they think they’ll have time to prepare, when they see those catastrophic events taking place.

But think back to what Paul wrote in the Epistle just two weeks ago: For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as birth pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. Or remember what Jesus Himself said: As the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. That means that most people will have no clue that the end of the world is upon them, until it is upon them!

Christians are also left not knowing when the end will come, but Christ’s coming shouldn’t surprise us, as it will the unbelieving world. It shouldn’t come as something totally unexpected to us, because Jesus has given us things to watch for, reminding us to expect His coming, and to expect it at any time, so that, when we see the Son of Man coming in power and great glory, we won’t say, “Oh, I had no idea He might come today!”, but instead, “Yes! I thought He just might come today!” What if Jesus does come back today? You want to be able to stand before Him, if He does, to survive His coming and to go with Him into eternal life. In order for that to happen, Jesus tells you and all His disciples in today’s Gospel: Always watch and pray, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

Part of “watching” is recognizing the signs that Jesus gives us, pointing us toward His second Advent. Today’s Gospel from Luke 21 includes a few of those signs, and when we add the signs recorded earlier in Luke’s Gospel and in Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospel, we see the fuller picture that the Holy Spirit has painted for us. We’re to look for signs in three different areas: in nature, in society, and in the Church.

In nature, Jesus speaks of signs in the sun, moon, and stars, fearful sights and great signs from heaven. Great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences. The sea and the waves will roar. All pandemics and natural disasters are included among those signs, along with anything strange or out of the ordinary happening up in the heavens, or below on the earth, changes in the atmosphere, in the weather, in the climate, in the crops that are grown. The world draws its own false conclusions about all those things, but Christians should know better. When we hear of strange or fearful or destructive things happening in nature—and they happen all the time!—we should recognize them as signs pointing to Jesus’ coming, and we should remember to be watchful for that great day.

In society, Jesus speaks of signs like wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Lawlessness will abound. Christians will be hated and persecuted. When we hear about such things happening—and they happen all the time!—we should recognize them as signs pointing to Jesus’ coming, and we should remember to be watchful for that great day.

In the Church, Jesus speaks of signs like these: Many [Christians] will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. There will be a great falling away from the faith. The love of many will grow cold. Many false prophets will arise, and many people will be deceived by them. The man of lawlessness himself, also known as the Antichrist, will arise—not within the world governments but within the Christian Church!—and cause many to fall away. And, finally, the Gospel will be preached to all the nations.

Now, which of those things hasn’t happened yet? Most of them have happened and continue to happen repeatedly throughout history, continually reminding God’s people to watch and pray. The only sign people still get confused about is who or what the Antichrist is, but when we put together the passages of Scripture that talk about him, it’s clear that it isn’t just one man who will arise close to the end of the world. It’s an institution, represented by a man, that has its origins going back almost to the time of the apostles themselves. And when we compare the teachings and practices of the Roman Papacy to Holy Scripture, it becomes evident that the papacy is, at very least, a clear manifestation of the Antichrist. And if anyone doubts that the Antichrist has already been around for a while, consider this: Can anyone really question the fact that the solid, Christ-centered, Biblical foundation of the outward Christian Church around the world has already been decimated? Look at the state of Biblical Christianity today! What further damage could a future Antichrist do to the Church than that which has already been done? So, clearly all the signs pointing to Jesus’ coming are there before our very eyes, leaving us Christians without excuse, screaming at us every day, “Jesus is coming! Watch and pray that you may be ready if He comes back today!”

So, part of watching is recognizing those signs that are all around us and constantly remind us to be ready. Another part of watching is not letting your heart be weighed down by earthly pleasures or earthly concerns. Jesus said in today’s Gospel, Be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Now, Jesus is talking to Christians, here, not unbelievers. He already knows the unbelieving world is focused on their earthly life, because they don’t know the true God or believe in the future He has foretold. They don’t acknowledge their sinfulness and their need for a Savior. They don’t know the love of the Father, who gave His only-begotten Son to suffer and die for the sins of mankind, that all might believe in Him, and be saved from sin and from the coming judgment. Their hearts have not been remade and renewed through faith in Christ Jesus, so of course their hearts are weighed down and bound tightly to this earth. But Christians have come to know the love of God. We have put our faith in the redeeming work of Jesus, our Savior. If we belong to Him, then we walk according to His Spirit and have our hearts set on Him and on His imminent return. That’s where our hearts are set by the Holy Spirit Himself. But the flesh, the sinful nature that we still carry around with us, isn’t interested in Jesus, or God’s will, or a heavenly inheritance. The flesh is still earthbound and always will be, and that’s why it’s so easy for us to be weighed down by earthly pleasures and earthly concerns, by earthly goals and earthly desires.

But Christians are not enslaved by the flesh. We are not ruled by it or controlled by it. We are not at its mercy, as if we had no choice but to have our hearts weighed down. No, God has given us His Spirit, who uses the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel to wrench our hearts away from earthly things and sinful things and lifts our gaze heavenward again.

So walk with the Spirit! Watch and pray, so that if Jesus does come back today, you’ll be ready. At every party you attend, at every function, be ready. At work every day, at home, at school, be ready. At every funeral, during every hospital stay, on your deathbed, be ready. Be watching. Remind yourself that Jesus may well come back today, so that, if He does, you’re not caught unaware or unprepared, giving in to temptation, joining in with the world in its never-ending celebration of depravity, of itself, but looking to the Lord Jesus as your sure hope of eternal life.

And part of watching and being ready is using the amazing gift God has given you in the Holy Scriptures. God’s Word is that which prepares us for Christ’s advent, both His first advent and His second. Listen again to what Paul said in today’s Epistle about the Scriptures: Whatever was written before was written for our learning, so that, through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. God wants you to have hope. He’s given you everything you need to stay watchful, to stay vigilant, to be ready for your Savior’s return, in His written Word, in His preached Word, in His visible Word, namely, the Holy Sacraments. Use the gifts He has given to make you ready for His arrival. Expect Jesus to return today, every day. And on the day when He finally does—which may be today!—you’ll be able to stand up straight and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! Amen.

Source: Sermons

Far, far better things ahead

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 1

Isaiah 65:17-25

After writing so much about earthly Jerusalem, and Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and even about the first Advent of the Christ, Isaiah finally moves fully beyond everything earthly to describe heaven for us. But how can God really describe heaven to those who only know earthly realities? It’s like trying to describe colors to a blind person, or music to someone who is deaf. So, how does God describe heaven in this second-to-last chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy? He describes it in terms we can understand, in earthly terms, using earthly imagery and comparisons. That means we shouldn’t get too hung up on those earthly images. Because the main thing we’re to come away with after reading Isaiah 65 was summarized well enough by C.S. Lewis: “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

When we talk about the next life, we often just use the word, “heaven,” by which we mean, the spirit realm which is invisible to us, but where God dwells visibly with the saints and angels. When a believer in Christ dies, it’s appropriate to talk about their soul going to heaven. But when Christ comes again, it’s a much more physical kind of existence that’s described, which makes sense, because there is going to be a physical resurrection of the bodies of all the dead. So what’s next for believers? The Lord describes it here as “new heavens and a new earth.” Peter describes it the same way in his second Epistle: Let us wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Think of all the beauty and goodness that still remains in this creation. Think of all the ugliness and suffering and meaninglessness in this world. Lump it all together, and realize that God has determined, none of it is worth preserving. None of it is worth keeping. He has far, far better things in mind for His children. So much so that, as he says here, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. That doesn’t mean literally that we won’t be able to remember anything from our life on this earth. It just means that, once you see the new heavens and the new earth, you won’t, for one second, think back and long for the life you had here. There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people;

It’s worth noting that God makes it clear, twice, that He is the one creating the new heavens and the new earth. We don’t create it. We don’t bring it about. We don’t make it happen, as if the Church were responsible for renewing this sinful world and building a glorious kingdom of God on earth. No, everything here will be destroyed, and God Himself will create the new world. And He calls on His people to rejoice in it! Because it will be a place filled with joy and peace and everything good.

