Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Kerrville Texas

1 Corinthians 15.1–10 + Luke 18.9–14

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

Two men go to the temple to pray. One of them is a pharisee, meaning he has great zeal for the law of Moses. He strives to live according to the law. What God commands, he does. What God forbids, he avoids. In some respects, he goes above and beyond the works commanded by God. This one enters the temple and prays like this: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” Now before we go any further, we should point out that it is a good thing that he is not an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer. These are sins from which everyone should flee because God condemns them and threatens to punish those who practice such things. Nor it is sinful that he fasts twice a week or tithe of all his possessions. Fasting and tithing can be good disciplines.

The second man who goes to the temple to pray is a tax collector. By virtue of his trade—collecting taxes for the Roman overlords—he was viewed as a traitor and turncoat. Tax collectors also had a reputation for being unrighteous thieves, charging more than required to enrich themselves. Whether this certain tax collector had defrauded his fellow countrymen or not is irrelevant. He chose to be a tax collector and remains a tax collector, making him automatically suspect in the eyes of the Jews. This one enters the temple to pray. He would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He doesn’t claim to be righteous in God’s sight because he’s avoiding what God has forbidden and done all that God has commanded. He doesn’t boast about going above and beyond in his own spiritual discipline. He does the opposite of the Pharisee. Before God, he is unrighteous. Before God, he is a sinner. Standing at God’s tribunal of justice, he only pleads for mercy.

It is the tax collector, Jesus says, who went down to his house justified rather than the other. We mighty expect the Pharisee to be the one who walks home with the verdict of “righteous in God’s sight.” That’s what the word “justify” means, “to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment” (FC SD III.17). But it’s the tax collector who goes down to his house justified—declared righteous by God and absolved from eternal punishment. Why? Because the tax collector comes before God’s tribunal and confesses the truth—he is a sinner—and humbly asks God for mercy. He asks that God forgive all his sins, not because he deserves it—he doesn’t—but because God has promised to be merciful and forgive the sins of the humble and penitent. The tax collectors has the promise of Psalm 86:5, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” He has the promise from Psalm 130:7, “O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption.” He has the promise of Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” He has the promise of the forgiveness of sins and he trusts that promise.

The Pharisee has the same promises the tax collector has. The difference is that he does not believe them because he doesn’t think he needs them. In his mind, he has no need to trust God to have mercy on him and declare him righteous. He trusted in himself that he was righteous. That’s why he prays the way he does and looks down on others. He doesn’t need God to justify him. He’s taken care of that himself, or so he thinks. And while—good for him—he is not an extortioner, unjust, or an adulterer, he is still a sinner. He still has sin in his flesh, what we would call original sin with its lusts and impulses. And although he has not acted upon many of those internal desires, he has allowed himself to become absorbed with self-righteousness and looking down on others, both of which are sin. Self-righteousness sins against God by denying one’s need for His mercy. Despising others sins against love by thinking of the self as better than others who are undeserving of love.

The Pharisee—for as outwardly righteous as he may be—still needs God’s mercy. In fact, external righteousness, being a good person, and living virtuously, is unrighteousness in God’s sight if that righteousness, goodness, and virtue isn’t done in faith. A person can be righteous in the world’s sight and still be unrighteous in God’s. A person can be good and upstanding in the world’s estimation while God views them as guilty, not justified, and damned because they do not trust in His promised mercy for the sake of Christ’s righteousness. Apart from faith in Christ there is no justification of the sinner. For to justify means “to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith” (FC SD III.17). The Pharisee blasphemes God by imagining he is righteous by his own works. The Lutheran synods also blaspheme by teaching that God has justified the entire world apart from faith, and that that justification of the world is the gospel which we are to believe and be saved. The pharisee places his trust in his own righteousness. The synods teach men to place their trust in the fact that all men are forgiven already, they just down know it. But only the humble, penitent tax collector goes down to his house justified, sins forgiven, absolved from eternal punishment he deserved.

In this parable our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us penitent humility. As St. Paul writes, “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). As Dr. Luther teaches in the Small Catechism, “We daily sin much and surely deserve only punishment” (SC III.V) Christ teaches us this, not so that we constantly berate ourselves over the fact, but so that we recognize our great need for His righteousness, which is perfect, whole, and complete. He teaches us to see our unrighteousness so that we believe death paid for all of our sins and He gives His righteousness to all who believe this. He teaches us to see our sin and unrighteousness so that we may remain humble and live each day by His mercy, being justified in God’s sight by faith, not our own works and righteousness. When we believe the gospel God justifies us again, putting away our sin, absolving us from eternal punishment, and clothing us with Christ and His righteousness. If living by self-righteousness leads us despise others, then living by faith in Christ’s righteousness leads us to love others in deed and truth and live righteously in all our dealings with our neighbors.

And there are times when, living righteously towards our neighbor, they return righteousness with unrighteousness, love with hatred, and good with evil. That’s the situation in the Old Testament lesson we heard earlier. It sounds discordant to hear David say, “The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them. I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His eyes” (2 Sam 22:21-25). But David is not speaking of his righteousness before God. He’ speaking of his righteousness in dealing with Saul. He had treated Saul righteously, and Saul returned David’s faithfulness with evil, slandering him and trying to kill him on several occasions. David could pray to be judged according to his righteousness and integrity in that situation between him and Saul, for he had done Saul no wrong and even worked to reconcile while him, but Saul wouldn’t have it.

When our neighbors repay us evil for good, we can ask God to judge us according to our righteousness in our dealings with them, and trust that He will right the wrongs we have to endure. We can bear these—and all things—because of God’s mercy toward us in Christ Jesus, that by faith we can go down to our homes justified—forgiven of all our sins and absolved the eternal punishment we deserve, for the sake of Christ Jesus’ righteousness which we now wear. Amen.

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

Romans 8.12–17 + Matthew 7.15-23

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

“Beware of false prophets.” The warning comes to us each year on this Sunday because it is a fact of life in this sinful world that false prophets continue in every generation. They are wolves—ravenous wolves—who seek to devour the lambs of the Lord’s pasture with their falsehood. But they disguise themselves to look like harmless, innocent sheep. This is how they capture so many well-intentioned, trusting people. What is the sheep’s clothing they wear? The Lord says of Israel’s false prophets in Ezekiel 22:28, “Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.’” Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord begins many of His sayings with the opening phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” The false prophet’s disguise is the saying, “Thus says the Lord,” when in reality, the Lord has not spoken thus. It’s telling people, “God says this or that,” when God hasn’t said this or that in His Word of Holy Scripture. They may use the language of Scripture like the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witness. They may cite Scripture passages, but out of context, or contrary to the plain sense of the words, as Rome, the protestant sects, and even many who bear the name “Lutheran” do in our day. This is how their teachers deceive so many: “Thus says the Lord, when the LORD had not spoken the thing they’re saying He has.”

