Know the Time and What It’s for

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

1 Corinthians 12.1–11 + Luke 19.41–48
Tenth Sunday after Trinity

How often do you ask yourself, or someone else, “What time is it?” When we ask, “What time is it?” we’re often asking because knowing the time helps us know where we are supposed to be or what we are supposed to be doing. Is it time work, for class, for an appointment, or for a meeting? Is it time for practice, leisure, rest, or sleep? Knowing the helps us know what we are to do be doing at the moment. If we lose track of time, or worse, if we think it’s a different time from what it really is, the schedule is off, and we miss whatever it was time for.

The Jews had a problem with time, but they didn’t realize it. Jesus approaches Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, riding a colt, and as He draws near the city of Jersualem, he weeps over it. He weeps and says, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

The time of their visitation was not just when Christ came to Jerusalem, but the entire ministry of Jesus. For three and half years, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them” (2 Co 5:19). For three and half years, God was in Christ preaching good tidings to the poor in spirit—the penitent. He was healing the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to those held captive by sin, opening the prison to those who had been bound by the devil. He proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord, comforting all who mourned over their sins and consoling those who mourned over the sorry state of Zion, the church. He said in John 12:47, “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” God was in Christ visiting the Jews, reconciling the penitent and believing to God, not counting their sins against them.

During His gracious visitation He also earned the things that made for their peace. He lived without sin. He was perfectly righteous in thought, word, and deed throughout His entire life to earn a perfect righteousness that availed for all mankind. He suffered and died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world and acquire forgiveness for all people, so that all who believe in Him receive the forgiveness earned. But the Jews’ time of visitation didn’t end when they crucified Christ, or when He rose from the dead, or even when He ascended into heaven. After His resurrection from the dead, He sent out His apostles so that through them, His gracious visitation would continue. He gave them the ministry of reconciliation, His ministry, and made them His ambassadors, through whom God pleaded with sinners to repent and receive by faith the things that made for their peace, and thus by faith be justified, declared righteous, and reconciled to God.

But the Jews did not know the things that made for the peace, nor did they know the time of their visitation. If they had known it was the time of God’s gracious visitation, they may have repented of their sins and believed the gospel. They didn’t recognize the time because they imagined God’s past gracious visitations—which had given them the law and the land and the temple—were sufficient. Others failed to recognize the time of God’s gracious visitation because they looked for God to visit them by means of a mighty Davidic King who would destroy their enemies and rule over them in a glorious earthly kingdom. When He sends them His apostles, some will believe. But the majority will eventually have enough of it, kill the deacon Stephen, and a great persecution will arise against the church at Jerusalem, scattering all but the apostles, and at some point, even they will leave the city to preach elsewhere. Then the time of God’s gracious visitation will be over.

After that comes God’s visitation in wrath. Jesus sees this, too, as He approaches Jerusalem. “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another.” Jesus’ words, spoken some forty years before that event, find their fulfillment some forty years later when Roman armies will lay siege to Jerusalem and eventually it’s destruction. Christ’s faithful will have left by that time, obeying His words in Matthew 24 to flee to the mountains when they see the abomination that causes desolation. But the Jews who did not believe, who rejected God’s gracious visitation in Christ and the things that made for their peace, the gospel, died and Jerusalem was razed to the ground. And it all happened, Jesus said, “Because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

What time is it? For everyone alive, it is the time of their visitation. The apostles continue to preach through their written preaching in Holy Scripture, which you read and we hear every Sunday. St. Paul teaches us in one of those writings, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Co 6:2). As long as the day is called “today,” God is graciously visiting you, His called preachers with you “Be reconciled to God” (2 Co 5:20).  Be continually reconciled, each day, by living in repentance and trust that Christ has, by His innocent life and bitter suffering and death, earned for you the things that make for your peace with God.

How do you do this?  Christ teaches us in the second half of the gospel, when he drives out those who bought and sold so that He could teach there. The Jews had squandered the gift of the temple’s divine service. They used the temple precincts for profit, not prayer and preaching. But Christ would accomplish their visitation, to save those who would believe, while those who rejected Him would have that which judges him on the last day, the word Christ had spoken. Christ’s cleansing of the temple directs us to use His word rightly, to hear preaching, since that is how He visits us with His grace and mercy. His word and preach is how He creates faith in us, the faith that reconciles us to God because it is counted for righteousness. We are not to take His word and worship for granted, as the Jews did. This was one of the reasons they missed the time of their visitation. Christ’s cleansing of the temple also reminds us to be engaged in prayer, which is the heart’s response to His word and preaching, asking for those things He has promised and giving thanks for them.

Today’s epistle shows us that God gives other gifts of grace through the Word, and that we ought not squander them, but use them for the profit of all. Paul lists several gifts of grace the Spirit gives: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healings, the working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, kinds of tongues, or languages, to another the interpretation of tongues. While the Spirit no longer accompanies the true preaching with some of these outward manifestations, even as He did not always give the apostles the ability to heal or work miracles, He has continued to give many gifts. He gives the word of wisdom, the wise application of God’s word to individuals, and the word of knowledge, the ability to impart the knowledge of God to others. These are gifts by which you, in your conversation with others, encourage one another in the faith. He gives the gift of discerning of spirits, that is, discerning truth from error, and wants every Christian to exercise that gift in whatever proportion He has given it. Whatever gifts you may have been given, Paul wants you to use them for the profit of all, to edify others, and to serve your neighbors.

Part of knowing that today is the day of salvation, the time of Christ’s gracious visitation, is also to know that this time does not last forever. The day of salvation ends for each person on the day he dies, and Christ will bring it to a close for all when He returns in glory. On that day, He won’t be visiting in mercy, but in judgment. With that in mind, know what time it is and know what it is for. It’s the time of Christ’s visitation in mercy, the time in which He brings you the things that make for your peace with God, now in this life and for eternity. Be reconciled to God each day by repentance and faith. Use His word and preaching to build you up in repentance, faith, prayer, and faithful use the gifts received. You know what time it is. You know what you’re to be doing in it. Amen.

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Use All Your Master’s Goods Wisely

Posted on August 17, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

1 Corinthians 10.6-13 + Luke 16.1-9
Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Today’s gospel lesson is one of the more difficult texts the church year presents to us. A rich man’s steward—the administrator of his house and estate—was accused of wasting his master’s goods. The rich man summons his steward, saying, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.” In that moment, the steward does something he hadn’t done up to this point. He thinks about his future. What is he going to do when he relinquishes the ledger and is no longer employed? Manual labor is out. Begging is out of the question. So, he decides to do more of what he’s been doing up to this point. He defrauds his master some more so that when he is put of out of the stewardship, they may receive him into their houses. Who are these who may receive him into their houses? His master’s debtors. He called his master’s debtors to him. The first, a man who owed the rich man one hundred measures of oil, has his bill cut in half. Now he owes the rich man fifty measures of oil instead. To another who owed the rich man a hundred measures of wheat, he takes off one-fifth so that he now owes eighty measures of wheat. 