He promises here to create a new Jerusalem. Obviously that can’t be a reference to the current Jerusalem that exists here below, because everything on earth, with the earth itself, will be destroyed. Nor can this be a picture of the Christian Church as it exists here on earth, because here the Church still has its share of false brothers and false teachers who are not a joy, but a scourge on the Church. No, this is the New Jerusalem, the new city of God, the perfected home of God’s children where righteousness dwells, where no unclean thing can enter, where there is nothing to interrupt or detract from the joy that God and His people will share together.

No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

Remember, the Lord is not giving us a literal description of heaven, as if there will be infants or death in the new creation. He’s using earthly comparisons to show us how much better it will be. First, there’s no more weeping, no more stress or distress, because there’s nothing there to cause weeping or distress. Think of all the things that make you weep for sorrow here: guilt, betrayal, mistreatment, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, pain, and, maybe the biggest culprit of them all, loss. But all of that will be a thing of the past. He gives us the example here of the terrible tragedy of the death of an infant or of a young person, a major cause of suffering here. No such tragedies will occur in the new world that God will create.

More examples follow. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. These descriptions remind us of the curses that Moses commanded Israel to pronounce on themselves, if they should turn away from the LORD God and His covenant and His promised Messiah. Building houses that others would inhabit. Planting vineyards without being able to eat their fruit, etc. Israel experienced those curses here below, and all people on earth know what it is to labor in vain, because no one is immune to the curse that God placed on this creation in the Garden of Eden. But in the next life, the curse will be lifted, and God’s people will no longer labor in vain.

For they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The blessings of the new creation are entirely, 100%, the result of God’s goodness toward us, God’s blessing upon us, which He has poured out on us already through the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has set the slaves free and has made us sons of God and coheirs, together with Him, of this blessed eternal inheritance, where God will no longer seem distant, where God will no longer appear not to hear, where faith no longer needs to be tested and children no longer need to be disciplined, but where God will be right there with us, providing for every need before we have to ask.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

There may or may not be animals in the new creation. This verse simply pictures for us the perfect peace and safety that will be there. Things that are dangerous and destructive on this earth will not be dangerous and destructive in heaven. No prowling lion. No wolf stalking its prey. No violence or killing or death. No enemies trying to destroy God’s people. No sinful nature to drag us down.

What about the devil? Will the ancient serpent be able to enter the heavenly garden and ruin it, as he once entered Eden and ruined everything in that first paradise? And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. Neither Satan nor his offspring will be able to tempt or harm God’s children anymore. Satan and his offspring will forever remain under the curse, and we, God’s children, will live in security without anyone or anything to ruin it, ever.

It’s hard to imagine an existence like that, isn’t it?, surrounded as we are by the effects of sin and death. Is it any wonder that God tells us over and over again in Scripture to get our focus off of this earth, to be more concerned with heavenly things than earthly things? Is it any wonder that He pleads with us to hold to the teachings of Scripture as if our entire blessed future depended on it? Because it does! Satan even now wants to rip all of this out of our hands, but as St. Paul says, the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. So hold on a little longer. Hold onto Christ Jesus and His Gospel and don’t cling too tightly to this world. Because there are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. Believe that truth. And use it to help you bear up under all the difficult things here. Because the end of those things is in sight! Amen.

Source: Sermons

One King, two very different Advents

Posted on by
Sermon

Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Folder Download Bulletin

Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

As always, we start out the Church Year and the Advent season with the Gospel of the King’s Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. That Sunday ride, which led up to Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, was the culmination of Jesus’ first Advent. And you know what I mean when I say “first Advent,” because, as you know very well, there will be a second Advent, a second coming of the King at the end of the age. You and I have been blessed with an understanding of that in the New Testament Church, because, in the Old Testament Church, the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming often lumped together His first Advent with His second Advent, leaving the Old Testament still shrouded in mystery, to some degree. But that mystery has been clarified for us. We now understand that Jesus had to come a first time, in a certain way, to accomplish certain purposes, and that He has to come again, a second time, in a different way, to accomplish different purposes. So let’s take a moment this morning to compare the two Advents of our King.

When Jesus was getting ready to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He sent two of His disciples to go fetch the donkey and her colt. He told them exactly where they would find them and prepared them with exactly what to say if they were confronted. The King allowed some of His disciples to help prepare for His first advent.

So, too, for His second advent, the King has sent out His disciples to prepare the world for His coming. Some have been sent out into the world to preach His Gospel, to teach His Word, to administer His Sacraments. The Lord, through His Church, sends them exactly where He wants them to go. All of Christ’s followers have been placed where He wants them, to walk decently, to be lights in the world, to prepare the world for His second Advent by telling them about His first Advent.

And what are we to tell? It’s summarized in Jesus’ Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem, and in the prophecy from the book of Zechariah that foretold it.

In His first Advent, the King came humbly and meekly. He was born in a stable, after all, and laid in a manger. He spent His 33 years walking obediently according to God’s commandments, from the heart, ministering to people’s needs, teaching them the truth. A bruised reed He did not break, a smoldering wick He did not snuff out. He comforted the penitent and associated with sinners who recognized that they needed saving. He rebuked the wicked, but only with His word, not with His fists or with a sword or by calling down lightning from heaven on them. And when it came time for the King to enter the city that would crucify Him by the end of that Holy Week, He came not in judgment, or in violence, but, as the prophet Zechariah foretold, “humble, riding on a donkey, righteous, and having salvation.” The King came at His first advent to bear the sins of the world, to suffer mankind’s hatred, to suffer God’s wrath against sinners, to shed His blood for us, so that we sinners might take refuge in Him and receive from God the reward that He deserved, that He earned. He earned salvation for us, and then He ascended into heaven, and sat down on His throne to rule invisibly over the events of world history. He gave the world 2,000 years to listen to the preaching of His ministers, to repent and to be baptized and to come into His Holy Church, without wiping sinners off the face of the earth. And as part of that unfathomable patience with the world, He has allowed the world to mistreat His beloved Church, even as He was mistreated during His first Advent.

But the King’s second Advent will be much different. He won’t come in humility. He won’t lie in a manger or sit on a donkey, but will come in glory, riding on a cloud, sitting on His throne of judgment. He won’t come in meekness, but as a Warrior, with His cloak stained in crimson, not with His own blood this time, but with the blood of His enemies. He’ll come, not in tolerance, but in vengeance. When He comes, He won’t allow His beloved Christians to suffer one more day or one more hour, but will come with perfect salvation, to redeem His Church, to rescue us from every evil, and to reign forever on His glorious throne.

Let’s make just one more comparison between the King’s first and second Advent. When the King rode into Jerusalem for the culmination of His first Advent, He was greeted by a joyous procession of His followers, who sang His praises as He entered Jerusalem. Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! It was an impressive crowd, for tiny Israel, but still relatively small, made up only of Jewish followers of Jesus, who didn’t yet know the extent of Jesus’ love, who hadn’t yet seen the sacrifice He was going to make for them on the cross, who didn’t yet comprehend that this man who was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was also the eternal God.

