Sermon May 26, 2024

How do you know that you are going to heaven? Isaiah had a moment of fear when he realized that he stood before Almighty God. He said; “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” He was uncertain of his place before God, and he was afraid. But when the coal touched his lips the seraph said “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Sins forgiven, Isaiah knew that he could stand before God and serve him with joy.

Last Sunday at the centennial celebration service for the OK District, LCMS President Harrison related a story; He was visiting a parishioner on his death bed, a man who was a lifelong Lutheran. He confessed to Rev. Harrison that he was not sure he was going to heaven. Rev. Harrison said that he wanted to throttle him, because the man should have been absolutely sure of his place in heaven. Hadn’t he heard what his pastor had been saying all this time? Instead of anger though, Rev. Harrison gently reminded him of Gods promises in Christ Jesus, as any pastor would in that situation.

I have encountered this in my ministry as well. And the best approach is to gently teach and strongly assure someone of God’s promises in Christ Jesus, through the use of God’s own Word. Even though we may waver in our faith at times, God is faithful and keeps his promises made in Holy Baptism.

           This type of death bed situation is a little bit like what Jesus encountered with Nicodemus. Only Jesus was not gentle with Nicodemus because Nicodemus was not on his death bed. Nicodemus was alive and well and a teacher of Israel. Nicodemus had the responsibility to study, understand, believe, and teach God’s word rightly. Jesus said; “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 

           So we see here that Nicodemus was resistant to the truth that Jesus was speaking, even though he had come to Jesus in the first place. Like Luther said; I contribute two things to my salvation, sin and resistance. It is our sinful nature to resist God’s grace in Christ Jesus. It is our sinful nature to resist Gods love and His Word. It is in our sinful nature to desire to kill the Lord of Life, as Peter convicted his hearers of in the Acts reading.

           Nicodemus had approached Jesus with a question on behalf of the other Pharisees; “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Let’s just call that a “feeler” question. Nicodemus was supposed to gather information to use to entrap Jesus, so they could arrest him and kill him. But Jesus was not having any of that. In fact, Jesus did not even answer the question directly. 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” I wonder about the look on Nicodemus’ face. Consternation, confusion?

Certainly he was caught off guard by the abrupt change of topic. Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” That seems like a logical question. How could that even work? But Jesus was leading him towards a correct understanding of how God gathers people in so that they will know for sure that heaven is theirs.

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now we know that Jesus is speaking of Baptism. But we also know that lots of people resist the correct teaching concerning baptism. In doing that, they give up the assurance God wants them to have, or they base their assurance on their own actions or commitments, which is no assurance at all.

All of our children have left and gone to other places, as I did many years ago. Even after I was married, for quite a while, when we would visit my parents in Ardmore, I said I was going home. Home was where my parents were. Now, home for our children is where my wife and I are, though that is changing as I speak. But no matter what, as time moves on, they will come to see us because they belong to us. Our family is home whenever and wherever we are together.

My great professor Peter Scaer at seminary has written, If they’re old enough to be in your family, they’re old enough to be in God’s family. I think that is a comment on the next verses of John 3. What is being said here is that infant baptism is the accepted and regular baptismal practice of the church from the mouth of Jesus himself. We all know that babies immediately and innately know and have the assurance of who they belong to. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ You did not cause yourself to be born of your mother, and you did not cause yourself to be born again in Baptism either.

Baptism imparts to you, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are taken into the Fathers family. This is where you belong, and where you are destined to be eternally. Where the Triune God is, your home is. The Holy Spirit comes to make his home within you. He does not want to leave. He wants to reside in your heart always, giving you the assurance and comfort that you can cling to on your deathbed.

           The Gospel text for today contains the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16. That’s well and good. But 3:17 nails it down in the assurance department. Are you in the world? Jesus died for you in order that you would be saved. He baptized you in order that you would have the death bed confidence, assurance and comfort that you belong with Him forevermore. Amen

The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Easter Sermon 2024

Last week we talked about how God’s outrageous plan for the salvation of mankind centered on the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s outrageous plan required the atoning death of His only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.    

God’s outrageous plan included Jesus entering Jerusalem as a conquering king. His plan also included Jesus not behaving like a conquering king. Instead, by the end of the week after Palm Sunday, he had angered the authorities so much that they intensified and finalized their plot to have him killed. He had also alienated many of his disciples, and confused the rest with the way He was speaking about his own death and resurrection. This all seemed so outrageous to them. Jesus was not acting the part of a political messiah or savior. In fact, at the time, He seemed to be more of an anti-Messiah. Still, up until his arrest most of them stood by him.

God’s outrageous plan that Jesus would die for the sins of the whole world was going to happen, no matter what. But one of the disciples, Judas, felt the need to make sure it happened. He must not have really heard what Jesus had said earlier, The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” None of Jesus’ disciples understood God’s outrageous plan, but eleven of them seemed content, or at least willing, to wait and see what would happen. Judas was not content or willing to wait and see the glory of God in the suffering and death of His Son. Judas has his own plan for Jesus. The plan of a man is never, ever better than the outrageous plan of God.