Then comes the kicker. The master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. This is what makes this parable one of Jesus’ most difficult. The steward continues in his unrighteousness. He defrauds his master one final time on the way out the door, and the master commends him for his shrewdness. Not only that, but Jesus explains the parable to His disciples, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” Now, Jesus isn’t commending theft, malfeasance, or fraud. Those are sins, and Jesus is not a minister of sin. No, he commends shrewdness in the stewardship in which God has placed you. He says, “the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” The sons of this world are unbelievers. And they are more shrew in their generation, among themselves, with the things of this world, than are the sons of light, that is, believers. Jesus tells His disciples to learn shrewdness from unbelievers but apply it to their stewardships from God, the blessings God has given them, so that they use God’s gifts in such a way to benefit them for eternity.

How does that work? Use the things of this life to help others. Use unrighteous mammon for the betterment of your neighbor. Jesus calls it unrighteous because so often mammon—money and wealth—are used unrighteously. The steward in the parable is an example using mammon unrighteously. He wasted his master’s goods on himself, his own pleasure and comfort. He gave no thought to the fact that everything he wasted belonged to someone else. He gave no thought to using his master’s goods to benefit others to the glory of the master’s reputation! He used it unrighteously. He wasted it on himself and himself alone. But how does using the things of this life for the betterment of your neighbor, how does making friends with unrighteous mammon, lead to them receiving you into an everlasting home? It means simply this, that when you die and enter into your everlasting abode, those whom you helped in this life who were also believers will welcome you. This is but part of the reward God has graciously promised to believers for their good works.

But how? How do you be shrewd like the sons of this world, except for the benefit of those around you, not yourself? How do you make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon? By using your master’s goods for the sake of others within your stewardships. All the goods you have belong to your Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. David reminds us in 2 Chronicles 29:11, “For all that is in heaven and in hearth is Yours, O Lord.” Everything belongs to Christ, but He has graciously appointed each of you as His stewards in different places. Has he called you to be a husband? That is a stewardship. Has he called you to be a wife? That is a stewardship, as well. Has Christ called you to be a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent? Those are stewardships. Has he called you to labor? That, too, is a stewardship, in which you work to benefit those around you. Are you a student? That, too, is a stewardship which is preparing you to serve others. Your vocations are holy orders from God, stewardships over which He has placed you, and each stewardship has responsibilities and duties, to God and to the neighbor, and different goods of the master which you are to steward out. Jesus wants you to use unrighteous mammon—the things of this life—righteously in your stewardships. To misuse the master’s goods only corrupts them and oneself, and ends in being casting out of the Master’s house.

This is also true of the spiritual goods God graciously lavishes upon us. They, too, can be misused. This is Paul’s point in today’s epistle. In the preceding verses, Paul explained how God had given Israel at the time of the exodus great spiritual blessings. They were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food,and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” And yet God was not pleased with them and scattered their bodies in the wilderness. Why? Because they became idolaters. They practiced sexual immorality, they even tempted Christ Himself with their complaining about the gifts God had given them, preferring to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. They wasted their Master’s goods. The result was that the entire generation, except for two men, died in the wilderness and did not enter the Promised Land.

Paul tells the Corinthians, and you, that “these things became our examples, to the intend that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” “They were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” The goods they wasted were both physical and spiritual. They had been baptized into Moses in the Red Sea. They ate the same spiritual food and drink as we do, which is Christ. They were called God’s firstborn son. But they became proud and imagined they deserved more. They became proud and imagined that, as God’s chosen people whom He had redeemed with His mighty right hand, they could pursue their desires. They misused the great spiritual gifts God had given them to puff themselves up and insulate them against condemnation. But as the unrighteous steward misused his master’s goods and was punished, so Israel was punished for misusing the earthly and spiritual goods God had graciously bestowed on them. They did not ponder how to use God’s gifts rightly, for their sake, for the sake others, to the glory of the Lord who had saved them.

Your highest calling, your highest stewardship, is of God’s spiritual gifts. Be shrewd in how you use them, so that the things of this life do not distract you away from them as your highest good. Use the blessings God gives you in the gospel for your own benefit, so that you refrain yourself from sin, so that you repent if you fall into temptation to sin.  Use your baptism and the blessings God gave you therein to comfort and encourage yourself toward daily repentance, faith, and putting the old man to death so that the new man can daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity. And use the spiritual goods your Master has given you for the benefit of others, too. Speak God’s word to them in your vocations. Comfort each other and edify one another (1 Th 5:11).

Use your Master’s goods—the physical goods of this life and the spiritual goods in His word—according to God’s word. Use the goods of this life and use them shrewdly. Put thought into how you use the stuff of this life that your Master has given you. In doing so, you let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Mt 5:16).  And be thoughtful in how you use the spiritual goods your Master gives you in the gospel as well. And again, use them shrewdly. For the devil, the world, and even your own sinful flesh tempts you to neglect them on the one side and misuse them on the other. Use your Master’s goods in such a way that you benefit from them, especially eternally, so that when you fail, those whom you have helped may receive you into an everlasting home. Amen.

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Eat Good Fruit from Good Trees

Posted on August 10, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

Romans 8.12-17 + Matthew 7.15-23
Eighth Sunday after Trinity

With the words recording in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus begins to conclude His Sermon on the Mount. Having preached on true righteousness that comes from faith and the good works that flow from it, he concludes His sermon by teaching the crowd that that after He finished, false prophets would come to them. These false prophets would introduce teachings that deviated from His Word and the teaching of Holy Scripture. Having fed them with the spiritual food of His word, he warned them to be on their guard against those ravenous wolves who would lead them away from the grapes and figs of truth to the thornbushes and thistles of falsehood. By ending His Sermon on the Mount like this, Jesus teaches them to treasure what they have heard, do what He has said, and let no one take His teaching from them, since His teaching gives life and brings one into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ admonition was not just for His original hearers. It is for all believers of all time. And yet, these days, Jesus words seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Jesus says false prophets come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Many Christians today assume that all who call themselves Christian teachers are, in fact, teaching what Christ taught. Anyone who quotes Scripture to prove their teaching must be speaking the truth. Rarely do Christians today speak of false prophets with their false teachings. Now thanks to the internet, everybody’s a prophet. Anyone who imagines God has spoken directly to them, anyone who thinks they have something clever and new, has a platform to proclaim their teaching to the world. I wonder if Christians are more in danger of false prophets than ever, as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are fully of theologians plying their wares. Yet so many imagine that there are no false prophets, or that if there are, they are obvious to the naked eye.

This applies in real life as well. I recently learned the hard way that many Protestants think that other Protestants can’t be false teachers. They will, of course, castigate the Roman Church for its unscriptural doctrines and practices. They will heap invectives upon the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses for being anti-Christian cults in which there is no salvation. But they are reticent to call Protestants of other confessions false teachers, even when those other Protestants teach radically different doctrines from theirs. Since the slogan is that every denomination teaches “basically the same thing,” as long as Rome is shunned and the cults avoided, one fulfills Jesus’ admonition to beware of false prophets. If only it were that easy. Jesus’ words teach us otherwise.