What are they speaking, then? The Lord tells the prophet Jeremiah, “They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD” (Jer 23:16). The sinful heart, which is the most deceptive thing on earth, is the fount and source of their teaching. God’s word says one thing plainly. But since it is offensive to unbelievers and human reason, it must be reinterpreted. The Triune God says He is the only true God and that all other gods are worthless idols. But that offends the Jews, the Muslims, the cults, along with those who subscribe to the American civil religion of a generic ‘god’ whom everybody worships. So, the false prophet says, “Since God works in hidden ways, so He may very well be working apart form the gospel in other religions, so we really shouldn’t judge individuals of other faith traditions.” This is not what God has said in Scripture, though. It is what someone has said in their heart which is antichristian, and devours the souls of those believe it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said on the night in which He betrayed, when instituted His supper said, “’Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Cor 11:24-25). Yet this is offense to human sensibilities, even of many pious and devote Christians, so the false teachers tell them the bread and wine symbolize Christ’s body and blood, or that through the earthly elements, we spiritually ascend to heaven to commune with Christ there. But the Lord has not said thus. The apostle Peter says, “Baptism doth also now save us” (1 Ptr 3:21). But this offends the human flesh’s desire to take its salvation into its own hands, so the false prophets reach into their hearts and say, “Water is not enough to save, it must be your own decision, your own work, and your baptism shows the world—and God—that you are obedient to God.” But the Lord has not said thus about baptism.

Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded His apostles to baptize all nations, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20). Christ’s apostle, St. Paul, wrote in Romans 16:17, “Note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.” Yet the idea that there cannot be union—or communion—with other Christians who teach different doctrines different from Christ and the Scripture offends the sinful flesh. The flesh wants unity around the lowest common denominator of doctrine so that the Christian Faith can consist of a multiplicity of different opinions, opinions which do not come from Scripture, but the human heart. But God has not said thus about His church and His doctrine. The only way to find true union and communion is by taking all thoughts captive to God’s Word.

While there are countless falsehoods in the world today, the apostle draws our attention to a perennial falsehood in today’s epistle lesson. He writes, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors — not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” In every age of the world, false prophets had preached that Christians are free to live according to the dictates of their own hearts. “If it feels good, do it.” “If you feel in your heart that something is right and God-pleasing, then it must be right and God-pleasing.” “You have the gospel; therefore you can live in any way, even according to the sinful flesh with its lusts and desires, and still be a Christian.” The false prophets of Jeremiah’s day did this. The Lord says in Jeremiah 23:17, ““They continually say to those who despise Me, “The LORD has said, ‘You shall have peace’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”  This is the reason practicing homosexuals, impenitent drunkards, fornicators and adulterers, and any of the works of the flesh, can defend their behaviors while calling themselves Christians. But God has not said thus. He has said through His apostle, very simply, “If you live according to the flesh you will die,” and in Galatians 5:21, “Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Those who call themselves Christians must, instead, put to death the deeds of the body by the Holy Spirit and not allow sin to reign over them.

Sadly, all these falsehoods—and more—we hear from the pulpits of clergy, whether they are called bishops, pastors, teachers, or ministers. They may be sincere, but falsehood sincerely believed and taught is still ravenous to the soul. Jesus says, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Even though they had the office of the ministry, cast out demons, and did miracles, they practiced lawlessness, deceiving many, including themselves, confusing the dictates of their hearts for the truth of God’s Word. But also, beware the false prophets who aren’t in pulpits. Beware those in our world that invokes God’s name and Word, whether it be an entertainer, a politician, or a talking head on television or the internet. If they use God’s name and Word and say what God hasn’t said, or twist what He has said in Scripture, then they, too, are false prophets, ravenous wolves, who want to direct your faith away from Christ and the Scriptures, so that you trust in the imaginations of their hearts, their opinions, as God’s Word.

Why is this all so important? Because God’s Word is the word of eternal life. God’s word clearly and correctly taught is how the Holy Spirit works faith and gives life. False prophets have many ways to devour you so that you put your faith, not in the “Thus says the Lord God,” but in “Thus says my heart.” And that is their fruit. And you will know them by their fruits. Any prophet that directs you away from the plain sense of God’s Word is a false prophet, whether through the opinion of their flesh of by encouraging your own flesh’s opinions. Anyone who mistakes their sinful flesh’s will for God’s will must hear Christ’s judgment: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” This is why it is imperative to beware false prophets. To enter—and remain in God’s kingdom—we must do the will of the Father in heaven. The will of the Father is your repentance, that you humble yourself before God and confess your sins against His law. His will is that you believe the gospel and receive the forgiveness of your sins and Christ’s perfect righteousness each day. His will is that you adhere to His Word, receive His benefits through His sacraments, pray diligently, abide in God’s goodness, and faithfully use the gifts He gives you. His will is that your sanctification, that you live a holy life according to His holy word, and that this new life daily increases and grows. His will is that you suffer with Him, that [you] may also be glorified together (Rom 8:17) when He returns in glory. Amen.

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

Romans 6.19-23 + Mark 8.1-9

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

Does it ever seem that the unbelieving have it better than Christians in this life? Does the thought ever cross your mind that the those who go along with the ways of the world—whether they claim to be Christian or not—are more prosperous than those who make hearing God’s holy word and living holy lives according to it a priority? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, it’s a common theme throughout scripture that begins in days prior to the flood when the descendants of Cain prosper to the point of luring most of the descendants of Seth away from the true church. Jeremiah asks the Lord point blank, “Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?” (Jer 12:1). Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, admits to the Lord, “I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked;” they “are always at ease; They increase in riches” (73:3, 12). Asaph even wonders, if just for a moment, if he had cleansed his heart in vain. This is a constant theme in Scripture because it is a continual theme in our sinful world. We see it in our day. Unbelievers prosper. Hypocritical Christians thrive in this life, giving lip service to God while their hearts and deeds are fixed on their prosperity, obtaining and enjoying it. At times this may tempt us to doubt whether God is really in control of human events. At other times it may tempt us to think that continuing with Him—prioritizing hearing His holy word and confessing Christ—is really worth it.

The Lord answers these temptations throughout Scripture, and today’s gospel and epistles lessons answer these doubts as well. In the gospel lesson, St. Mark tells us, “the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said to them, ‘I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.’” Here is a large crowd of people who have continued with Jesus for three days. They came to Jesus in the wilderness to hear His word and to bring to Him the mute and the maimed, the blind and the lame so that He might heal them. The great multitude didn’t come to Jesus, get their loved ones healed, listen to a sermon, and immediately head back home. They remained with Jesus. They continued with Him so that they could listen to His teaching about the kingdom of God, the forgiveness of sins, the living of new lives, and the promise of eternal life. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, they are filled by the gospel and have every spiritual blessing in Christ. But because they continued with Him, they had nothing to eat. Not only are they emptyhanded and hungry, but if Jesus sends them away hungry, “they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar.” Here we have a group of people—a large group of people—who have continued with Jesus and prioritized His word, hearing it, learning it, and applying it to themselves, and they have nothing with which to feed themselves.