At the King’s second Advent, everyone will know exactly who Jesus is. And everyone will know that He was crucified for the world’s sins and raised again from the dead. Everyone will know that this Man is God, and that He is the King of all. And while most of the world will come to that realization with horror, the whole Church in heaven and on earth, a countless host of people from every nation, tribe, language, and people, will meet the King on that day with even more joy than the crowds outside Jerusalem did, because, even though we’ve never seen Him, we know Jesus better than those crowds did, because we’ve heard the whole story of His salvation. We’ve been receiving our King’s body and blood for much of our lives, singing Sunday after Sunday, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! And finally we’ll get to meet Him in person!

Now, since that’s true, since we know all that Jesus accomplished for us during His first Advent, and since we know that He’s coming again, and that His second Advent could happen at any time, what kind of people should we be? What kind of lives should we live?

Of course, unbelievers need to repent and be baptized immediately, and the baptized who have since fallen away from the faith must return at once. Believers should live humbly, as even our King lived humbly during His first Advent, and He wasn’t even a sinner, like we are. We have all the more reason to be humble before God and man, and to stay close to the Word of God, and to keep looking to Him for forgiveness and strength. And in light of our King’s second Advent, which could happen at any time, St. Paul tells us how we should live in today’s Epistle: The night is almost over; the day is almost here. Therefore, let us take off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk decently, as in the daytime, not with debauchery and drunkenness, not with sexual immorality and indecency, not with discord and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires.

So keep the King’s two advents in view, not only as you sit here in church, but as you go out from here and go about your day-to-day routine. Humble yourselves now, while the King still deals with sinners humbly. Serve Him now and walk decently now, as children of the light. Give thanks to the King for His humble ride into Jerusalem and for the salvation He earned for you then. But set your heart on the next ride of the King, when He will come down from heaven to save you from every evil in this world. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Amen.

 

Source: Sermons

The different between “My servants” and “you”

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Bulletin

Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve

Isaiah 65:13-16

We only have four verses before us from Isaiah’s prophecy this evening, and it won’t be too hard to find some applications to our theme of giving thanks to the Lord. As Isaiah’s prophecy draws closer to the end, the contrast becomes clearer and clearer between the righteous and the wicked, and between the very different ends and rewards that each group will have from the LORD, beginning in the New Testament era, and experienced fully after the resurrection. In these four verses, the contrast is made between “My servants” and “you.” So the most important thing we need to understand is, who is who?

In these verses, the Lord Yahweh says only good things, wonderful things, about “My servants.” Who are they? They are the ones who truly serve the true God, who truly worship the true God, who truly fear Him, who truly trust in Him, who truly love Him and are devoted to Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And who are they? Well, they’re no one, by nature. No one is born with a heart that truly fears God or loves God or trusts in God. God has no servants among mankind, by nature.

But, as we learned over the past year in Isaiah’s prophecy, THE Servant of the LORD would come, the Lord Jesus Christ, and would serve the Lord perfectly, who would bear the sins of the world and suffer and die for them. And His Gospel would go out, showing mankind how no one has served the LORD by nature, but then inviting all men, both Jews and Gentiles, to repent and believe in THE Servant of the LORD, to be forgiven, to be saved, to be made into children of God—into servants of the Lord Yahweh, children of God who serve our Father and seek to do His will, not as slaves, but as sons, who love our Father because He first loved us and gave His only Son for us. Christians—penitent, baptized believers in Christ Jesus—are “His servants.”

The “you” in these verses is directed at Old Testament, unbelieving, impenitent Israel (and, by extension, it applies to all unbelievers). “You” refers to the sinners who refused to repent, who held onto their sins, who insisted on believing whatever they wanted, living however they wanted, ultimately serving themselves and not the Lord God.

What will be the outcome for each group? Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants shall eat, But you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, But you shall be ashamed; Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, But you shall cry for sorrow of heart, And wail for grief of spirit.

The two outcomes will be vastly different for “My servants” and for “you.” The differences are portrayed here in earthly terms. “My servants” get to eat and drink and rejoice and sing with gladness of heart, while “you” go hungry and thirsty, and suffer shame, and sorrow and grief. Now, in this life, it’s hard to see a distinction between believers and unbelievers, but it’s not entirely impossible. Believers and unbelievers alike suffer illness, and scarcity, and tragedy, and death. In fact, sometimes the wicked seem to prosper far more than the righteous. But if you look closely, you can, usually, see a difference even now, mainly in the fact that the believer knows gratitude and contentment. St. Paul writes, I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. The believer knows how to give thanks to God, in every situation. Not that our sinful flesh is ever content or eager to give thanks. But the New Man inside of you, the real you, who knows that we have a gracious Father for Jesus’ sake, the real you knows that God is always good, and that it is always good and right to give thanks to Him for every morsel of food, for every gift, for every breath. Meanwhile, the unbeliever is always missing something, even in the midst of plenty. Because he has God for an enemy, not for a friend, and part of the unbeliever knows that there will be a reckoning, but he doesn’t want to flee in faith to Christ to escape condemnation.

But the difference between believers and unbelievers will be made plainly obvious to everyone at the resurrection, when Christ comes again. We’ve seen that distinction very clearly the last two Sundays as they showed us glimpses of the Last Day, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and in the different outcomes for the wise and the foolish virgins. It’s the same thing Isaiah pictures for us this evening, with pure comfort and joy for “My servants,” and pure torment and sorrow for “you,” that is, for the unbelievers.

What else does God have to say to “you,” that is, to those who are not “His servants”? You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For the Lord GOD will slay you, And call His servants by another name; So that he who blesses himself in the earth Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth Shall swear by the God of truth.

Speaking to Old Testament, impenitent, apostate Israel, the unbelieving Jews, God says, “you shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen.” In other words, because of your unbelief, you will give up the name of “Israel” and the name of the “Jews” and hand it over to those who truly worship God, who believe in His Christ. This is just what St. Paul talks about in the New Testament, that Christians are the true Israel. But we don’t usually go by that name, do we? Because the name of Israel is so closely associated with those who rejected and still reject Jesus as the Christ, with those whom God permanently cursed with destruction already in the first century AD. And so the name “Israel” has now, in a sense, become a curse for us. But God promises here to call His servants by “another name.” Now, instead of “Israel,” God’s people, His true worshipers, are known as Christians. And at the resurrection, Jesus promises to give His people an even more glorious name, as He says in Rev. 3: He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Isaiah concludes, Because the former troubles are forgotten, And because they are hidden from My eyes. The glory that awaits God’s servants is so great that neither we nor even God Himself will give a thought to all the troubles that came before. As Paul says to the Romans, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. This is the glory that God’s servants, God’s saints, have to look forward to.

So as you turn your thoughts at Thanksgiving time, with gratitude in your hearts, to all the earthly blessings God has given you, be sure to give thanks to Him most of all for revealing His beloved Son to you, for inviting you to enter His service by faith, for giving you other servants of God to walk through this life with you in His holy Church, and for the promise that He will come again soon to bring His servants into that eternal inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Watch out for not watching!

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Folder Download Bulletin

Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27)

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  +  Matthew 25:1-13

I wonder, when you woke up this morning and started getting ready for church, how long was it before you said your first prayer? How long before you thought to yourself, “The Lord may well return today. I’d better make sure I’m ready for His arrival!”? Did it take until you until you got to church? Until you sang the opening hymn? Or did even the words of today’s hymns and Scripture readings not break through all the other thoughts going through your head? How often throughout the week do you give a thought to Jesus’ warning to watch for His return?