He says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” The sheep’s clothing is anything a false prophet uses to appear as if they were a true prophet, a teacher of Christ’s true doctrine. The sheep’s clothing that is usually used is the Scripture itself. Every Christian teacher uses the Scriptures. But not every Christian teacher uses the Scriptures rightly. Under the guise of being reasonable Christ’s saving work in Baptism and His bodily presence in the Lord’s Supper are rejected. Under the guise of upholding fairness and justice some will deny Paul’s words that Christ “died for all” (2 Co. 5:15) and John’s testimony that Christ Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). It would be unjust, they argue, for Christ to die for the sins of those who would not believe and be saved. Worse still, they hold that God never intended to save those who would not believe anyway. Under the guise of looking like the New Testament Church, others will teach that the Holy Spirit will give to all true Christians the ability to speak in language of angels, and that this is the true baptism of Jesus. All these false teachings—and countless others—originate in men’s hearts, and men twist the Scriptures to prove them. Using Scripture is no sign that one’s teaching is true, pure, and godly, for even the devil cited Scripture to tempt Christ in the wilderness, while false teachers use the words of Scripture, but abandon the pattern of sound words, the way Scripture uses those words, so that the words of Scripture may fit their own meaning.

Another sheepskin is the call into the ministry. Just because a minister has a legitimate call from Christ, through the Church, does not automatically make His teaching true. For many who start strong are lured away from teaching the truth out of love for money, worldly comfort, or peace in the congregation that would end if the truth were fully taught. They have a proper call. They genuinely seek the salvation of their hearers. They may be zealous and diligence. They might even be blessed with extraordinary gifts to cast out demons and do signs and wonders. But if they do not teach the true doctrine, they lead their people to thistles when they need figs, and thornbushes when they need grapes. You may ask, “How could such ministers be inwardly ravenous wolves?” Sincerity does not make the doctrine true. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Je 17:9). The human heart not only deceives others, it deceives itself, and many ministers have allowed that to happen. This is why Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,” and “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”

False teachers are an ever-present reality for us, especially in this last age of the world. Knowing that they will come is one thing. Knowing how to identity them is another. So, Christ teaches us how to spot them when He says, “You will know them by their fruits.” Outward appearance has little to do with it, if anything at all. No, you will know them by their fruits. That is, you will know them by their teaching. The fruit of a prophet is his prophecy. Since prophecy much of the New Testament is interpreting Scripture, you will know them by their interpretation. Does it align with the common Christian Faith, or can their interpretation of Scripture be refuted with the clear words of Scripture? Does the teaching glorify God and does it build up one’s faith and hope in Christ?

There is another fruit, and that is the life of the teacher. Does the teacher live according to Scripture? This does not mean sinless perfection, of course, but being blameless in the sense that no one can bring a valid accusation against him. Does he bear the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh? Does He live as debtor to the flesh, as Paul calls it in today’s epistle, or does he live as a debtor to the Spirit, putting to death the sinful flesh and being led by the Spirit of God to live in daily repentance, faith in God’s forgiveness, and the good works which flow from faith? Does he teach others to sin, actively by encouraging sinful behavior, or passively by refusing to discipline sin in the church?  To do so is to become a minister of sin and practice lawlessness.

Christ has commanded all Christians to beware false prophets. He has commanded you through His apostle Paul to “note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Ro 16:17). He gives you these and other such admonitions throughout the Scripture so that you pay attention to His word and have life. He wants to give you grapes not thorns. He wants to give you figs not thistles. He has the words of eternal life. Let no one separate you from His life-giving words by cunning or deceit. He wants you to be fed and nourished with His pure, unadulterated teaching, not an amalgam of truth and error. He wants you to do the will of His Father in heaven. And He says in John 6:40, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” He wants you to believe in Him for the forgiveness of all of your sins. He wants you to believe His promises and receive His gifts so that you may be faithful unto death and come into everlasting life. To that end, Jesus bids you to eat good fruit from good trees, so that nourished with the pure gospel and Christ’s sacraments, you go forth from here to put to death the deeds of the body, to live by the Spirit, and suffer with Christ so that, on the Last Day, you may be glorified with Him. Amen.

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Follow Your Father in Mercy

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

Romans 8.18-23 + Luke 6.36-42
The Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Jesus teaches that those who are baptized children of God the Father will follow their heavenly Father’s example and be merciful. He teaches us this because the natural tendency of the sinful flesh—which we all carry with us—is to be unmerciful to our neighbors. When we see our neighbor’s faults, when someone’s frailties become apparent or make our lives a little more difficult, our flesh easily becomes annoyed. Everyone understands that they must put up with the shortcomings of those around them and bear their burdensome behavior. But inwardly, the flesh maliciously judges those with whom it is annoyed. The flesh puts the worst construction on other’s behaviors. Perhaps it doesn’t outwardly judge and condemn the neighbor with our words. But if we have done it in our hearts we are just as guilty of setting ourselves up as judge and jury over our neighbor. As often as we judge our neighbor for the slights and petty annoyances we suffer from them, we are like who diligently inspects his neighbor’s eye for a piece of dust while a board protrudes from his own eye.

Jesus wants us instead to follow our Father in mercy by being merciful as He is merciful. How is He merciful to us? St. Paul writes that Romans 5:8 that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were yet undeserving of mercy, the Father looked with pity upon His fallen creation. While we were still sinners, enemies of God and turned from Him, He loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son to become flesh, take up the form of a servant, and serve us by carrying our sins upon Himself. While we were still sinners, Christ became sin for us and died for our sins to appease God’s wrath against our sins. He atones for the sins of the entire world. This includes the sins of slanderously judging your neighbor in your head and in your words. This happened while we were still sinners, unable to atone for a single sin of ours in thought, word, and deed because our very hearts are sinful from birth, unable to yield up even the faintest glimmer of a good, God-pleasing work. The death of Christ avails for all mankind, so that if all were to believe in it and trust Christ’s merits, all would be saved. Such is the love of the Father for sinners, that He would give His Son into death to pay for our sins.

But His mercy continues. Christ earned the forgiveness of sins and a perfect righteousness for all mankind. In mercy, the Father gives us preachers who preach what Christ has done for us, so that all who believe the promise of forgiveness and trust that Christ’s righteousness is their own, they are justified in God’s sight, sins forgiven, covered in Christ’s righteousness. And though we daily and continually sin, the Father daily and richly forgives our many sins here in His holy church. The Father gives us the Holy Ghost so that we might live each day in faith, repenting of our sins and looking to Christ for mercy. Luther once said, “Wherever there is faith in Christ, there sin has in fact been abolished, put to death, and buried. But where there is no faith in Christ, there sin remains. And although there are still remnants of sin in the saints because they do not believe perfectly, nevertheless these remnants are dead; for on account of faith in Christ they are not imputed” (AE 26:286) Faith clothes us Christ’s righteousness so that God doesn’t count our sins against us, but freely forgives us for Christ’s sake. This is how the Father in heaven is merciful to sinners; first by giving Christ to die in our place, second, by continually forgiving the sins of those who look to Christ in faith, trusting His death for their forgiveness and his righteousness as their own.

This is the mercy we are to emulate. How are we merciful? “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Jesus teaches us to watch ourselves lest we enter into judgement over our neighbor, assuming the worst of them and condemning them for is. When we see our neighbor’s faults and frailties, He teaches us to cover them with the best construction. We do not judge or condemn our neighbor. Instead, we are ready forgive them and give them help, comfort, aid—whatever is due to them and whatever God has commanded us to give to them—in good measure. “For God loves a cheerful giver,” as St. Paul says (2 Co. 9:7). Jesus goes on to say, “For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” When others see that you are gentle with their frailties, when people see you freely giving, then they will use that same measure in dealing with your frailties and faults. In this we are to be like Christ, our Teacher, for a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

None of this is, of course, about those times when a neighbor sins against us. He isn’t telling us to tolerate sinful behavior. For sin, He says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.” (Matthew 18:15). He says in Luke 17[:3–4], “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” God’s word functions as a curb to sinful behavior, as a mirror by which we see our own sins, and a guide for the baptized life. But God did not give His word to function as a shield for sins, so that this passage can be held up in defense of one’s sins. When people cite Jesus’ words in defense of their sin it only shows that they are following their flesh’s desires, not God the Father’s mercy to penitent sinners in Christ.