Jesus has compassion on those who continue with Him like this, though. He does not leave them hanging. He doesn’t leave them to their own devices. He provides for them. He commands the multitude of four thousand to sit on the ground. He takes seven loaves of bread and the few small fish the disciples have. He gives thanks to God the Father, breaks the bread so that His disciples can distribute it to the four thousand. He does the same with the fish. He will not let this faithful crowd go hungry. In fact, they ate and were filled, and to show just how abundantly He provides for those who continue with Him, his disciples pick up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Christ has plenty to give, more than we even need! He shows us that though we may not prosper like the wicked and unbelieving, He gives us what we need when we need it, just as the psalmist says in Psalm 145[:15-16], “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” This is a great and precious promise. Our Lord has compassion on those who continue with Him, hearing His word, learning it, and applying it to themselves. He has compassion on those who seek the forgiveness of their sins, the Holy Spirit to live a new life, and everlasting life.

Which brings us to today’s epistle. Paul’s talk about slavery to sin and slavery to righteousness is just another way of speaking about continuing with Christ. The slave of sin is the unbeliever, the hypocrite, the child of this world. Because they seek the good things of this life as their highest good, they present their members of instruments of uncleanness and lawlessness, meaning they offer their bodies, their thoughts, their words, and their deeds up to sin, which only leads to more sin, and as such, they live under God’s wrath. The slave of sin earns the wages of sin, which is death, spiritual death now and the eternal death of everlasting punishment and separation from God. This is what Asaph came to understand in the seventy-third psalm. When he went into God’s sanctuary, he understood the end of the wicked. Though they prosper in this life, God will cast them down to destruction and bring them to desolation. This is the wages of sin: spiritual death that lasts into eternity. Though the wicked and unbelieving prosper for a time, they will be punished eternally.

Slaves of righteousness, though, the one who continues with Christ, presents their members—their bodies, their thoughts, their words, and their deeds—for holiness. Continuing with Christ is to hear His Word and then to do His Word; to be counted righteous by faith in Christ and then to grow in righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit. This continuing with Christ leads to eternal life. Even this is the gift of God, not a wage earned or merited. Our service to God in holiness of living and of love towards our neighbor doesn’t earn eternal life. It is all gift. This is what Asaph came to see in Psalm 73. He confessed his foolishness for thinking the wicked prospered, and said, “Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works.” (Psalm 73:23-28). Asaph recalled the blessings of the Lord in this life, and that God was His chief desire. He also recalled the end of the unbelieving—the wages of sin—and the end of the godly—eternal life. Only in drawing near to God was he reminded of the great blessings God gives those who continue with Him, culminating in eternal blessedness.

So, we see how Christ graciously provides all things for those who continue with Him. He gives them daily bread to support this body and life, and as slaves of righteousness we are content with what He gives. As the apostle writes, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim 6:6-8). When we see the unbelieving or hypocritical Christian living their best life in this world while they care not for God and His Word, we do not fret. We fight the feeling that wants to grouse about how the wicked prosper and the godly languish in this life because we know the end. The end of the slave of sin is eternal death, and this moves us to compassion for them. The end for the slave of righteousness—the one who continues with Christ, hears His holy word and lives a holy life according to it, regardless of the cost—is the gift of eternal life. This thought even brings the prosperity of the wicked into the service of God’s saints. It reminds us that this life is not the end. Every injustice we see, every wickedness that prevails, and every time it seems that evil wins reminds us that our hope is not for a better future in this world, but in the gift of God, which is the blessedness of eternal life. Christ cares for those who continue with Him with what they need in this life so that He might bring them into the life of the world come. With that in mind, we say with Asaph, “Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Amen.

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

Romans 6.3-11 + Matthew 5.20-26

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

Jesus teaches us the true meaning of God’s law in today’s gospel lesson. The law, specifically the fifth commandment, teaches, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of judgment.” While the Pharisees—and the sinful flesh—is content with the idea that they should not end someone’s life, Jesus teaches that the commandment applies to the whole person, including the thoughts of one’s heart and the words of one’s mouth. “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” Anger without cause and insults make one just as liable, not only of an earthly court, but of hell itself. Murdering someone is never the first sin. Anger, resentment, and bitterness are already murder in the heart that, if left unchecked, will lead to violent language and acts. The commandment forbids not only physical murder, but the murder that so often takes place in the heart, even that anger that festers and never leads to hurting or harming our neighbor in his body.

Jesus also teaches us what the commandment requires. He says, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” The gift being offered at the altar is a sacrifice, either for sin or for thanksgiving. If the man has begun offering his gift upon the altar and the Holy Spirit brings to mind that his brother has something against him—that he has wronged his brother in some way and not been reconciled to the brother whom he has wronged—he is to leave his offering there. Why? Because God says in Hoseas 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Sacrifices were outward forms of worship which God had commanded. But the sacrifices were to reflect the inward worship of the heart. It would hypocritical for a man to offer a sacrifice—whether for sin or for thanksgiving to God—while he harbors anger toward his brother in his heart that refuses to be reconciled to him. It is far better, Jesus says, to agree with your adversary quickly, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. The commandment, “You shall not murder” touches the whole person, the heart most of all, so that we do not murder our neighbor even with our thoughts, but be merciful and loving.

So, we need new hearts. Jesus says in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.” The Lord said before and after the flood that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21). Who we are, by nature, cannot live according to the commandment, “You shall not murder,” or any of the commandments for that matter, for each of the Ten Commandments demand the heart fear, love, and trust in God above all things at all times, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Any thought that we do these is self-deception. For the Lord reminds us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, so deceitful that it deceives even itself with the assumption of its own goodness and righteousness. This was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. They imagined they were righteous as long as they obeyed the commandments outwardly. But self-righteousness—which is the best that man, by nature, can muster—will not get you into the kingdom of heaven, because it isn’t righteous before God at all. So, we need new hearts, and by that I mean we need to become new people entirely.

And God, who is rich in mercy, has done that for you. “Do you not know,” Paul asks, “that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” We know that baptism “works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC IV.2). But it also unites us to Christ’s death. We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Far from being an empty sign as so many teach, baptism unites us with Christ’s death, so that “our old man was crucified with Him.” In baptism, your old man—the sinful heart, the whole man as he is descended from Adam—is crucified and laid in the tomb with Christ. This is why we baptize infants and the aged alike, for baptism is the way that Christ puts to death the old Adam in us and makes us into new men. The new man is the new heart, the new person, who, by the power of the Holy Spirit given in baptism, lives according to God’s will—the Ten Commandments.

The new man, risen from the death of sin, with a new heart, hears the commandment, “You shall not murder,” and does His best to live patiently with others. The new man does not repay evil when he receives evil. The new man, lives peaceably with all men, as much as depends on him. The new man does not avenge himself when wronged or allow wrath to consume him. The new says with the Psalmist, “Be angry, and do not sin” (Pss 4:4). The new man prays, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3). He trusts God who says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12:19). The new man would much rather agree with his adversary quickly, rather than deliver him over to the judge. Yet, there are times when a Christian—as a citizen—must deliver his unbelieving enemy who refuses to be reconciled to the judge. The new man does so, seeking justice rather than revenge. This is how the new man, risen from the death of sin, hears all the commandments. All the commandments, not just the fifth commandment, serve as his guide so that he avoids what God forbids and pursues what God commands, and all of it from the heart, not just outwardly before men.  