You see, different people need different warnings from God, at different times. Atheists and idolaters and all who are outside the Christian Church need to hear one kind of warning, that their sins have separated them from God, that their notion of themselves as “good people” is laughable in God’s sight, that they are bringing God’s wrath down upon themselves with their idolatry and unbelief, and that a Day of Judgment is coming which they will not escape. If they take those warnings seriously, then they need to hear another kind of warning, a hope-filled one, to take refuge in the Lord Jesus, who died for them and who wants them to be saved. Meanwhile, those who are inside the Christian Church need to hear other kinds of warnings, and Scripture provides plenty of examples of them. Watch out for false teachers and false teachings! Watch out for lovelessness! Watch out for pride! Watch out for temptations! Watch out for carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life (as we’ll hear during the Advent season)! Today’s Gospel is a warning for those who are inside the Christian Church. It’s not a fire and brimstone kind of warning about gross and obvious sins. It’s a warning about a danger that’s much more pervasive and much harder to detect. It’s a warning to watch out for failing to watch, issued through the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. The ten virgins in Jesus’ parable represent the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Christian Church here on earth, in its outward form, those who have been baptized into Christ and who confess Christ Jesus as Lord. They take their lamps, with oil in them, and go out to wait for the Bridegroom, so that they can meet Him when He arrives on the last day, and, with their lamps glowing in the darkness, join in His joyful procession into the wedding hall, into heaven. All ten go out the same way. Pay attention to that. It’s important. All ten are eager to go out, eager to wait, eager to receive the Bridegroom when He comes. All ten go out with lamps that are lit and burning and ready to light the way. In other words, all ten begin as genuine Christians. All ten have faith.

But five of the ten are foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps but took no oil along with them. They’re not wicked, these girls, not prostitutes, not murderers, not drug addicts. And also not unintelligent. Simply unthinking. They know that the Bridegroom will come that night, that He could arrive shortly after sunset or as late as midnight. They know that they might need more oil than their lamps can hold. But they don’t act on that knowledge. They don’t give it any thought. So they’re prepared for a short wait, but not for a long one.

But the other five are wise. The wise, on the other hand, took oil in their vessels, together with their lamps. These girls are not morally “better” than the other five. They’re simply wiser, because they’re thinking ahead. “Sure, the Bridegroom may come within a couple of hours. But He may come as late as midnight! We’d better make sure we bring everything we need both for a short wait and for a long one. Not only our lamps filled with oil, but vessels with extra oil, just in case. Because we know that the oil that can fit in our lamps isn’t going to be enough if we have to wait until midnight.” They’re thinking ahead. They’re waiting intentionally. They’re waiting with purpose.

The foolish virgins represent the foolish Christians who are excited by the Gospel at first and eager to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. But they ignore His warnings to keep watching. They may still attend church, but they’re more interested in entertainment-style worship than in hearing the preaching of God’s Word and receiving His Sacraments. They think less and less about living in daily contrition and repentance, or about growing in their knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Their focus turns from heavenly happiness to earthly happiness. They don’t necessarily become wicked people. They just drift away from the faith. Because faith, like fire, needs to be fed continually, or else it dies.

The wise virgins represent the wise Christians who listen to Jesus’ warning and prepare for a long wait. They know their faith needs to be fed, so they seek out the ministry of the Word and Sacraments and make use of it regularly. They know the Christian life isn’t flashy or exciting or entertaining, that it’s full of ups and downs, joys and sorrow, and that Christ has called them to simple works of love and obedience in their day-to-day lives, and so they repeat the same simple mundane works over and over again, but keeping one eye on the heavens, waiting for their dear Savior to come. These are wise Christians who hear their Savior warning them to watch out for not watching, and they take His warning to heart.

Sure enough, the Bridegroom took a while. He didn’t come early in the evening. And all the virgins fell asleep, for which they are not criticized. Now, in today’s Epistle, St. Paul referred to a kind of spiritual sleep that is unhealthy and bad. Christians should be awake, should be sober, not asleep and oblivious to our duties. But that’s not what this sleep is. This sleep in Jesus’ parable represents the sleep of death. Some Christians die still holding onto the faith, because they were wise. They watched, as Jesus urged them to do. They made use of the Means of Grace, and pursued a Christian life. Others, tragically, die without faith, because they stopped making use of the Means of Grace and ended up pursuing an earthly life instead.

And at midnight the cry rang out, ‘Look! The bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. But go instead to those who sell, and buy some for yourselves.’ It wasn’t until the Bridegroom arrived that the five foolish virgins realized that they had made a terrible mistake. Only then did it hit them, “He’s here! But we’re not ready!” And by then, there was no solution, nothing to be done. If they had thought about it before they fell asleep, they would’ve still had time to go get more oil. But now it was too late. They tried to go buy some more oil, but while they were gone, they missed the Bridegroom’s arrival.

The wise, on the other hand, are ready with their lamps. They fall right into the Bridegroom’s joyful procession, and they go into the wedding hall with Him and with His bride, a beautiful picture of the joyful wedding banquet in heaven and the eternal joy that believers will have with Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom.

Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding celebration. And the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Watch, therefore! For you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come.

Watch, therefore! See how Jesus pleads with His disciples, pleads with you and me, to take this parable to heart, to take His warning to watch to heart, to avoid missing out on eternal life, because He died for you. What’s more, He saw to it that you were baptized in His name, that you’ve had countless opportunities to use the ministry of His Word and Sacraments. And He’ll continue to provide every opportunity you need to remain faithful until the end. He’s given you His Holy Spirit, who is always with you, urging you back to the Word, urging you to set your mind on the things of God, to keep an eye on the sky, as it were, waiting intentionally for the Lord Jesus to come, waiting with purpose, carrying out His instructions while you wait. He wants you to be with Him. He wants you to be ready.

Because the last thing Jesus wants to say to you on the Last Day is, “I told you so! I offered you all the help you needed. I warned you, over and over again, and still you didn’t watch. Still you didn’t pray. Still you didn’t make the ministry of the Word a priority in your life. Still you drifted away from Me.” That will, tragically, happen to many. But it doesn’t have to happen to any of you. You don’t have to hear those tragic words from Jesus. It’s not too late. Not yet. This parable, this Gospel, this last Sunday of the Church Year is God’s gift to you, to keep you watching, to keep you close to Him and His Word, and to encourage one another, in this Christian family, to keep watching, too.

Because, what are warnings for? They’re to spare you from danger. They’re to keep you from harm. They’re to make sure you stay on the right path and guard you against taking the one that would lead to your death. Warnings are there to bring you safely home. So be wise, dear Christians. Heed the Bridegroom’s warning as we close out another Church Year and prepare to start at the beginning again next Sunday. Make it your goal throughout the coming year to keep oil in your lamp, right up to your dying day, to cling in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to watch continually for His coming! Amen.

Source: Sermons

The Lord will not stretch out His hands forever

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 26

Isaiah 65:1-12

Once again, Isaiah’s prophecy is filled with wonderful news for some, and terrible news for others. Old Israel will fall because of their idolatry and impenitence. But New Israel will arise, including some from Old Israel and many from the rest of mankind. The time was not far off when the Lord would replace apostate Israel with genuine believers.

“I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ To a nation that was not called by My name.

This is wonderful news for the Gentiles! That’s who the Lord is talking about here. Prior to Jesus sending out His apostles into all the world, the Gentiles didn’t know the LORD, didn’t seek the LORD, didn’t serve the LORD. And yet the Lord promises to reach out to them. St. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 10 and explains how it’s being fulfilled in his time as he and the other apostles take the Gospel of Christ out to the nations. So, this is wonderful news for you and me and for the millions of people who have been called by the Gospel and brought into the people of God, not because we deserved it, not because we were better than Israel, but purely out of the mercy of God, He sought us out and made Himself known to us.