If the neighbor repents, then we are ready to forgive. If they are impenitent, recalcitrant that they have not sinned, or unyielding, we do not forgive, though we are, in our heart, ready to forgive them when they do repent. When that moment comes, we will forgive as our teacher who has trained us with His own forgiveness, richly, from the heart, without hypocrisy. If we follow the flesh rather than the Father’s mercy, this is impossible, for the sinful flesh keeps a tally. Once our neighbor has reached the limit then there’s no more mercy. But this isn’t how our heavenly Father deals with us. He doesn’t mark our iniquities but freely pardons them, drowning them in the depths of the sea of His mercy. This is how we are to forgive.

But even when this has to be done, when we have to confront our brother who sins against us, or the wicked world, we do as ones who ourselves have receive mercy each day. The only way to remove the speck from our brother’s eye is to first remove the plank from our own. “Then,” Jesus says, “You will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” When we must approach family members, brothers in Christ, and those around us because they sin against us—and this is more than petty slights and annoyances—but when they truly sin against us, we must approach them with knowledge that we ourselves are sinners whom God richly forgives. Otherwise, we’re no better than the blind leading the blind. Rather, use a good, generous measure with your neighbor, “for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you,” from your neighbor, perhaps, but certainly from your Father in heaven. Let your forgiveness of others be a visible sign of this: that you daily receive forgiveness from a merciful heavenly Father and enjoy a restored relationship with Him.

When we rub each other the wrong way, when you feel the flesh tempt you to annoyance and grief toward others, reign in the flesh and instead follow Your Father’s mercy which He has shown you in Christ and keeps showing you in Christ each day, forgiving you those sins of which are aren’t aware, as well as those of which you are aware and bring to humbly bring to Him. Use the same measure with others that God has used, and continues to use, with you, the measure of mercy.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The True God who Saves Sinners in Baptism

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

Romans 11.33-36 + John 3.1-15
The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The apostle John writes in John 2:23, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.” One of those who saw Jesus’ signs and began to believe in Him was a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus, beginning to believe in Christ, comes to Him at night, under the cover of darkness. He approaches Jesus and says, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can these signs that You do unless God is with him.” His greeting reflects his faith. He does not call Him the Christ, as Andrew did when telling his brother Peter about Jesus (Jn 1:41). He does not confess Christ as “Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote,” as Philip confessed to Nathaniel (Jn 1:4). Nor can Nicodemus confess Jesus to be the Son of God and the King of Israel!” as Nathaniel did (Jn 1:49). For Nicodemus, for now, Jesus is Rabbi, a teacher sent from God.

Being addressed and acknowledged as a teacher come from God, Jesus immediately begins teaching by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to Nicodemus’ greeting, unless we consider what else John wrote before this, that “Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (Jn 2:24–25). Jesus knows Nicodemus’ heart and his fledgling faith and wants to immediately fan into flame the small embers of faith in Nicodemus’ heart. He goes to the heart of the matter, how one enters God’s kingdom. To enter God’s kingdom, Nicodemus must be born again.

Nicodemus hears this in an earthly way. He gets the general idea of a second birth, but understands Jesus’ words in an earthly, physical way. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Since Nicodemus gets the general idea of a second birth, Jesus gets more specific. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The second birth is not a physical, natural birth. To be born again is to be reborn by water and Spirit. This is holy baptism, “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” as Paul calls it in Titus 3:5). By water and the Spirit—together, not separated—people are reborn, regenerated, and born a second time. The word which Jesus uses, ἄνωθεν, reinforces this, for it means “again” but also “from above,” reflecting that the second birth isn’t a natural, physical birth like the first one. It is a spiritual birth which is “from above,” worked by God through water and the Spirit.

The reason this second birth of water and Spirit is necessary is that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Fleshly people give birth to fleshly children. Sinners give birth to little sinners. Job asked, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” and answered, “No one!” (Job 14:4). The first birth, being born according to the flesh, does not get one into God’s kingdom where there is righteousness, peace, joy, the Holy Spirit, and everlasting life. Physical birth does not make one a son of God who is heir to God’s kingdom. Only the second birth of water and Spirit—Holy Baptism—gives those blessings. Jesus says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Spiritual birth is not like the first birth, so that you can look at a person and tell that he or she is spiritually reborn. Baptism does not leave a physical mark as circumcision did for the Jews. It gives blessings which are, in this life, invisible. St. Paul teaches us that “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Ro 8:16–17).

To all this, Nicodemus answers, “How can these things be?” “How can water do such great things?” Human reason, of course, does not comprehend these things. Although God had foretold this washing of water for forgiveness and new life in the prophets, Nicodemus, thinking earthly thoughts about spiritual things, cannot understand. And that’s Jesus’ point. Nicodemus, by His own reason and strength, cannot understand spiritual things. Yet He should listen to Jesus!  Jesus tells Him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” He is the Son of Man who has come from heaven. He is “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Jn 1:18), that is, God the Father. God is His Father. He is God’s Son, who has come forth from God to make God and His will known to the world. God’s will, that to which both He and His Son testify, is that the Son of Man be lifted up on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. He and His Father testify that he who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mk 16:16), for by faith and baptism sinners receive the blessings the Son of Man earned by being lifted up.

And in this witness to Nicodemus, Christ begins to teach Him about the God in whose name sinners are baptized for spiritual rebirth. As Jesus reveals the One God to Nicodemus, He simultaneously reveals that in the Godhead there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and other of the Holy Spirit. There is the kingdom of God the Father. God is called Father because He has the eternal Son, who became the Son of Man. This one descended from heaven and testifies with His Father, when He says, “We speak of what We know and testify to what We have seen, and you have not received Our witness.” That the Son is coequal with God the Father is evident in that He says in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father.” He didn’t deliver all things to His Son at some point in time. He gave all things to His Son by begetting Him from all eternity.

Along with God and His Son, Jesus reveals the divinity of the Spirit, the one who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  For the rebirth takes place of water and the Spirit. If the Spirit is giving life, then He must have life in Himself so that He can give it and not be depleted. Jesus said in John 5:26, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.”  The same is true of the Spirit, for the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and Such is the Holy Ghost. This is why He is, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, the Lord and giver of life. Being of the same substance as the Father and the Son, He has life in Himself and gives life by regenerating sinners in baptism.

Jesus doesn’t say anything else about this to Nicodemus at the moment. The full revelation of the Godhead comes after the Son of Man has risen from the dead and He commands His apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). The Triune God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, which is why God the Father sent God the Son to reveal Him and to be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life through the forgiveness of their sins. The Triune God wants the blessings Christ earned by His death on the cross distributed to all, which is why He send His apostles out into the world to baptize all nations.