The new man must also, however, contend with the body of sin. Paul says, “our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” The Old Man is crucified, dead, and buried in baptism. But the body of sin remains. By “body of sin” Paul means the remaining lusts and desires of the old man. We still feel sin in our flesh. We still have its impulses within us, desiring to sin and lusting against the Spirit. These lusts and impulses are sin, but God does not impute them to believers who do away with the body of sin, that is, who resist it, and retain the upper hand against it. We walk by the Spirit, according to God’s law, so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. We walk by the Spirit, trusting that since our Old Man has already died in Holy Baptism, we are freed from sin. We look forward to the day when this body of sin dies altogether and is laid in the ground and look forward to the day of Christ’s return in glory when He raises us to new life in glorified bodies entirely free of sin’s corruption. For now, though, in this life, we live in the baptismal life, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord, resisting the body of sin’s lusts and desires, and if we sin, relying on God’s promises made to us in Holy Baptism to forgive our sins and raise us to new life.

Jesus teaches us the true meaning of God’s law. Seeing how the law touches the entire person, we see the wickedness of the body of sin that remains in us. The law shows us the depth of our sinful depravity, so that we do not, like the scribes and Pharisees, imagine we can be righteous apart from the forgiveness of sins and Christ’s perfect righteousness that He gives us through baptism and faith. The more we see our depravity, the more we see our need for Jesus, and the more we give thanks to Him for putting our old man to death in baptism and resurrecting us with Himself to new life. By teaching us the true meaning of God’s law we also clearly see His will for how we live: that we should no longer be slaves of sin, but new men and women, baptized sons and daughters of God the Father, who live each day in the gospel, reckoning themselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. May God grant this to us all. Amen.

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

1 Peter 3.8–15 and Luke 5.1–11

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

Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to put out a little from then land. The crowd had pressed all around Him to hear God’s word, and getting in a boat on the water would make it easier for everyone to hear Him. Once He finishes preaching to the multitude about the kingdom of God, repentance, and the forgiveness of sins, He speaks to Simon. “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Jesus wanted to adorn His teaching with a miracle to show the multitude that it was divine teaching. Typically, this is not the time of day for fishing in the deep. Not only that, but Simon had already labored all night, casting his net then drawing it up empty each time. But Simon trusts Jesus. He has good reason to. He’s been following Jesus for quite a while by the time this happened. He had seen Him perform several miracles already. If it had been anyone else telling him to cast his nets into the deep in the middle of the day after a long night of catching nothing, he probably would have balked. But he believes the preacher in his boat is the Messiah, so Simon says, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.” “Since You have commanded me to do this, I’ll do it, though so far I’ve seen no results.”

Jesus rewards Peter’s trust in His word. Peter and company let down the net into the deep. “And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.” They call James and John in the other boat to come help. They load so many fish on board both boats that both boats begin to sink under the weight. Jesus wanted to confirm His teaching with a miracle, so that His hearers understand that it was not the teaching of man but God. Peter understands not only this, but that the one using His boat as a pulpit is the same one who said on the fifth day of creation, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures” (Gen 1:20). The difference between the fifth day and this day is God in human flesh, by His word, brings an abundance of those living creations directly into Simon’s net. Simon, being suddenly aware of the fact that God Himself is in the boat with him, falls down at Jesus’ knees in humility. “Depart from me, for I am sinful man, O Lord.” The man who he had first called, “Master,” he now confesses as “Lord.” He also confesses that because he is a sinful man, the Lord God has no business being in his boat and blessing him with this miraculous catch of fish.

Peter acknowledges something that few are willing to acknowledge. He is a sinful man. Most are willing to admit that they have done wrong on occasion. Some may even be willing to call their wrong behavior “sin.” But Peter goes far deeper than the outward act. His confession even penetrates further than acknowledging sinful thoughts. He does not confess that He has committed sins—thought this is undoubtedly true—but that he has sin. St. Paul says it this way in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” He is a sinful man, born from sinful parents, of the line of Adam and Eve. And because he is a sinful man, with a heart turned away from God by nature, he commits actual sins in his thoughts, his words, and his deeds. With this heartfelt knowledge, Simon cannot but fall down at Jesus feet and confess his unworthiness to have God in his boat, let alone this net-breaking, boat-sinking provision of daily bread.

But Christ the Lord is gracious and merciful to sinners who acknowledge their sins as well as their sinfulness, that they are by nature sinful and unclean. Jesus does not depart from Simon. He draws Simon closer to Him. “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” He isn’t called Simon to be a Christian. Simon was already that. He isn’t calling Simon to be His disciples and learn from Him. Simon was already that, too. He calls Simon His apostle—as well as James and John—an eyewitness to His ministry who will speak on His behalf before the world. As Christ’s apostle, Peter will cast the net of the God’s Word into the deep of the world. His net is the preaching of God’s word, forgiving the sins of those who repent and retaining the sins of those who refuse to repent, and administering baptism and Christ’s Supper, for all of these are the means God gives Peter—and all the apostles—to catch men and bring them into the boat of the Holy Church, the boat in which Christ is present.

What do we learn from Christ’s call to Peter to be His apostle? We learn that as Christ provided for Simon and called him to his office, so He provides for us and calls us to our offices. He doesn’t call us to be apostles. He calls us to various stations in life in the church, the family, and the world. In the Church He calls some to be pastors and ministers and He calls others to be hearers. The pastor teaches God’s word so that the hearers may be nourished with God’s word and live Christian lives. In the family, Christ calls men to be husbands and fathers who are to honor their wives and bring up their children in the teaching and admonition of the Lord. He calls women to be wives who submit to their husbands’ love and leadership and help them in the raising of their children. To men and women whom He has not called to marriage, He calls them to care for the things of the Lord—how they may please the Lord (1 Cor 7:32). In the State, Christ calls some to be magistrates and others to be citizens, each with their duties. The magistrate is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil (Rom13:4). The citizen renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, suchas  taxes, honor, obedience to lawful ordinances, and most of all, prayer. He calls all people to labor—not to specific jobs—but to enter a calling and diligently apply ourselves to the task. Then, finally, Christ calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. These vocations aren’t unimportant. They are how God provides for us and our neighbor.

But Christ doesn’t call us to these holy orders and then just leave us to ourselves. He blesses the work we do in our callings. Do you ever feel like Peter? “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing?” Of course you have. Because of the effects of sin, we don’t always see the results we expect in our marriages, our families, our church, our country, and our jobs. But this is the great comfort that comes from knowing that it is Christ who has called us into these stations: Since He has called us to them, He will fill the net when it pleases Him. He will provide, and He will do it through our labor. Because God has established our vocations and their duties in His Word, we know that the work of our callings is God-pleasing work, regardless of how mundane it may seem at times. We’re able to say with Simon Peter, “We have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.” “Because You, O Lord, have called me to this work, I will do it with all my might, with all my heart, and wait for You to bless my toil with success.”