But what about Israel? God says, I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people. Imagine stretching out your hands for even a minute to someone whom you love, someone whom you care for, someone whom you just want to bring in for a hug and help them in their desperate need…and that person snubs you, just stands there watching you hold out your hands to him, folds him arms, and says, “I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” Would you stand there for a whole minute in the face of that reaction? What about ten minutes, stretching out your hands? An hour? But God wants Israel to picture Him standing there with outstretched arms “all day long,” and the whole time they remained stubborn and rebellious.

God lists some of their rebellious behavior. A people who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; In other words, they don’t care about God’s commandments, They do what they want, what they think is right for them, without giving a thought to God. A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick; Whereas God had commanded them to offer sacrifices only in the temple in Jerusalem. Who sit among the graves, And spend the night in the tombs; Communing with dead, not unlike the Mexican Day of the Dead practices. Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; contrary to the dietary restrictions God had given Old Testament Israel in the Law of Moses. Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, Do not come near me, For I am holier than you! Did you know, this is where the phrase “Holier than thou” comes from? The people of Israel had turned their backs on their God and pretended to be holier than He is! “We’re holier than Thou, God!” Not unlike today, when some people are so brazen as to criticize how God runs the universe, who dare to blaspheme God and accuse Him of wrongdoing, as if they were holier than God.

These are smoke in My nostrils, A fire that burns all the day. A picture of the greatness of God’s wrath and anger against these people who had turned their backs on Him.

“Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will repay— Even repay into their bosom— Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” Says the Lord, “Who have burned incense on the mountains And blasphemed Me on the hills; Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

God stretched out His hands to Israel all day long, but He won’t do it forever. He will repay Israel for their blasphemy and idolatry and stubborn rebellion. And He isn’t only talking about the coming destruction by the Babylonians. He’s talking even more about the near-complete destruction of the Jewish nation after they rejected Jesus as the Christ, never to recover. Remember, the people who currently occupy the territory of Israel are not the continuation of Old Testament Israel. They don’t even try to live under the Old Testament, nor would it help them if they did, because the Old Testament is no longer in effect.

But alongside that terrible news for apostate Israel was a bit of wonderful news for a small number of them. Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, And one says, ‘Do not destroy it, For a blessing is in it,’ So will I do for My servants’ sake, That I may not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, And from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, And My servants shall dwell there. Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, And the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, For My people who have sought Me. There would be a remnant of Jews who would repent and believe in the Lord and in His coming Christ. God wouldn’t forsake them. He wouldn’t destroy them along with their unbelieving neighbors. He would welcome them, together with the Gentiles, into His New Israel—an Israel that’s no longer named for their ancestry, but for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; whose territory is no longer a specific piece of land, but whose territory is the permanent inheritance of heaven.

“But you are those who forsake the Lord, Who forget My holy mountain, Who prepare a table for Gad, And who furnish a drink offering for Meni. (Gad and Meni are pagan gods of Fortune and Destiny.) Therefore I will number you for the sword, And you shall all bow down to the slaughter; Because, when I called, you did not answer; When I spoke, you did not hear, But did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight.”

Scathing words from God to the rebellious people of Israel, words of utter destruction, both temporal and eternal. And their destruction is the worse because God called them to repent, to believe, and to obey—He held out His hands all day long to them—and they still refused.

Now, think about it. Who today hasn’t heard about the God of the Bible, the God of Israel who sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and to bring us into the New Israel of His holy Church? Who hasn’t heard God’s call to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus? In Isaiah’s time, there were few outside of Israel who had heard the Word of God at all. What about today? Today, most of the world has heard God call, has heard God speak, and has still chosen to do as they please, to worship as they please, to believe as they please. God has stretched out His hands for nearly 2,000 years to the people of the world, and, in countless ways, the world has told God, “We are holier than Thou!”

God has terrible news for the world that continues to reject Him and His commandments. But for you and for all who will listen to God’s voice before it’s too late, God has wonderful news of salvation and eternal glory. He still stretches out His hands to you, to embrace you in His forgiveness and love. Don’t harden your hearts to Him! Don’t be rebellious or holier than Thou! Trust in the Lord’s promise of salvation, and then set your minds on keeping His commandments, with the aid of His Holy Spirit. Amen.

Source: Sermons

The blessed and the cursed on the Day of Judgment

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Folder Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity 26

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10  +  Matthew 25:31-46

The Bible clearly tells us that this earth and this universe won’t last forever. A “last day” is coming, and in last week’s Epistle from 1 Thessalonians, St. Paul told us about something important that will happen on that day. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. In those verses, Paul focused just on the resurrection of those who believed in Christ and on the joyful reunion believers will have on that day as we gather together forever around the Lord Jesus. But those who died in unbelief will be raised, too, and in today’s Epistle from 2 Thessalonians, Paul describes another aspect of the Last Day, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of punishment with everlasting destruction for unbelievers, even as the Lord will be glorified among His saints and admired among all those who believe. It’s this picture of judgment on the Last Day that we want to focus on today, since it’s also the focus of Jesus’ parable in the Gospel, the parable of the sheep and the goats.

Judgment is one aspect of judgment day, but we need to understand that correctly. There will be no hearing, no investigation, no trial. Because by the time the Judge finally comes, He will have already made all His decisions. Jesus says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. And all nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. See? No trial, no hearing, no giving anyone a chance to defend himself and sway the Judge one way or the other. The judgment is made before the Last Day, here and now.

In fact, Jesus doesn’t even talk about the basis of the judgment in this text. He does talk about it elsewhere, like in John 3: For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Or again in John 5: For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

So the judgment is made here and now. All people have earned God’s condemnation, according to His holy Law, because all are sinners. No one has given away enough food to anyone to earn an innocent verdict and a place in heaven. No one has been kind enough to a stranger, or made enough visits to the sick or to the imprisoned to purchase a place at the Judge’s right hand. No, God sent His Son into the world to save sinners, to call us by His Gospel to repent of our sins and to believe in Him who bore our sins on the cross and was raised to life again, to be brought into His salvation through faith and through Holy Baptism. As St. Paul says in the book of Romans, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Faith in Jesus Christ is what makes someone a sheep of the Good Shepherd. Faith in Jesus Christ is what reserves a place for us at the Judge’s right hand.

It’s to these whom the Judge will speak first on Judgment Day: Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed ones of my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” It will be a day of joy and celebration for believers, a day when we get to hear only words of peace and blessing from Jesus. What we have to look forward to is an “inheritance” in God’s kingdom, the inheritance He has been preparing for the chosen children of God since before the world was created. Remember, an inheritance isn’t given on the basis of good works. An inheritance is given on the basis of a person’s relationship to someone, which makes perfect sense, because, as Paul writes to the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

But good works are evidence of faith and fruits of faith, and Jesus wants us to understand that He is paying attention to those fruits. He focuses in this parable on just one kind of good work: the small works of kindness that believers do for other believers in Christ. I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me. Now, only a handful of people in history had the chance to do any of those things for Jesus directly. Mary and Joseph, Mary and Martha, and a few others. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about here. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me. The small works of kindness toward Jesus’ brothers, our fellow Christians—whether done for a little baby or a little child, for an elderly Christian in a nursing home, or for anyone in between—Jesus is counting them up, every one, not as reasons to let a person into heaven, but as evidence that this person was indeed righteous by faith and a child and heir of heaven, because that’s how the heirs of heaven behave toward their fellow heirs of heaven. As Jesus said to His disciples, By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

On the other hand, there are the unbelievers, the unrighteous, the goats—those who ended their lives in impenitence, still clinging to their sins, not trusting in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness. To them Jesus, the King, will say, Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. These people spent their earthly lives and will now spend eternity under God’s curse. That’s how all people begin this life, under the curse of sin and death and eternal separation from God. Those who are persuaded by the Gospel to look to Christ for forgiveness have their curse removed. As Paul writes to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the nations in Christ Jesus. God held out this curse-lifting Gospel to the nations, but all those among the nations who didn’t believe in Christ Jesus remain under the curse.