For revealing Himself to us fully, let us give thanks to the Triune God. Let us confess God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the only true God who has saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, that we might have new life now as His sons, and eternal life forever as His heirs of His blessedness. Let of bless God the Holy Trinity and give glory to Him for His mercy. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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A Baptism of Fire Leading to the Baptism of Water

Posted on June 8, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

Acts 2.1-13 + John 14.23-31
The Feast of Pentecost

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Before Christ ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, He told His disciples, “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Ac 1:5). John the Baptist, while still living, had preached, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). The Lord fulfilled His promise on the day of Pentecost, which occurred fifty days after Christ’s resurrection. When the disciples are gathered together, a sound comes from heaven, like a rushing, mighty wind. It fills the whole place where they are sitting. Tongues as of fire appear over each one of their heads, and each one began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This baptism with fire and the Holy Spirit wasn’t a second baptism, a better baptism, or the completion of their own baptisms which they had received from John. John and Jesus called it a baptism metaphorically, because, like baptism, which is the pouring of water over one’s head, the Holy Spirit was richly poured out upon the disciples. Their heads are sprinkled, as it were, with tongues as of fire, resting on each of them, an outward manifestation of God the Holy Spirit. Hadn’t God told Israel, “The Lord your God is a consuming fire” (Dt. 4:24)? Hadn’t He told Jeremiah, “Is not My word like a fire?” (Je 23:29). Christ sends the Helper, the Holy Spirit, upon them so that they might testify of Christ in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Ac 1:8).

They speak boldly in these new tongues, inspired by the Holy Spirit, because there were dwelling Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. Perhaps some were there for the feast of Passover and now Pentecost. Perhaps some had moved to Jerusalem permanently so they could enjoy their golden years in the holy city. Regardless, these devout Jews from every nation under head heard the familiar sounds of their native tongue. Confused as to why they would be hearing their own languages, they come together in the city and find the source: Galileans, not natives of their home countries. “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God,” they say as they marvel. “Whatever could this mean?” some ask. Others, filled with unbelief, imagine the apostles to be full of new wine, even though it wasn’t the season for new wine.

And that’s where today’s gospel ends. But it is good for us to go beyond, because these opening verses of Acts 2. Peter raises his voice and addresses the gathering crowd. He says, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Ac 2:14–16). He addresses the naysayers first. It’s only 9am. They aren’t filled with wine. They are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord has fulfilled His word spoken by the prophet Joel:

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved” (Ac 2:17–21).

They are the sons and daughters of Israel who shall prophesy. They are the menservants and maidservants upon whom God has poured out His Holy Spirit. This is the beginning of the New Testament period. Joel sees the entire New Testament period compressed, because the wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath, will occur in that period, but only at the end of it, before the great and awesome day of the Lord, the day on which Christ returns to judge the quick and the dead. Until that day arrives, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.”

But there is still to work to be done. These devout Jews from every nation under heaven are not yet ready to call on the name of the Lord for salvation. They imagine they salvation is already theirs. Peter goes on to preach Christ—His death and resurrection—according to the Scriptures, and then brings the full force of the law’s condemnation down on them when he says, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” The one whom they rejected and reviled has been exalted. Jesus is Lord—that is, God. He is Christ, that is, the Messiah. God raised Him from the dead. God the Father seated Him at His right hand, so that all authority in heaven and on earth are His, and it is He who has poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples that very day. And these Jews killed Him, rejecting their God and Messiah.

Luke records that upon hearing this, they were cut to the heart. The men, realizing what they had done fifty-three days before when they had called for Jesus’ crucifixion, ask, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” How do we get out from underneath God’s wrath? How do we have a gracious God after what we’ve done? The prophet Joel had already told them, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.” Peter tells them how to do just that. “Repent,” he says, “And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Ac 2:36–39). The Law is preached so that men come to know their sin and mourn it so that that gospel may then rush in and offer God’s forgiveness for the penitent.

The gospel that Peter preaches is baptism! Not the metaphorical baptism which Jesus promised to the disciples—tongues of fire and new tongues in their mouth—but the washing with water and God’s word that Christ has commanded. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as He Himself had taught, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19). This baptism was for the remission of sins, not to symbolize God’s forgiveness and washing away of sins, not to signify that God would at some point wash away their sins, but to actually wash their sins away. This is why the same Peter writes in first epistle that baptism now saves us, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Pe 3:21). In Holy Baptism, God gives us a good conscience, because it forgives all sins, washing sinners with water and His word of promise.

This baptism also gives the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter tells them. All who are baptized receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives all who believe and are baptized His gifts, not the special, visible gifts like tongues of fire and tongues of foreign languages, but as Jesus said, “He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:14). The Holy Spirit forgives sins in holy baptism, adopts children for God the Father, and creates new hearts which begin to love God and keep Jesus’ word, so that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, in whom a person is baptized, will dwell in the hearts of everyone who is baptized, for the promise is for them, their children, and all people.

Including you. The apostles’ preaching, which began on this day nearly two thousand years ago with the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, continues through the preaching of God’s word. It still leads, not to new tongues in the mouth and tongues of fire overhead, but to baptism of water combined with God’s word which saves you. For in those waters you have the forgiveness of all your sins. You have the adoption as sons and heirs of God. You have the Holy Spirit, as well as the Father and the Son who make their home with you. You have a new heart which loves God and keeps Christ’s word. You have the peace of Jesus, which knows that God gladly forgives your sins as often as you repent them and flee to Him to for mercy, and which knows that all things work together for your good. The baptism of fire and the Spirit which was poured out on the apostles has led you to the baptism of water combined with God’s word, in which you have all God’s blessings, and their witness leads you back to your baptism each day, that you may live in those promises which God gave you. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The Spirit of Truth’s Work in You

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

1 Peter 4.7-11 + John 15.26—16.4
Exaudi, the Sixth Sunday after Easter

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On Thursday, the fortieth day after Easter, we celebrated Christ’s ascension into heaven. A week from today we celebrate the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection—the festival of Pentecost, the day on which the Lord fulfilled His promise to send the Helper to His apostles. Today, on this day in between these two events, Christ teaches us who the Helper is and what He will do—as well as what the apostles will do—and what the apostles must suffer as a result.

First, Christ teaches them—and us—who the Helper is. He is the Spirit of Truth. Meaning that all He says is truth. Whereas the devil is a liar and the father of it (Jn 8:44), unable to say a word that is not deceitful, the Helper whom Jesus sends to the apostles only speaks the truth. Whereas the world asks along with Pontus Pilate, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38) and believes that truth is relative to the situation, the Helper whom Jesus sends to the apostles speaks that is absolute, pure, and clear. He is not a created spirit, nor is He is the work of God in our hearts. He is the Spirit of Truth because He proceeds from the Father. He has His essence from the Father, for Jesus calls Him “the Spirit of your Father” in Matthew 10:20. In the Nicene Creed, as Western Christians we confess that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, because scripture also calls Him “the Spirit of His Son” in Galatians 4:6 and the Son is the one who sends Him. Because He proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Spirit is of the same essence as the Father and the Son: uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty. He is co-equal with the Father and the Son. This is why Jesus calls Him the Spirit of Truth, for Jesus said in the gospel from two weeks ago: “He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine” (Jn 16:14–15).