The other thing about these stations, our vacations, is that we can never do them perfectly. Since they are all manifestations of the commandment to love our neighbor, we always fall short. Our love is far from perfect, and at times we do our duties out of sheer obligation instead of with a wiling spirit. When we see that our love falls short, that our diligence lags, and the heart just isn’t in it, Peter’s calling teaches us to confess, “Depart from me, for I am sinful man, O Lord.” Like Peter, we in no way deserve God’s blessings, for we commit sin, and we have sin in us. But Peter’s calling also teaches us that Christ is gracious and merciful, ready to forgive us as soon as well call upon Him, and ready to give us His Holy Spirit so that whatever you do in word or deed, you may do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him as Paul writes in Colossians 3:17. As Christ did not depart from penitent Peter, He will not depart from you as you live in repentance and look to Christ, trusting His mercy. The very same Simon Peter reminds us you this in 1 Peter 3:12, “For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” He has caught you in the net of His gospel and drawn you into the boat of His holy Church, so that You may be with Him and He with you, so that each day, you can get after the work of your divine callings and holy orders, knowing that your work pleases God, and that He will bless it in His time. Amen.

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

1 Peter 5.6–11 + Luke 15.1–10

The Pharisees and scribes preach a near-perfect sermon. They see tax collectors and notorious sinners coming to Jesus to hear His preaching on the kingdom of God, and they complain, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” They’re not wrong. And if they had said this in joy and thankfulness, rather than smug self-righteousness, it would have been a perfect sermon. This man welcomes sinners. He wants them to hear Him. This man eats with them, giving them His friendship. Although the Pharisees and scribes complain about this and think it’s unbecoming of a prophet, especially one claiming to be the Son of God, their words perfectly encapsulate the gospel. “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Jesus tells them three parables—we only hear the first two in today’s gospel—to show them that their words are correct, but the attitudes are all wrong. He says, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!””  Of course any of these men would go looking for a lost sheep, just as if one of their sheep had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath, they’d most certainly lay hold of it and lift it out (Matt 12:11). They can’t deny that they would do this. Sheep, after all, are valuable. But that’s where Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes part ways. The lost sheep of the house of Israel are valuable to Christ. These tax collectors and notorious sinners had gone astray from the Lord by sinning. Tax collectors lived in greed, always looking to fleece other sheep. The notorious sinners lived in sexual immorality, envy, theft, deceit, and every other sin. Christ comes to retrieve them because they are valuable to Him. And each time He finds a lost sheep through His preaching, so that they repent of their sins and believe in His mercy, He hoists them on His shoulders and carries them along, rejoicing that He has found His sheep that was lost in sin. It isn’t just Christ who rejoices. The shepherd’s friends and neighbors join it. “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”

The second parable is like the first. “What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The silver coin is a drachma, worth a denarius, a day’s wage. Again, it is something of value to anyone, especially if you only have ten coins to begin with. The coin lost, the woman lights a lamp and sweeps the entire house in search for it. Jesus’ point is the same as in the first parable. The lost coins of the house of Israel are valuable to Him. As coins bear the image of the one who minted them, so all these tax collectors and sinners bear the image of God, though darkened and corroded with sin. And as the woman rejoices when she finds that which she had lost, so Christ rejoices when even one of these sinners repents of their sins and believes in His mercy. Like the shepherd, the woman is so filled with joy that she calls her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her. The friends and neighbors—the holy angels—rejoice in heaven every time a lost sheep and lost coin is found by Christ.

Christ shows us precisely what He does in both parables. As a shepherd seeks after the one lost sheep, going through thorns and thickets and fighting wolves and whatever else endangers the sheep, Christ endures all things for the sake of those whom He seeks. He bears hardship and persecution, suffering and death. As a woman lights and lamp and sweeps house in search for the lost coin, Christ lights the lamp God’s Word by His preaching. This is what drew the crowd in Luke 15 to Him. The tax collectors and notorious sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. What did they hear from Him? “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). “Repent of the sins in which you live. Your sins anger God. They bring His wrath upon you. Stop living in greed, fornication, theft, hatred, lust, and the like, and believe the good news that God promises to have mercy upon all who repent.” Jesus did not receive sinners by sitting with them in their sins. Jesus did not eat with sinners to show them that they were fine just as they were and that they could keep on sinning. He received them, He ate with them in friendship, to call them from their sins and find them by giving them repentance and faith in God’s promised mercy. Then carried them on His shoulders—nurturing them through His word and Holy Spirit— so that they might turn away from their sins and begin to live holy lives.

There is no joy, however, over the Pharisees and scribes. They are the ninety-nine who don’t think they need repentance. They aren’t tax collectors. They aren’t public sinners whose sins are known to everyone. They live righteously. They’re outwardly pious and respectable. Internally, however, they are sick with sin, especially the sin of self-righteousness. They had puffed themselves up with pride by ignoring the sin in the hearts, imagining that if they don’t act on their sinful desires and emotions, they were still righteous in God’s sight. But as it is written in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” As Jesus says, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Mt 15:19). They ignored their hearts, especially their disdain for their fellow Israelites. They didn’t work to call their fellow Israelites from their sins. They left them in their sins and then, when Jesus comes, they try to separate Him from them. Even though they preach a near-perfect sermon about Christ— This Man receives sinners and eats with them—since they do not number themselves among the sinners who need repentance and forgiveness, they exclude themselves from Jesus’ forgiveness and heaven’s rejoicing. This is written for our warning, so that we do not become self-righteous and ever think we don’t need to live in repentance and daily receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit from Christ.

It is also written for our comfort because we are lambs of the Lord. We are the silver coins of the Savior. For though we may not be tax collectors or publicly known as sinners, though we try to live righteous lives by the power of the Holy Spirit and avoid sinning, we daily sin and fall short of the perfection—outwardly and internally—that God demands. We need repentance each day. And thanks be God, Christ forgives our sins as often as we repent them. Each time we repent and believe His gospel, heaven rejoices—and we should rejoice as well—that our Good Shepherd has laid His life down for the sheep, and that He has not extinguished the lamp of His Word, but keeps it burning bright, so that we might live in repentance and His mercy each day.

We also rejoice, for Christ picks us up and places us on His shoulders to carry us once again. He carries us by giving us His Holy Spirit, so that we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. The Pharisees and scribes excluded themselves from Christ’s mercy and the kingdom of God by exalting themselves. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we humble ourselves before God each day in repentance and confession, and also faith and thanksgiving. He carries us by giving us His Holy Spirit so that we cast all our care upon Him, trusting that He loves us and will work all things for the good of those who love Him. He carries us by giving us His Holy Spirit so that we live soberly and vigilantly. This means that we pay attention to the devil’s schemes so that we spot them more easily and resist him and his temptations by faith in God’s word. He carries us by giving us His Holy Spirit so that, even though we suffer a while, we know that God will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us, if not in this life, then in the next. He carries us, so that when we see our sinfulness, we might not despair, but rejoice in this fact: “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

1 John 3.13–18 + Luke 14.16–24

Jesus is dining at the home of a Pharisee on the Sabbath when He tells them the parable of the great supper. After healing a man and teaching the pharisees about humility, someone at the table piously says, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” To this man, the kingdom of God is a future reality which. And when the Lord ushers in the kingdom, this man expects to be welcomed in and enjoy all the blessings of God’s kingdom. The man thinks he enter God’s kingdom when the day comes, and he receives God’s call. What the man—and his fellow Pharisees—don’t see, is that the kingdom of God is already at hand. This is precisely what John the Baptist had preached. Is was the message of Jesus, and it was the message His twelve disciples were to preach when He sent them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The call is going out, even at this very Sabbath meal, yet he—and so many like him—refuse to enter to into the kingdom. To open his eyes, Jesus tells a parable.