That means that they’ll have to answer for all their sins. They’ll be held accountable by God for every unclean thought, word, and deed. Every act of adultery and sexual immorality, every lustful desire. Every drunken party, every sinful worry, every act of disobedience, every prayer offered to idols. But those aren’t even the sins Jesus mentions in today’s parable. I was hungry, and you did not give Me food, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, etc…Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. The things Jesus mentions here seem so small, so harmless compared to the great deeds of wickedness that men engage in. But that’s just the thing with God’s holy Law. It doesn’t only demand that you avoid leading a grossly immoral life. It demands the little deeds of love, too. And Jesus shows here that He is especially offended when people who have the opportunity to help a little Christian in need fail to offer the needed help. He takes it personally. He takes it as a sin committed directly against Him, against the Judge of all mankind. Of course, even those sins He was willing to forgive during this life, if a person should repent and believe in Him. But not anymore, once the Last Day arrives. Then there will be no opportunity given for repentance. Then Christ will no longer offer to wash away anyone’s sins in Holy Baptism. Then, for the unrighteous, there will be only judgment.

And these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

So, what does Jesus’ description of Judgment Day do for you? How does it help you? If you remain outside of Christ, where you have to answer for every one of your misdeeds, it should frighten you more than your worst nightmare, because you eventually wake up from a nightmare, but there is no end to eternal punishment. If you’re frightened because of your sins, then this description should encourage you to seek a pardon from the Judge before Judgment Day comes, to be baptized, to come into Christ’s holy Church, where you will be safe on the Day of Judgment. If you’re already a believing member of Christ’s holy Church, then this description of Judgment Day should compel you to remain a living member of Christ’s Church, to be diligent about hearing the Word of God and receiving the body and blood of the Judge in His perpetual meal of forgiveness, and to be diligent about investigating and tending to the needs of your fellow Christians, great and small, because in serving them you are also serving the Lord Jesus Himself, and He will not forget those little deeds of kindness. Finally, if you’re a member of Christ’s Church and doing all these things, then Jesus’ description of Judgment Day should fill you will joy and peace and hope, because He will come in vengeance on those who make life miserable for you in this life, and He’ll settle all the scores, while you have eternal life and goodness and love to look forward to. What greater incentive could there be to eagerly and joyfully await that day? And so we say with St. Peter, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Our only hope is for God to come down from heaven

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 25

Isaiah 64:1-12

As we start into the last three chapters of the book of Isaiah this evening, we reach the grand climax of the book. We hear Isaiah pleading in chapter 64, pleading for God to come and save the miserable, pitiable people of Israel. And in the last two chapters, God will answer. And His answer, as usual, is one of comfort and everlasting victory for those who repent and believe in Him, and one of rejection and eternal condemnation for those who refuse to repent. Israel, in its Old Testament form, would cease to exist because of their impenitence. But the believing remnant of Israel, Israel in its New Testament form, will inherit the new heavens and the new earth. But, as Isaiah knows very well, the only way for anyone at all to be saved is for God to come down from heaven.

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might shake at Your presence, as when the melting fire burns, as the fire causes the waters to boil, to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!

Isaiah foresees Jerusalem already in ruins. He sees the people of Israel sitting in darkness, with no hope. No hope, except for this—if only God would come down from heaven! If only He would rend the heavens, tear the heavens open and come down to earth to save them. That’s the only possible way for sinners to be saved. God Himself has to do it. And He has to do it in person.

He had come down once before to rescue Israel. When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down; the mountains quaked at Your presence. Again Isaiah looks back to the redemption of Israel from slavery in Egypt, when God had come down and performed wonders for His people, when He had guided them through the wilderness, when He had spoken to them from Mt. Sinai and made a covenant of peace with them, when He had fought for them against all their enemies. That’s the kind of thing Isaiah wants Him to do again!

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways. No other god comes in person to save. Even the stories of the ancient Greek or Roman gods who appeared to men from time to time are all stories of incest and adultery, stories of selfish, self-centered gods who were looking out for themselves. That’s the best kind of god mankind could invent. No other god came down from heaven out of mercy, to rescue His errant people, except for Yahweh, the true God, the God of Israel. He acts for the one who waits for Him. So wait for Him! He has promised to act on your behalf. He meets him who rejoices in doing righteousness. So rejoice in doing what is right in God’s sight, and remember your God in everything you do!

Indeed, You were angry, for we had sinned; in our sins we remained a long time, and shall we be saved? But we all are as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags; and we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities.

Isaiah places himself forward, at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction and the Babylonian captivity. By that time, the vast majority of godly Israelites would be gone. And even the godly had to admit that, according to the strict judgment of the Law, even their righteousness, even their good works were unclean, were polluted with sin. Not even the believers kept the Law so as to be saved by their good works. How much less the unbelieving in Israel who remained in their impenitence. They had sinned and remained in their sins for a long time. God’s anger toward them was justified, as were His plans to bring judgment upon them.

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand.

Here is the penitent cry of the believer. The penitent “sigh,” you might say. After all the anxiety about the sad state of the nation, the sad state of the Church, the believer casts all his anxiety on God, and says, “Here, Father! Take it. You’re in charge here. We know that. We are in Your hands. We know that you will do what is right.” With that in mind, Isaiah makes a final plea:

Do not be wrathful beyond measure, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever; look upon us, we pray, we all are Your people. Your holy cities are a wilderness; Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised You is burned up with fire; and all our precious things are laid waste. Will You refrain Yourself from these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace and afflict us beyond measure?

In Isaiah’s time those things hadn’t happened yet. Jerusalem wasn’t a desolation, yet. Zion wasn’t a wilderness, yet. The temple wasn’t burned up with fire, yet. But Isaiah saw it as clearly as if he had been transported 120 years into the future. And as he looks out at the burning, desolate landscape of Judea and Jerusalem, he pleads with the Lord to not be angry forever, to remember His mercy and love. In other words, He pleads with the Lord to ordain an end date to Israel’s suffering, to set a day and an hour when He would rend the heavens and come down to save His people from their misery.

And that’s just what the Lord did. Not when Cyrus came along and finally released Israel from captivity in Babylon. No, the Lord didn’t come down from heaven for that, but reigned in heaven over world events to cause it to happen. But the Lord did finally come down from heaven, in person, about 700 years after Isaiah’s time. He came down as a little baby who was placed in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem. He dwelled among the very kind of sinners who had caused God’s wrath against Israel in the first place, not to destroy them, but to bring them to repentance, to call them back into His kingdom of grace. Yes, God, the Son of God, came down from heaven, in person, and made Himself the one atoning sacrifice that can turn away the righteous wrath of God, and now calls all men to be reconciled to God through Him.