This is who the Helper is. What will He do once Christ sends Him? “He will testify of Me,” Jesus says. He will not point to Himself. He will not teach His own things. He will bear witness of Christ’s righteous life, innocent suffering and death, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and the certainty of His return in glory to judge the quick and the dead. He will take the things of Jesus—the teaching of Jesus and the blessings Jesus earns by His innocent, bitter sufferings and death for the sins of the world—and give them to those all who believe His witness. “And that,” that you believe the gospel, is “not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” Paul says in Ephesians 2:8. Through His testimony to Christ He creates faith in men’s hearts, for “no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Co 12:3). This is what the Spirit of Truth will do.

And He will not be alone in His testimony. “And you also will bear witness,” Jesus says, “because you have been with Me from the beginning.” These men will bear witness to Christ as eyewitnesses of His entire earthly ministry. This was a requirement to be an apostle. During the days between Christ’s ascension and Pentecost, they selected a replacement for Judas. Peter said, “Of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection” (Ac 1:21–22). Matthias is chosen by Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. They prayed and cast lots, and the Lord chose Matthias to be numbered with the eleven. Those twelve men would bear witness to Christ, that they saw Him with their own eyes, touched Him with their own fingers, heard His words with their own ears after He had risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit would bear witness through these men’s preaching and as He inspires them to commit their preaching to writing, so that their witness outlasts them on earth. This is a glorious ministry, a ministry in which God the Holy Spirit is present.

But then comes the warning of what will happen to these men because of their testimony. Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. Because they preach Christ crucified for the sins of the world, so that all who believe and are baptized will be saved, they will be excommunicated from the synagogue. The church of their childhood will cast them out as false prophets and heretics. The church in which they learned about God will seek to kill them for believing in God’s only-begotten Son whom He sent to earth to be the propitiation for the sins of the world and proclaiming the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation in His name. And they’ll do it with a smile on their face and a song of praise in their heart. They will imagine that they are offering God the highest form of worship as they attempt, and succeed, in murdering them. But they do not know the true God. For to claim to know God but reject His Son and those through whom His Spirit testifies is to be ignorant of the true God.

All this—as well as all the more mild forms of persecution that culminate in excommunication and death—are occupational hazards of bearing witness to Christ. And it’s important that these men know that. When these things happen, they are to remember that Christ prophesied these crosses. He did not tell them at the beginning of His time with them, not to deceive them, but because He was with them, so they were safe. But after His ascension He would no longer be with them in the flesh as in the days of His ministry, and they would be exposed to danger. And yet, because He sent them the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, each one took up his cross and follow Christ. Regardless of what man did to them, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name (Ac 5:41), for His doctrine, for His pure gospel.

My friends, you have heard the witness of these men. By their witness, their preaching, their gospel and baptism, you have come to faith by the working of the Spirit of Truth. You persevere in faith by staying close to their witness and using it and applying it to yourself. And you even bear witness to Christ yourself. You speak of Christ and the pure gospel to others as the Spirit gives opportunity. You witness to Christ and His gospel as often as you offer Him the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of your lips. You witness to Christ—and the truth of His gospel—by coming here, even at great distance and cost. Your church membership is just as much a confession of Christ as the confession you speak. The life you live—making time to hear God’s word purely preach, being serious and sober so that you may pray, demonstrating fervent love for one another by covering other the sins of others, in being hospitable and serving one another with the ability which God supplies—this life testifies that the Spirit of Truth dwells in you.

And you know what that means. It means the same for you that it did for the apostles, though hopefully to a different degree. Suffering persecution for the sake of Christ is the cross that is to be borne by the apostles and those who believe the apostles’ testimony. The world does not want to hear of Christ, repentance, or the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake. The world does not want to hear truth, because truth condemns the world’s attempts and justification since Christ is the truth which must be believed. The world does not want the apostles’ testimony recorded in scripture to be clear, but obscure, so that it may allow for many different interpretations, and thus, no true meaning. The world does not want you to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, because the confession of your lips and your deeds puts it to shame. However you called up to suffering, whatever cross is placed upon your shoulders, remember that Christ has said these things would come. And rejoice. For the Lord is your light and your salvation; Whom shall you fear? (Ps. 27:1). If He has given you His Spirit of Truth, God the Holy Spirit, to testify of Christ to you each day, then it doesn’t matter what must be suffered and endured for Jesus’ sake. If its for Jesus’ sake, if its for the sake of His name, the truth of His word, and His doctrine that He has given us, then it’s nothing that hasn’t been suffered before, and nothing that Christ Himself, by His Holy Spirit, will not bring you through. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The Hidden Reign of Christ

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

Psalm 47 + Acts 1:1-11 + Mark 16.14-20
The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!” We sang these words a few moments ago in the Introit. They are the first words of the forty-seventh psalm, in which the sons of Korah prophesied Christ’s ascension when they wrote: “God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Ps 47.5-8). What the sons of Korah saw darkly by the Spirit of prophecy, we see clearly through the testimony of the apostles. St. Luke tells us in today’s epistle that on the fortieth day after His resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus was taken up, and cloud received Him out of their sight. St. Mark records that He was received up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” He sits at the right hand of God to rule as king of all the earth and to reign over the nations.

And because He has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, we no longer see Him. And because we no longer see Him on earth as the apostles did, it is tempting to think that He is absent from us, that He sits far off in heaven, away from us, away from the world, sitting idly by, not having much to do with the world anymore. The twenty-four-hour news cycle seems to confirm this. It doesn’t look as if Christ is king of all the earth, reigning over the nations. If anything, it looks as if the mice play while the cat is away. Nation rises up against nation. Peoples revolt against their own government. Wars and rumors of war persist. The world scoffs at the idea that Christ has ascended and now rules as king of all the earth. The nations do not want a king over them all, and they certainly don’t want Christ to be that king. They’re quite willing to let Him rule in heaven, up there, away from here, because that means the world gets to rule itself, and everyone can work to carve out their own territory, their own kingdom, their own little fiefdom where they reign supreme.

But God has gone up with a shout, The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Christ has ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God, not to be away and aloof, removed and remote from the world. Quite the opposite. God, St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:20–23). God the Father exalted Christ above all powers in this age and in the age to come. God the Father put all things under Christ’s feet, so that Christ truly reigns over all things in this world. Nor is He distant and sequestered from this world. He fills all in all. He is present everywhere. Everything is present to Him as He reigns over all things.

And at this point it must be remembered that His reign over all things—over the kingdoms and countries of this world especially—is hidden. It is something that is not obvious to the senses. Christ’s reign over all things is hidden under the fact that He uses human governments to rule this world. St. Paul writes in Romans 13, “The authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Ro 13:1). He even says of the earthly ruler, “He is God’s minister to you for good” and “an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Ro 13:4). The fact that Christ reigns over all things—and that He does so through sinful men and women—is an article of faith. If we approach the topic by human reason and understanding, it offends us to see Christ reigning through such sinful people, and often, despite such sinful people.

But it must also be remembered that for now, during this New Testament period, Christ’s goal is not an earthly kingdom, earthly peace, or earthly prosperity. The apostles, thinking that Christ would establish an earthly kingdom, asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” But it was not for them to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. He is not speaking about a restored earthly kingdom of Israel here. He is speaking about the day and hour that no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but His Father only (Mt 24:36) — the day of His return in glory. On that day He will make His reign over all things visible. That day will come, but it is not on that day, nor any day up to now. Until He returns in like manner as the apostles’ saw Him go into heaven, He rules hiddenly for the sake of the church.