“A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’” The certain man is God the Father. The great supper is Christ and the kingdom over which He reigns. The supper God prepares is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The supper God prepares is the bread of life, which if a man eats, he will never hunger, nor will he die eternally. The supper God prepares is living water, which if a man drink, will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (Jn 4:14). The great supper is Christ. It is the gospel, which if eaten—that is, believed—gives forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and the Holy Spirit.  This gospel is truly good news because the one invited doesn’t bring anything, for all things are now ready. Nothing is to be brought to the supper, but the invitation requires that certain things be laid down.

This is what so many refused to do. “But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’” When the kingdom of God is announced to those whom the prophets and John the Baptist had invited, all of a sudden there are more important things to attend to. While they had been anticipating eating bread in the kingdom of God, when the kingdom of God arrives and they are told to come to the feast, they excuse themselves.

There’s nothing wrong with buying a field and inspecting it. There’s nothing wrong with buying a farm implement and looking it over. Nor is there anything wrong with marriage. God has us all things graciously. He commands us to labor. St. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat,” and Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:13, “Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor — it is the gift of God.” God gives temporal blessings as well—money, wealth, possessions—which are to be enjoyed and used to serve others. God established marriage in the Garden of Eden and still brings men and women together in holy marriage. God calls marriage “honorable among all, and the bed undefiled” (Heb 13:4). God blesses marriage with the gift of children who are to be raised in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).

There is nothing wrong with the blessings God gives in this life. But there is something wrong—something terribly wrong—with using the blessings of this life in such a way that they become excuses for refusing the great supper God has prepared and offers—not in the future—but right now. We see this all around us in the world. Where is true life to be found? Many prioritize their labor, their job, their career, and the status and worldly honor it brings. Others prioritize the fruits of their labor, living for the sake of enjoying their possessions and wealth. Others prioritize relationships, misusing marriage to fulfill their lusts, or abandoning it altogether for living together without marriage, homosexual relationships, or just plain-old promiscuity. Any of the good gifts which God gives to us in this life can be turned into idols, gods from whom we seek all good things and in whom we take refuge in all distress.

The Christian is not immune from the temptation to turn God’s good gifts in idols, so that the things of this life enrapture and entrance them, so that they, too, ask to be excused from great supper of Christ until it’s more convenient for them. But Jesus reminds us in John 12:24, “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” To love your life means to prefer this life to Christ and God’s kingdom. To hate your life in this world means to prefer Christ and God’s kingdom over above life in this wretched world. Christ is our life. To live under Him in His kingdom of grace is to enter eternal life now, so what we enter into it fully whenever the Lord calls us from this life. To love life in this world more than Christ to love God’s good gifts more than Christ, even to love father or mother, son or daughter, more than Christ, is to make oneself unworthy of Christ—the great supper of forgiveness, life, and salvation God has prepared. So, the master of the house says in the parable, “None of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” They loved their lives in the world more than their true life—Christ—and forfeit the gospel and kingdom.

But the Lord wants His house to be filled. So, he tells his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” When the servant says that he’s already done this but there’s still room for more at the supper, the master says, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” These are the people who hear the invitation and rejoice that they’re invited to the great supper where all things are now ready. Those who excused themselves and refused the master’s offer wanted to treasure this world, their sin for just a bit longer, and later come to the feast. But the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, those on the highways and sleeping under hedges, are those who hear the invitation to the Great Supper, “Come, for all things are now ready,” and rejoice that nothing is to be brought to the supper. They also willingly lay down the love of this life for the sake of entering—and remaining in—the kingdom of God. This doesn’t mean they forsake their labor, their possessions, and their marriages. Those are good gifts of God. It means they repent of setting their hearts on the good gifts of this world, misusing them, and making idols out of them.

Entering into the supper—the kingdom of God in which we daily feast on Christ and His blessings by faith—then fills us with love. And our love for one another—especially the brethren, our fellow Christians—is how we know that we have passed from death to life. Having entered the great supper already by faith in Christ, and experiencing His love in the gospel, we love one another. What does love do? John says in the epistle, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

How did Christ love us? Not with words only, as if that were what love is, but in deed and truth. He sacrificed Himself for us, so we sacrifice ourselves, our time and our desires  to give to the brethren in need. If we have this world’s goods love opens our hearts to the brethren in need so that we share this world’s goods with them. Loving Christ above the things of this world—even the good gifts God gives us—enables us to use the things of this world properly, for God’s glory and the blessing of the brethren. Only by entering the great supper in which God graciously prepares all things for us, can we go forth from this place, filled with Christ—filled with Christ’s love—to enjoy this world’s goods in a godly way, with thanksgiving, and sharing them because we love the brethren. Amen.

1 John 4.16–21 + Luke 16.19–31

There is a life after this one. Heaven or hell. The bosom of Abraham—the place of comfort and rest to which the angels take Lazarus, or the torments of hell which the rich man finds himself in upon death. This life after death is attested to by Moses and the prophets. Jesus says in Luke 20[:37-38], “Even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” Moses also testifies how the life of comfort and rest is attained in the next life. He writes of Abraham in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Life, peace, rest, comfort, and joy in the life to come is only attained by faith in God’s promise. No amount of good works can attain that life. For one, we already owe them to God. Two, the prophet Isaiah reminds us that all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (64:6). God commands good works. He commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But any work or love that does not flow from faith, St. Paul calls sin (Rom 14:23). Good works only are good because they are done by the one who places their trust in God’s promise as Abraham did.

This is why the rich man Jesus tells us about had no works of love. He let Lazarus languish outside of his front gate. He could have helped him but chose to neglect the poor beggar instead. He could have had his table scraps or leftovers taken to the man, but chose not to. Why didn’t he help the beggar at his gate, the neighbor whom God had placed their to exercise him? He chose not to because he did not have true faith in his heart, and so He had no love for God in his heart. St. John reminds us in today’s epistle, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 Jn 4:20). True faith and love for God would have produced love for his neighbor and moved him to help poor Lazarus. The rich man certainly had faith, but not in God’s promise. His faith was in his riches. He had set his heart on them so that his wealth and his comfortable lifestyle had become his idol. He expected all good things in life as long as he had riches, as long as he protected his riches, and as long as he enjoyed his riches. And faith in riches cannot produce love for neighbor. Faith in riches only produces more and more love for one’s self and it’s idol. Thus, when the rich man dies, he finds himself in the torments of hell. While he was a child of Abraham by blood, He was not a true child of Abraham. During his earthly life he never repented of his false faith—loving riches and trusting in them for every good thing, and the lack of love his false faith produced.