The same Jesus, God, the Son of God, will come down from heaven just one more time. Jesus talked about it in the lesson you heard this evening from Luke’s Gospel. And what will the world be like leading up to His return? Just as in the days of Noah, leading up to the flood that destroyed the world. Just as in the days of Sodom, leading up to its destruction by fire and brimstone. So will the world be. And just as Israel was, leading up to its destruction, so will the Visible Church be. And, if you look at the state of the world and of the Church, you can’t help but notice that mankind is ripe for destruction once again. So let us pray to the Lord with Isaiah, in humility, in repentance, and, most of all, in hope, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” And you can be sure that He will, at just the right time. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Jesus will preserve His homeless Christians

Posted on by
Sermon

Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Folder Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity 25 – Third-to-last Sunday

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

We’ve come to one of my favorite Sundays of the Church Year. Not because its Scripture lessons are especially foundational to our religion, but because it describes so well the odd situation in which we find ourselves in the Church, the ecclesiastical chaos all around us, the outward disunity we find in the Christian Church. Sometimes it almost feels like our little independent Lutheran church is a church without a home in the larger world of Christianity. But, as Jesus describes today, that’s exactly how it has to be in the days leading up to His return. In today’s Gospel, Jesus predicts this apparent “homelessness” for the faithful, but He also gives us good reasons not to worry about it, but to take comfort in His promises and to follow His instructions so that we may escape the terrible destruction that’s coming upon those who fail to flee from their home when their home is invaded by the abomination that causes desolation.

It was the end of the day on Tuesday of Holy Week, and Jesus had some final instructions for His disciples. He had just finished telling them about the destruction of Jerusalem that was going to take place. Looking back, we know it took place about 40 years after Jesus predicted it. The disciples, assuming that the destruction of Jerusalem must mean the end of the world and Jesus’ coming again at the end of the age, asked Jesus, Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? As it turns out the destruction of Jerusalem would not be so closely tied to the end of the world. But it would foreshadow the eventual apostasy and destruction of the Church, leading up to the return of Christ and the end of the age. So the things Jesus says about Jerusalem’s destruction, and the warnings He attaches to them, are not only intended for the Christians living at that time, but for us as well.

In answer to His disciples’ questions, Jesus first goes on to describe the New Testament period and the signs of His coming, including the sign that the gospel would be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. Then He goes back and describes the conditions leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, which are similar to the conditions leading up to the end of the world. He says that they will see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place. 550 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Daniel prophesied an abomination of desolation, an idol that would cause desolation and destruction, being set up in the temple in Jerusalem. That was partially fulfilled about 160 years before Jesus was born when the Syrian ruler Antiochus set up an altar to Zeus on top of the altar to God in the temple and sacrificed pigs on it. But Jesus says that wasn’t the only fulfillment. Another abomination causing desolation would be set up in the temple.

That was fulfilled in the years after Jesus’ ascension, when Jerusalem refused to believe the Gospel. The Jews kept offering their sacrifices in the temple. Those sacrifices once pointed ahead to Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. But now they were being offered in rejection of the Christ. So the very sacrifices that once were pleasing to God had become an abomination in His sight. By rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, the Jews had become idolaters. The more entrenched they became in that anti-Christian idolatry, the worse their behavior became, until they engaged in open revolt against Rome, and then the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem, and finally went in and destroyed the city.

But Jesus knew that something similar would happen to the temple of the outward Christian Church, the Visible Church. Idolatry would take root in the Church and become an abomination in God’s sight, causing the desolation of the outward Church. That happened with the various forms of idolatry that were promoted under the Roman papacy, all of which pushed Jesus and His Word to the background and replaced Gospel with Law, faith with works, and forgiveness with constant guilt. But it has also happened throughout Protestantism, and even within Lutheranism. Idols are set up in the Church. Jesus is pushed to the background, and all sorts of other things are pushed into His place, so that His Word is twisted, so that His Gospel is minimized, so that preserving the institution of the church that a person grew up in becomes more important than preserving the Word of God itself. And hearts that are supposed to be clinging to Jesus begin to cling instead to manmade things. All of that is an abomination in God’s sight, and it has caused untold desolation within the Visible Church, to the point that it’s basically now every man for himself when it comes to interpreting the Bible and understanding the truth. This is all part of what Jesus refers to as the great tribulation. Jerusalem lived through it in the first century. And the Christian Church has been living through it for quite some time.

Other conditions during this great tribulation include false christs and false prophets performing great signs and wonders that will deceive many, that will come close even to deceiving the elect. In other words, these false prophets and their “signs” will not be easy to detect as false, or at least, will be so widely accepted that it will take great courage to denounce them as false. That can include the supposed apparitions of the virgin Mary. It can include the miracles that the Pentecostals claim they can do. It can also include “science” as the teaching of evolution, for example, has almost entirely supplanted the teaching of God’s Word, not only out there among the atheists, but among most who call themselves Christians as well. How many people have been led astray from the Word of God by that idolatrous teaching! And then there are the other false doctrines that become so popular in their various churches and church bodies that practically no one is willing to challenge them anymore. False doctrine becomes “settled doctrine,” and then the abomination has truly taken hold.

But the days will be shortened, Jesus says, for the sake of the elect. And Jesus will return before it becomes impossible to hold onto faith. But He won’t return in secret. He won’t return two or three times. He won’t be coming to perform some kind of rapture and then going away again for a while. No, He’ll return once, at the end of the age. And everyone will see Him at once. His return will be public and visible to all.

Those are the conditions that will exist in the Church and in the world in this New Testament era. Now, given these conditions, what instructions does Jesus leave for us?

First, very simply, let the reader understand. In other words, search the prophets, search the Old Testament Scriptures and study the Bible, whether it’s the prophet Daniel or the prophet Isaiah or the Psalms or the five books of Moses. Read and think about what you read. Read and pray for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and spiritual insight.

Second, when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, that is, when you see idolatry begin to take root in the holy place of the Church, Flee! Flee to the mountains! Flee from your “home.” And do it sooner rather than later! That’s what those references mean about, if a person is on the housetop, not coming down to get anything out of his house, or a man in the field not turning back to get his clothes. It’s also what that reference means when Jesus bemoans the poor women who are nursing or pregnant, or those who may have to travel on the Sabbath day. Those were literal impediments to fleeing leading up to Jerusalem’s destruction. But the urgency in Jesus’ words still applies very much to our situation.

What does it mean to “flee to the mountains”? It means getting away from idolatry in all its forms. Whether that idolatry is set up within a given church or a given church body, leave it behind, and do it quickly. Get out of that visible church. Leave your “home.” That doesn’t mean get out of the Christian Church entirely, of course! But it means you may not be able to stay in the church of your youth. You may have to spend months or years searching for a little church up in the mountains, that is, disconnected from the big and powerful church bodies in the world.

Practically all of you here, in our little “church in the mountains,” have already done this, so you know what it entails. You know what it is to be “homeless” in a spiritual sense. Here in Las Cruces we’ve still been mercifully blessed with a beautiful church building, but not all of our members live close enough to enjoy it. You know what it is to not have a big and impressive church body to take comfort it, or to have a big church with choirs and multiple musicians and all kinds of programs, to not have a voice in the world or a seat at the table with prestigious religious leaders. And why would we expect any of that, if we’re being faithful to Jesus’ instruction? Why would anyone who is in the process of fleeing from his home expect to have all the comforts of home?

Third, Jesus tells His fleeing Church to keep praying that our flight may not be hindered or delayed. God alone provides the ministry of His Word. And God alone provides the strength and the courage we need to live in away from “home.” Our sinful flesh would love nothing more than to stay where it’s comfortable, or even to return to a comfortable home, in spite of the abomination that may be there. But, Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife!” She started to flee from her home in Sodom, but turned back toward it in longing and suffered a tragic end. So keep praying that the Lord would guide and protect us as we flee, and guide and protect and strengthen all His children throughout the world, that all may flee from every abomination before the desolation comes.