He rules all things in heaven and earth for the sake of the church, so that the gospel may go forth into all the world to save people from their sins and everlasting punishment. Before He ascended, He told His apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Christ rules all things, in a way that is hidden from us, for this purpose. He wants the gospel preached that every creature. He wants the gospel to fill the world, so that all people—men, women, and children—who believe in Him, that He has made perfect payment for the sins of the world, and are baptized into His death and resurrection, have the forgiveness of their sins, are rescued from death, and have eternal salvation.

And since Christ fills all in all, He was present in the apostles’ ministry. St. Mark writes that after Jesus ascended, “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” Whenever the gospel is preached, Christ is present, working on the hearts of those who hear it. He worked with the apostles through their preaching to create faith in men’s hearts. He even adorned their preaching with the signs He promised to them. The apostles cast out demons in Jesus’ name. They spoke in new tongues at Pentecost. St. Paul took up a serpent in hand. St. John allegedly drank poison yet lived. The apostles laid hands on the sick and healed them. These signs showed unbelievers that the apostles’ gospel was not their own, but was from God Himself in heaven so that they might believe and be baptized.

Christ no longer adorns His ministry with such signs. He could, if He wills. But what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about tongues applies to all miraculous signs, “Tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying—explaining the word of God—is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.” Signs only adorn the ministry; they confirm the apostles’ word as true, they are not the ministry itself. But Christ is still present in His ministry, working through it to preach the gospel to every creature, that He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. He works the far greater miracle than any of the promised signs as by creating faith in human hearts, by regenerating those who are dead in trespass and sin through the waters of holy baptism, and by renewing their hearts, their minds, and their wills, so that they live godly lives, pray, hear His word, and persevere in faith unto the end. He rules all things in heaven and earth for the sake of those who believe, that they might remain steadfast in this faith and persevere in it. He rules so that all things—even hardship and trial, disease and temptation—work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Ro 8:28).

Your Lord Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Yet He is not far away. He has not gone “up there” and left us “down here.” He has promised, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). He is with you through His gospel. He with you through His Word. He is with you because He has baptized you. He is with you, wherever you go and whatever you go through because He ascended to the Father “that He might fill all things “(Eph 4:10). And filling all things—having all things present to Him—is with you, never to leave you, never to forsake you, but to reign in you by His gospel, that where He is, you may be also. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

John 16.5-15
Cantate, the 4th Sunday after Easter

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On the night in which Jesus was betrayed, He speaks to His disciples about His going to the Father, His suffering, death, and burial. In today’s gospel lesson Jesus encourages His disciples’ hearts by telling them it is a good thing for them if He departs and goes to the Father. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart , I will send Him to you.” Jesus goes to the Father so that He might send this Helper to them. The Helper whom He promises to send is another person—not a human person—but the third person of the Godhead, God the Holy Spirit. But He doesn’t call Him that now. He calls Him, in Greek, the παράκλητος. Our translation renders the word “Helper,” which is a fine translation. παράκλητος means “one who is called to someone’s aid.” It can be rendered “Comforter” or “Intercessor.” It can also mean “Advocate,” as in a legal advocate, what you and I would call an attorney. With these words, Jesus promises to send His Holy Spirit to the disciples who will help them, comfort them, come to their aid, as well as prosecute the world.

Jesus tells them of the Spirit’s prosecuting work first. He says, “When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” What does this mean? It means the Holy Spirit will rebuke and reprove the world about these things through the apostles’ preaching. The world needs to be rebuked because the world’s opinion about concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment is wrong, dead wrong, completely backwards.

The world judges acts like murder and theft, adultery and slander as wrong, at least in most cases. That’s because everyone has God’s law written on their heart. Every knows within themself that there is right and wrong and good and evil, it’s just that sin has obscured God’s law in their heart and darkened their conscience. And because the conscience of mankind is darkened and that the knowledge of God’s law obscured, the world can only render judgment about matters of the second table of the law. The world can—unless it chooses to turn a blind eye—rebuke sinful behaviors that are harmful to others. But the world cannot rebuke anyone as to the chief sin.

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin “Because they do not believe in Me.” The world thinks that belief in Christ is a personal option at best and ridiculous at worst. It scoffs at the idea that Christ is the eternal Son of God who has come into the world. The world despises Christ, thinks little of Him, so little, in fact, that it crucifies Him. But the Holy Spirit, when He comes, will convict the world of its unbelief—its lack of faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit has a far keener eye than any human judge. He sees the heart of man and that unbelief is the fount and source of all the sins which it can see and judge, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Mt 15:19). The Holy Spirit convicts the world that the carnal mind—the mind that is not renewed by faith in Christ—is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be, as St. Paul writes in Romans 8:7.

The Holy Spirit will also convict the world “Of righteousness,” Jesus says, “Because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” This seems cryptic until we remember what Jesus means by His going to the Father. It means His suffering and death, which He endures willfully to make satisfaction for the sins of the world. This, Jesus says, is true righteousness because in His innocent, suffering and death He earns perfect remission for all sins and perfect righteousness, so that all who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of all of their sins and are counted righteous with the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

The world does not see Jesus’ “going to the Father” as righteousness. The world sees only the outward life. The world judges by what it sees, and it judges those who are relatively good people as righteous. Since sin has obscured God’s law in peoples’ hearts and darkened their consciences, they don’t even imagine people rise to a level of morality above the average are righteous, they believe everyone who is average is righteous by their own virtue, or the virtue they signal on social media. The world’s view of righteousness is dead wrong. It’s satanic, for Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro 3:23). The only true righteousness is Jesus’ going to the Father to acquire perfect righteousness and apply to those who believe in Him through His word and through His sacraments.

Finally, the Spirit will convict the world of judgment. The world at denies there will be a final judgment of the living and the dead. It teaches everyone who dies will be happy and at peace, if it teaches anything all past death. Others, with their knowledge of God darkened and obscured, imagine a judgment, but only for the really bad people, people worse than themselves. Because the world refuses to believe that its unbelief is sin, and that righteousness is faith in Christ, the world has to come up with an alternative scheme for judgment. But Christ tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of judgment, “because the ruler of this world is judged.” The ruler of this world is Satan. He is not the ruler by right, but by usurpation. Yet the apostles will convict the world that its ruler, the one from whom it takes it’s cues and learns its doctrine, is judged. And if the ruler of the world is judged, the entire sinful kingdom of this world—with its priorities and ways of thinking, especially about spiritual things—is judged along with him. When the Helper comes, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and He will do so through the apostles.