Lazarus on the other hand, has nothing but faith. He doesn’t even have any good works of love. This is because love, even love that flows from faith, is not what justifies us before God. This is evident from the fact that that we had nothing in this life, and though he only had sickness and debilitation, when he dies, angels take him to the bosom of Abraham. And you only go to the place where Abraham is if you were righteous like Abraham was, who believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Poor Lazarus, like his father Abraham, believed God’s promises, especially the promise to send a Messiah who would make atonement for the world’s sins and justify believers. Jesus tells us that this was the faith of Abraham when He told the Jews in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Faith justified Abraham. Faith produced love in Abraham as well, so that Abraham rescued lot when he was kidnapped by the king of Sodom. Abraham’s Faith produced love by which he loved his son Isaac and—although very imperfectly—loved all of his other children after Isaac. Faith produced love in Abraham as a witness and testimony to the fact that Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him for righteousness.

This is the faith in which Lazarus lived. He had nothing in this life. Yet, he is the one escorted by angels to the bosom of Abraham when he closed his eyes in death. Lazarus would have had good works of love if he had of had health, because He loved God by faith. Even if he had the good work of praying for others—which is still well within the power of even the bedridden person—those works would still not have justified him, for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified as St. Paul writes in Galatians 2:16. Works of love follow faith as good fruit comes from a good tree.

It’s this life of faith—believing God’s promise as Abraham believed—which justifies, so that when you close your eyes for the final time and death, the angels will carry you to Abraham’s bosom, Paradise, eternal rest and true blessedness. There you will live with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all who have died in the faith but continue to live to the Lord, serving him, praising him, rejoicing in His salvation, and waiting with them. Waiting, because Abraham’s bosom is not the final promise. All who live to Christ Jesus in paradise eagerly await the resurrection of their bodies on the Last Day, when they will be made whole, with glorified bodies, to reign with the Triune God forever in the new heavens and new earth. Yesterday, angels escorted our brother Matt to Abraham’s bosom. And though we mourn, we do not mourn without hope, for we know that Matt, like Abraham, like Lazarus, like all the elect, believed God’s promise in the gospel and was counted, by God, as righteous by that faith. He, with all our loved ones who have died in the faith, are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Rev 7:15-17).

Too many imagine that, like the rich man, they can be externally of Israel and still worship their lifestyle, their wealth, and their creature comforts. Too many place their faith in the things of this world, thinking that as long as they have those things, they have everything they need. Too many view riches, popularity, worldly honors, and pleasures as signs that God counts them righteous. Yet none of these idols justify anyone before God. Nor does trusting in them produce the love for neighbor. Like the rich man, trusting in riches—or any worldly thing—only produces a sinful love of oneself. Too many will, at death, go to Hades where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where they will be in torment in that flame, having missed the time of grace during which they had the opportunity to repent of their sin and believe God’s promise as Abraham did. The rich man serves as a warning to us so that if riches, popularity, worldly honors, or pleasures increase, we do not set our hearts on them, but set our hearts on things above, where true joys are to be found. With this Christ would warn His faithful against the subtle creep of unrecognized idolatry, lest we share the rich man’s fate.

Christ would have us be Lazarus instead, so that no matter what He gives and what He takes away in this life, we trust in His mercies. Christ would have us be Lazarus so that regardless of whether we have good health or poor, riches or poverty, popularity or persecutions, we believe God as Abraham did, who did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,  and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform (Rom 4:20-21). This is the faith that justifies. This is the faith that will lead you to the bosom of Abraham on your last day, to perfect comfort, peace, and rest. And until that day, this is the faith that will lead you to love one another in a true Christian love. For we have this promise: he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 Jn 4:16). May God grant us this for Jesus’ sake. Amen. 

Romans 11.33-36 + John 3.1-15

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

“We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” This is the full revelation of who God is that we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. He taught us throughout His earthly ministry that God was His Father. He didn’t mean this in a figurative sense. God the Father truly begat a son from eternity, though in a God-befitting way, not a human men beget sons. And as human sons are of the same essence as their fathers, so God the Son is of the same essence as His Father. The Jews understood this perfectly well. In John 5:18 they wanted to murder Him because He said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” God’s eternal son took on human flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary and entered into our world as a man. The apostle John tells us, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Jn 1:18). God the Son becomes man to reveal God the Father to us, so that we might have eternal life. Jesus says while praying in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Jesus doesn’t mean He isn’t God. He says this to teach us that God the Father is His source, His begetter, and—according to His human nature—His God. 

Christ also taught us that God the Father has a Spirit, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father (Jn 15:26). In the Western church we say that the Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well, since He is called “the Spirit of Christ” in Romans 8:9 and “the Spirit of His Son” in Galatians 4:6. Like God the Son, God the Spirit is God from God. He is not a created thing. Nor is the Spirit begotten from the Father—otherwise the Spirit would also be God’s son—but proceeding from the Father. The Spirit, like the Father and Son, is a person, not an appendage of God. The Spirit creates. The Spirit helps. The Spirit comforts. The Spirit testifies of Jesus. The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God “(1 Cor 2:10). The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26). The Spirit can be grieved. He can be rejected. He can be blasphemed, too. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ, so that men believe Christ and His teaching about the Father.

We ought to never think that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is an academic abstraction. Nor should we think of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as an optional belief, as if belief in a generic “God” will do. Far from being an abstraction, far from being optional, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the saving message of the gospel. God the Father send God the Son to take up our flesh, life perfectly righteous and make perfect atonement for our sins, so that all who believe Him might have eternal life. Eternal life is knowing the true God and His Son. And such knowledge—such faith—is only created and sustained in the heart by God the Spirit. You can’t have the gospel with the Trinity because the gospel is the work—not of an abstraction or generic god— but the work of the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity: One God in three persons and three persons in One God.

And so that the revelation that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit less abstract, the Triune God concretizes this for us in baptism. He does it first at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River. When Jesus comes up from water, the heavens were opened. The Spirit descends in the form of a dove and remains on Him, while God the Father speaks from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Throughout the Old Testament there were hints that the one God consisted of three persons. God’s Word and Spirit were often personified Moses and the prophets. But God saves the full revelation of Himself as one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity for the New Testament, so that He may attach the full revelation of His identity with the gospel and baptism. So that we see the importance—the necessity—of the doctrine of the Trinity, Christ sent His apostles into the world to baptize all nations “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” so that baptisms are performed in the stead of the Triune God and we understand God to be the one doing the baptizing, and so that we know and believe we are baptized into His name and doctrine.

This is what Jesus teaches Nicodemus in today’s gospel lesson. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus understands this in the natural sense of being born a second time and inquires how a man can be born when he old? “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” But this being born again, this rebirth, is not physical. It is spiritual. One is born again of water and the Spirit Jesus says. The Spirit rebirths people through water because their first birth is a fleshly birth, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The first birth from our mother is one of flesh in which we inherit the corruption of sin from Adam and Eve, the sinful flesh which cannot fear, love, or trust in God, and which desires to sin. But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The second birth of water and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit’s work, by which He brings forth a new creation, in which the passions and desires of the sinful flesh have been crucified, and which lives in purity and righteousness before God. Only God can do this, and this precisely why Jesus calls baptism a birth of water and the Spirit. This new birth is not a new physical birth that can be seen. Like the blowing of the wind, you will only hear the sound of it as the new creature lives in righteousness and holiness.