Jesus’ final instruction to His fleeing Church is this: When people try to convince you that Christ is to be found here or over there, don’t believe it. Don’t be deceived. Don’t go out. It’s easy to grow impatient as we wait, especially in the midst of the great tribulation. So it can be tempting to go looking for Jesus and His salvation wherever anybody tells you you can find Him. In this place, in that practice, in this novel doctrine, like the rapture or the millennium or the real absence of His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. But Jesus’ instruction is, don’t believe any of that. Hold onto His Word and wait patiently for His very public return. Look for the true Church in the marks of the Church: in the pure preaching of the Gospel of Christ and in the proper administration of His Holy Sacraments. And be content with that until He comes.

St. Paul told us a little bit about that coming in today’s Epistle, with everything taking place in quick succession. First He’ll raise from the dead those who have fallen asleep in Him. And then He’ll bring the still-living believers up into the heavens to join the newly raised believers, all safely and joyfully gathered around our Lord.

So, in the midst of this great tribulation, in the midst of fleeing from idolatry in the Visible Church and living as those who have no earthly home, keep watching for the Lord’s return, as eagles carefully scan the countryside for the meal they so eagerly desire, and then all converge on it as soon as they spot it. So set your hearts on the Lord Jesus Christ and be watching diligently for Him. In the midst of the tribulation, in the midst of our flight, Jesus will preserve His homeless Christians. He will shorten the days of this tribulation as much as necessary, so that not a single one of His believers has to miss out on the salvation He’s coming to bring. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Where is the Savior of Israel

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 23

Isaiah 63:11-19

Isaiah Chapter 63 began with the picture of the Lord as a Warrior, a Warrior who fought for His people against their enemies, but ended up fighting against His people Israel when they made themselves His enemies, when they turned against their Savior. In the rest of the chapter, His people look back at how good they had it, at how good the Lord had been to them in the beginning, prompting them to ask the desperate questions, Where is He now, that Savior of old? Where is the Savior of Israel? And why does He cause us to go astray? As we’ll see in these last three chapters of the book of Isaiah, the answers to those questions differ, depending on the heart of the one asking them.

Then His people remembered the days of old, of His servant Moses, saying: Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in their midst, who led them with His glorious arm by the right hand of Moses, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name, who led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As the cattle which go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused them to rest, so You led Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name.

Accused, condemned, rejected by God, made desolate, captive in an enemy land, the people of Israel had learned what it was like to have the Lord God as their enemy. Because of their sins, because of their impenitence, because each one had turned to his own way and stopped caring about what God said or what God commanded, the people who bore the name of God were abandoned by their God. Where could they turn if God Himself was against them?

Some, most of Israel, turned back to God’s saving history, but in confusion. They turned back to recall that decisive moment in their history when they were without hope, enslaved by the powerful Egyptians. But God stepped in. God stepped in through His servant Moses. God stepped in through Moses and accomplished the impossible. With ten plagues against the Egyptians, with parted waters of the Red Sea, with divine intervention so that the Egyptians armies perished in those very same waters, God had come to Israel’s rescue. But Israel as it faced captivity in Babylon, Israel as it suffered in captivity in Babylon, and also Israel as it rejected the Christ when He came, could only look back in confusion and ask, “Where is God’s salvation now? We need His salvation again!” But those very same people who claimed to be searching for God’s salvation rejected His salvation when He sent the Christ to them. They didn’t want Him for a Savior. So all they can do is look back at His past salvation with confusion.

Some, a handful in Israel, turned back to God’s saving history in repentance and hope. They remembered the mercy, and the love, and the power of the God who had brought them out of Egypt and made a covenant with them in the desert. They repented of their sins and turned back to that Redeemer God and asked, “Where is He now?”, not in despair, not in confusion, but in hope, because the LORD, Yahweh, is a God of forgiveness and undeserved salvation. Where was He then? He was about to send His Christ to suffer and die for their sins. Where is He now? Still here in Word and Sacrament to forgive sins to all who believe in Him, still forming a new Israel out of all believers, and about to return to take His new Israel to our eternal Promised Land.

Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and Your strength? The stirrings of Your heart and Your mercies toward me are restrained. For You are our Father, though Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel does not recognize us. You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer; Your name is from everlasting.

A cry, a plea: “Where are Your zeal and strength?” Some, most in Israel, asked that question in despair, as Jesus’ disciples asked while He slept and their boat was sinking in the storm, “Lord, don’t You care that we are perishing?” You’re supposed to be our Father! Where is Your fatherly care? Here You are, letting us go into exile, stay in exile for 70 years. Here You are, sending Roman armies against Your people and destroying Jerusalem and removing Your covenant from us, as a nation, just because we didn’t want to be saved by this Jesus. It makes no sense!

Others, a handful in Israel, asked that question in hope. Where are Your zeal and strength? We look to You for salvation, and we gladly expect the Christ whom You will send! You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, and to all who receive Him, to all who believe in His name, You have given the right to become children of God. So You are our Father. And on that basis, we plead with You to act on our behalf. Show Your zeal and strength in upholding Your children, in saving us from sin, from death, from the devil and all His demons! Show Your zeal and strength in guiding the affairs and governments of this world so that Your Gospel may be preached, and so that Your Church may be built and preserved until You come to rescue us at last from this wicked world.

O LORD, why have You made us to err from Your ways and hardened our heart from fearing You? Return for Your servants’ sake, the tribes of Your inheritance. Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while; our adversaries have trodden it down. We have become as those over whom You have never ruled, as those who were not called by Your name.

Not only “where?” but “why?” Why have You made us to err and hardened our heart? Most in Israel asked that question in accusation and arrogance. “You made us err, O Lord! You hardened our heart from fearing You! Why would You do that? If you had just left us alone, we would have gladly followed Your ways and feared You as we ought. But no. It’s Your fault that we turned away from You. How could You make us sin like that? Why would You deprive us of the land and of the temple we were promised?” Oh, the pride of man is great. Even when we’re forced to acknowledge our sins, we want to blame God for them, as Adam once blamed God in the Garden of Eden. This woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit, and I ate. Those who would blame God for their sins, and for the consequences of their sins, are delusional.

But some in Israel, and some still today, ask that question differently. We know that, if God does make us to err, it’s only in response to the erring we have already chosen. If He hardens our hearts from fearing Him, it’s only the righteous punishment we deserve for hardening our own hearts from fearing Him, as He did with Pharoah at the time of Moses, about whom it says that he first hardened his own heart toward the Word of God that Moses spoke. Only then did the Lord further harden it.

And so the penitent one answers his own question: Why have You made us to err and hardened our heart? Because we first chose to go astray. We first chose to be stubborn and hard-headed and stiff-necked, to follow our own dreams, our own path, our own desires. And so we deserve all the punishment we have received.

But our case is not hopeless. Not at all! Because the Gospel is still going out, calling out to all those who mourn over their sins, Take heart! Don’t be afraid! The Lord Jesus came to seek and to save the erring and wandering sheep. He came to soften the hearts that are hard, and, by His Spirit, to replace them with hearts that believe, as He promised through the prophet Ezekiel: Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

Where is the Savior of Israel? It’s a question that can be asked in unbelief. But it’s also a question that can be asked in faith, and in eager expectation that the Savior of Israel—the Savior of the Holy Christian Church—will soon come to rescue His penitent people from all their troubles. So look back at all the saving acts God has already accomplished for His Church. Look at His present acts of salvation, including His providence of the holy ministry of His Word in our midst, including His guidance of the governments of the world that we’re witnessing even now, giving His children a little reprieve from the madness that we have been surrounded by. Where is the Savior of Israel? He is here with us even now. Trust in Him and hope in Him, and you will not be disappointed. Amen.

Source: Sermons