This is a lot for the disciples to take as Jesus tells them He’s leaving them. He still had many things to say to them. He would teach the disciples those things through the Holy Spirit. “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” After Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit would guide the apostles in remembering the words of Jesus, understanding the Old Testament prophecies about Him, and even inspire them to write the New Testament. All this guidance wasn’t for things ancillary or other than Christ had taught them already, for “He will glorified Me,” Jesus says, “for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Spirit would help them in this way so that they might convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

The Holy Spirit still does this. He guides His Christians into all truth. He doesn’t speak directly to you, in your heart or intuition. Nor does He lead the church into new doctrines which Christ didn’t give. That is the spirit of antichrist, which invents new teachings and tries to pass them off as if they were Christ’s. No, the Holy Spirit guides you into all truth by the teaching of the apostles, written in pages of the New Testament and preached to you. He guides you into all truth by convicting you of sin, righteousness, and judgment. You need this because you still have the sinful flesh in this life with its lusts and evil desires. Unbelief still tempts you heart as often as it tempts you to sin. The Holy Spirit convicts you of sin and the unbelief of the flesh so that He might then lead you further to the truth about righteousness, that God forgives the sins of all who repent and clothes them with Christ’s perfect righteousness, the righteousness Christ earned by going to the Father. He leads you into the truth that the ruler of this world is judged! Although the devil tempts, his kingdom flexes its influence, and the world persecutes you, you have nothing to fear. The devil is judged already. He can harm you none because you stand in Christ’s kingdom, covered in Christ’s righteousness. The Holy Spirit continues this work in you to keep you in Christ’s kingdom, lest the devil, the world, and your own flesh lure you back to the reign of the ruler of this world. The Holy Spirit continues this work in you so that you might be convicted, that you might be helped, that you might be comforted, not once, but each day. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Jesus Lives! You Can Endure “a Little While”

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Pastor_Sullivan

John 16.16–23a
Jubilate, the 3rd Sunday after Easter

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” This enigmatic statement sends the disciples into a tizzy. “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while , and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me;’ and, ‘because I go to the Father?’” It is a bit cryptic. “A little while” isn’t a definite period. And “going to the Father?” He had told them in John 8:16, “I am with the Father who sent Me,” and He will tell them in a few verses after today’s reading, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). What does it meant to “go to the Father” if the Father is always with Him?

The “little while” of which Jesus speaks is His death. “A little while, and you will not see Me,” means that in a little while they will not see Him because He will be taken from them, scourged, crucified, and buried. This is how He will go to the Father, for when He dies, He says, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Lk 23:46). His body is buried, laid to rest in the heart of the earth. His soul goes to His Father in paradise. But this, too, will last a little while. He will rise from the dead on the third day. Here He says it this way, “And again a little while, and you will see Me.”

The disciples don’t understand what He’s talking about. Jesus knows that they ask each other about this saying of His. He explains His words, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me,” this way: “More assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.” That doesn’t seem like much of an explanation of the disciples not seeing Him, then seeing Him, and His going to the Father. But Jesus doesn’t tell them this to prophesy His death and resurrection. He had done that on several occasions already. On that night He wanted to teach His disciples how to deal with His suffering and death, and not only this trial, but all the trials they would face for His sake.

During the little while when they did not see Him, they would weep and lament. They loved Jesus. They were His closest disciples. And Jesus loved them. They would weep and lament because their Lord was taken from them and would be killed. The world, on the other hand, would rejoice at His going away, at His death. He said in John 7:7, the world “hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” Jesus had preached against the world’s wickedness, especially its chief wickedness—unbelief in Christ and its’s idea that it can get to God by its own works and merits. It’s one thing to condemn the vices that everyone sees. It’s quite another thing to identity the chief underlying vice, that the world wants to forge its own path to God, its own worship, and its own righteousness. The world hated Jesus because He exposed that. And just as Herodias could not bear John the Baptist’s preaching, but had to silence him by chopping off his head, so the world could not bear Christ’s preaching, but had to silence Him by trial, conviction, and crucifixion. Not only would the disciples weep and lament at the loss of their Lord for this “little while,” but the world’s rejoicing would make their grief heavier.

But just as He would be gone “a little while,” so after a little while they would see Him again. This is what they were to remember during the little while of their suffering. They would see Jesus again! And seeing Jesus again, seeing Jesus alive, would turn their sorrow into joy. For as painful as their suffering would be, it would only last “a little while.” Then they would have joy. Jesus compares it to woman in labor. She has sorrow because her hour—the hour to deliver the baby—has come. She must suffer the pains of childbirth, the physical as well as the emotional. But there is an end to the suffering. The suffering gives way to joy when the child is brought safely into the world. Holding her newborn child, “she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” Once Christ was raised form the dead, born into the world alive from the womb of the earth, the disciples’ anguish would be a distant memory, having been overwhelmed by joy.

Then Jesus explains, “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” There is sorrow. There is suffering. These cannot be averted, bypassed, or circumvented. If they didn’t have sorrow, if they didn’t suffer at their loss of Jesus, they wouldn’t have been true disciples of Jesus. They wouldn’t have truly loved Him. But since they do love Jesus—and know that Jesus loves them—they will suffer.

But the suffering lasts only “a little while.” When He rises, when they see Him again, their hearts will rejoice with a joy that no one can take from them. It is the joy that Jesus lives! His enemies did not destroy Him. The world, for as much as it hates Christ, cannot silence Him. Death, the final enemy of us all—for all must die—is destroyed by the fact that Jesus, who died, lives! All who are in Christ by faith will then live and be raised on the last day even as He was raised from the dead. Our sins—the reason for which Christ died, so that He might make perfect payment for all of them—can trouble us no more because God raised Jesus from the dead to show that He accepts that perfect payment for the sins of the world. The devil—who desires our downfall and our eternal suffering in hell with him—has no power over all who believe in Christ and trust that His death atones for their sins. Jesus is alive! Let sin, the world, and the devil do their worst, it matters not. The joy of Jesus’ resurrection. Nothing in all the world, no among of sorrow, suffering, or misfortune can take that joy from you.

Isn’t there something refreshing about this, to hear Jesus say, “You now have sorrow?” So much of our life is aimed at mitigating, or at least minimizing, suffering and sorrow, because no one wants to suffer. Yet for all our medical technology and psychological tools, suffering still happens. Affliction bears down on each one of us in different ways, in our bodies, our minds, and our situation. Along with afflictions there are crosses which we must bear specifically for the sake of confessing Christ.  The world—and our own sinful flesh, for that matter—encourage the wringing of hands accompanied by the litany, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” But that is not the way forward. That’s the way of self-righteousness. God, after all, makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). Job asks his wife—and all the faithful who suffer—“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). It isn’t a question of whether suffering will come. It is a question of how God’s people deal with it.

Which is one of the many things Jesus teaches His disciples on the night in which He betrayed. He taught them to endure suffering and sorrow in patience and trust that it would last but “a little while.” And then they would see Jesus again. Then they would have joy, and it would be a joy that no person, no situation, not even hell or the devil, could take from them. It was in that same joy with which the disciples were to endure every affliction and bear every cross that would come upon them after Christ’s ascension.

It is the same joy with which you are to bear every cross and endure every affliction that God, in His holy wisdom, allows to come upon you. It will last but “a little while.” And however long that “little while” is, you have the joy of the resurrection. Sin cannot harm you. Jesus lives to justify you each day by repentance and faith. The devil cannot hurt you. Jesus lives to defeat the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). The world, though it hates you because you love Christ, whom it hated first, can do its worst. But Jesus still lives and has overcome the world. And death? If that is how God choose to relieve your affliction or cross from you, then rejoice, for Jesus lives to bring you through death, so that you might see Him face to face. This is a joy that no one can take from you, no one can invalidate for you, not even affliction and suffering, not even cross and trial. Those will surely come. They cannot be avoided. But they will only last “a little while,” and your Father in heaven knows how long that little while is. And during that little while, whatever its duration, you have the joy of the resurrection. Jesus lives! What can sin, death, the devil, or the world do to you if your Savior lives? Nothing. Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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