Jesus goes on to teach us about this baptism of water and Spirit. “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Baptism originates, not with man, but with God. It comes from God, which Jesus alludes to when he says, “unless one is born again,” the word again having the nuance of “from above.” One must be born a second time “from above,” by the Spirit of Christ, the One who descended to earth in human flesh, was lifted up on the cross to atone for the sins of the world, and ascended back to the Father so that He might send His Holy Spirit. Having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we know the true God. We have eternal life, knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Having been born “from above” by the Spirit we set our minds on things above, not things of the earth. We seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God (Col 3:1-2). Since our life is from above, we daily live with that life and those things in mind.

Through the gospel and baptism, we have a fuller knowledge of Him than the saints of the Old Testament. “Many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it” (Lk 10:24). Nevertheless, we do not know God perfectly in this life. As Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Cor 13:12). The doctrine of the Holy Trinity reveals God to us as so that we may know Him and be saved, and we look forward to knowing Him as we are known. But this doctrine also reminds us that God is beyond our comprehension, and that we can only comprehend Him to the extent that He revealed in His Word. As we cannot comprehend God apart from His word, we cannot comprehend God’s works apart from His word. When We look at the world and do not see God’s hand at work and comprehend His doings as He rules over the nations, we say with the apostle, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?” “Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” We know from His word that He rules all things. We know from His word that He fills all things and puts all things under His feet. We know from His word that He works all things for the good of those who love Him. Just as His revelation of Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is for our salvation, so is what He has revealed in His word about His works, so that regardless of our comprehension, we may worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, live as those He has rebirthed from above, and leave that which we do not understand to His mercy. Amen.

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

Acts 2:1-11 + John 14:23-31

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

In Acts 1, St. Luke records that Jesus commanded His apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5). After Christ ascends, the apostles go back to the city to wait. And how did they wait? Luke writes, that the apostles all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers (Acts 1:14). This is how the Christian waits on God to fulfill His promises: prayer and supplication, that is, patiently asking for what God has promised. Being moved by the Holy Spirit, they also choose Matthias to fill the apostolic office that Judas had vacated. Matthias is one of the many that had accompanied Jesus from the baptism of John, witnessed Jesus’ resurrection by seeing Him alive, and seeing Him ascend into heaven. He is the one whom God chose to complete the apostolic number, so that as God had His twelve tribes in the Old Testament, now He once again has His twelve apostles.

These men and others are waiting for the promise of the Father, and the Father fulfills His promise on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a harvest festival for the Jews. Moses had commanded Israel to count seven weeks from the time they put the sickle to the barley (Deut 16:9). After the seven weeks are complete, they celebrated the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. This is why there were Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs in Jerusalem. These were Jews from all over the known world, come to Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest festival. And not only Jews, but proselytes, people who were not Abraham’s descendants by blood, but by faith, having converted to the religion of Abraham. It is on this day, this festival, with Jerusalem packed with people, that the Father baptizes these men with the Holy Spirit, pouring our His Spirit upon them so that they might do precisely what Jesus had said they would do: be witnesses to Christ in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

What does it look like when the Holy Spirit is poured out on them? There came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, it’s vitally important to remember that the apostles and those with them already had the Holy Spirit. They believed in Christ and confessed Christ, and Paul tells the Corinthians that no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). That these men and those with them believed in Christ for their salvation was the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. This baptism of the Holy Spirit, this outpouring, is a bit different. It isn’t a supplement, as if they had part of the Holy Spirit, but needed the rest of Him. God doesn’t give partial or incomplete gifts. No, this was a special gift of the Holy Spirit given to them specifically for this moment in time, so that they might, at the Festival of Harvest, plant the church.

They each speak in other tongues, other languages, the languages of the Jews and proselytes gathered in Jerusalem, so that they all heard—in their own native languages—the wonderful works of God. The purpose of the new tongues was that these people might hear of Christ Jesus:  His suffering, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His future return in glory to judge the quick and the dead. This is precisely what Peter preaches to them, the Holy Spirit working to cut these men to the heart, that they are the ones who, fifty-some days before, had called for the crucifixion of the Son of God. The solution? “Repent, 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 Spiri (Act 2:38).

Luke tells us that those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. About three thousand people received Peter’s word gladly. But it wasn’t Peter’s word they received. It was the Holy Spirit’s word, which was Jesus’ word, which was the Father who send Him’s word. About three thousand were baptized and received the Holy Spirit through baptism. They all received this gift. None, we are told, spoke in other languages as a result. The tongues had served their purpose. Even later in the book of Acts when the Spirit gives this special gift again, it is for the purpose of planting the church among the gentiles, and once the church was planted and the gift of the Holy Spirit given to men so that they, too, believed Christ’s word, the gift ceased. The tongues of fire, and the other tongues in their mouths, was not the point of Pentecost. The point is the Spirit, implanting Christ’s word in men’s hearts, so that they believe Christ, and believing Christ, love Christ and keep His word.

This is a far greater miracle than miraculously speaking in another language. Other languages can be learned with great effort, but no one can make themselves believe the gospel, or make someone else believe it. That is the chief miracle of Pentecost: that the Spirit creates faith in about three thousand men through the preaching of Christ’s word and baptism. The miracle is that sinners, who are by nature spiritually dead and cannot raise themselves, are raised to new life by the Holy Spirit. The miracle is that sinners, whose natural minds are enmity toward to God and cannot change their minds, are given new minds by the Holy Spirit. These, who had previously crucified Christ, now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, love Christ and His word, for Christ and His word forgives their sin and has made them new creatures. And what does Jesus say about the one who loves Him? From today’s gospel: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” As lovers of Christ, they keep His Word by believing it, treasuring it, and by avoiding everything contrary to it. As lovers of Christ and keepers of His word, they become temples of God, where God the Holy Trinity dwells in grace and mercy.

The miracle of Pentecost is one that continues to happen, even to this very day. Not the tongues. They’re unnecessary. If the Holy Spirit wanted us to have them, we would have them. No, the miracle of faith in our hearts, that the Holy Spirit implants faith in us through the preached word. The Holy Spirit works through Christ’s word to create new hearts within us, new minds, and new wills. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in baptism which gave us faith in Christ and rebirthed us as sons of God. It is the Holy Spirit’s work through Christ’s word that has preserved the faith He worked in us and strengthened it. We cannot do this of our own powers, minds, or wills. It is the Holy Spirit’s work, which He accomplishes through the word of God, that you believe Christ’s word, take Christ’s words to heart, and apply them to yourselves, because by the Holy Spirit’s work you truly love Christ.

There are many who say they love Christ, but don’t keep His words, treasure them, and avoid everything contrary to them. They imagine they can love Christ and love the world at the same time. They imagine that Christ can live in them even as they live as the unbelievers live. But Jesus says very plainly, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” The one who does not keep His word does not truly love Him. Jesus tells us this to warn us to remain in His word, keep it, and treasure it, so that we do not extinguish the fire of love which the Holy Spirit has kindled in our hearts. He tells us this to encourage us to continually hear His word, so that hearing the wonderful works of God that He has done for us in Christ, the Holy Spirit may preserve our faith in Christ and increase our love for Him. This is the miracle of Pentecost—then and now—that the Holy Spirit works through Christ’s word to make us Christians, new creatures of God who love Christ and keep His word, whose hearts are home to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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