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, Jesus’ aunt, were wondering who would move the stone from Jesus’ tomb that first day of the week. They were going to anoint his body with the burial spices, probably Myrrh and frankincense. But when they arrived, the very large stone had already been rolled away from the entrance to the tomb. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 

He has risen; He is not here. We are aware that the cross is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. The cross is an outrage to human sensibilities. As some prominent atheists will say; How dare God kill his own Son, its outrageous!

He has risen; He is not here. Outrageous! Impossible! People do not rise from the dead. Except, of course, when they do. But they only rise from the dead in connection with the one man, Jesus. We think of the son of the widow at Nain, Jairus daughter, and Lazarus. Also at the moment of Jesus’ death, Matthew 27 tells us this; The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. That’s pretty outrageous.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has written eternity into the hearts of mankind. All people have some type of idea of a better place, or something beyond, or after this life. Along with eternity being written on our hearts, the desire to worship something is also written upon our hearts. The question becomes then, who, or what do you worship? Judas worshiped a plan that was against God’s plan. In a sense, Judas worshiped himself. The eleven others waited to see if Jesus was the one who deserved worship. Their waiting paid off. Jesus rose from the dead.

We know that the wages of sin is death. Death is the curse upon all sinful mankind. No one escapes death. Death, being the end of life, tends to cause us to reflect more deeply, especially, perhaps over one’s own death. This reflection may bring about a deeper appreciation for the life that we have right now, even though we know that it will end.

The fact that eternity is written on our hearts causes us to look outside of ourselves for the mechanism of eternal life. In looking for that mechanism, some will get all the way up to Jesus, and stop there and say, No, that cant be it, or No, I don’t want that to be it. And they end up worshiping something or someone other than God’s Son. St. Paul tells is right: 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 

Do you long for eternity, your heavenly home? Baptized, you died with him and rose again already. You are already a citizen of eternity, one foot here, one foot there. Jesus is your risen Savior.

   The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

Sermon Palm/Passion March 24, 2024 John 12:20-43

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, the Father spoke from above three times. He did at  Matthew 3, at Jesus Baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 17, the Transfiguration, where “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” And, in our text for today, John 12. Jesus had said, “27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” And then, Jesus prayed. “28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

The people standing around thought it thundered or that angels had spoken. But no, it was the Father's third and final spoken word concerning his only-begotten Son. But Jesus explained it for them when he said, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

In the four Gospels, Jesus has a lot to say. But the Father only Poke those three times. The first two times, the Fathers words serve to give us the identity of Jesus. The second time, “Listen to Him,” is added. But Jesus is not just God's spokesman, or a new prophet. In fact “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” as we read in Colossians 1. He is True God, and True Man.

The hour that Jesus has come to is the hour when he will be “delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.” All of Jesus predictions of his death (and resurrection) were about to come true.

I don’t know if any of you ever watched The A-Team. The show was about some mismatched military misfits who were always just a step ahead of the Military Police. They traveled around in B.A.'s hot rod Chevy Van and cooked up outrageous plans to right the wrongs of evil crooks. At the end of most episodes, Hannibal Smith, the leader, would usually light up a cigar and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

As of the time of our text, all of the pieces of God's outrageous plan were about to come together into a whole. It was Monday of Holy week. The plan all along was the cross, the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God for the forgiveness of sins. The one who would shed his own blood and crush the Serpent's head was at hand. This plan had been spoken of from Adam through Noah, to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Ruth, Esther, and so forth. Zechariah the prophet spoke of the Triumphal Entry, “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So, it's true that “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets. But now in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son.”

Jesus described what would happen as the plan was coming together, “Now is the judgment of this world.” Jesus and his cross would be a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles. But it is the wisdom of God. The world is judged by the cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus is the one way that people can be saved. God has a plan and the cross is it. This is why the cross is so offensive, and controversial to many. God set the standard for behavior with the Commandments. We are accountable to that standard, but we can never can live up to that standard.

Jesus did not just go to the cross for our “mistakes.” Jesus also did not go to the cross in order to “help” us to fix ourselves. We were beyond our own repair, dead in trespasses and sins. The plan of God to give his only Son into death for sinful people came together in order to cure the sin and death that reigns within us. Jesus went to the cross to defeat the ruler of this world, Satan, the father of lies, by dying and rising. “Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.”

Because Jesus had to die for us, it means that we are hopelessly sinful. Right there, at the cross, we need to see every sin of thought, word, and deed that we have committed laid upon Jesus. We also need to see our innate corruption, our perverseness, there also, laid upon Jesus. Your sin is atoned for, forgotten by God for the sake of Jesus.

The cross is God's way of glory. At the end of the Gospel reading is a strange and strong warning, “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” The cross of Jesus and the truth of God's Word divided people then as it does today.

The cross is still controversial today, and is being removed from many public places, as is God's Word, the Bible. However, the Lord has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Which means that the cross has always been and will always be the focus and the draw of all of history, until God the Father himself draws history to a close with the return of Jesus. For we who believe and trust in Jesus, the cross is a grand and great promise. Jesus told Nicodemus about this promise in John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Those are pretty compelling words, because Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that eternity is written on our hearts. The Word tells us that eternity is gained through the cross of Jesus only.

And here, only a few days from the cross, Jesus repeated himself to his disciples and the Greek visitors, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” We've all drawn something towards ourselves. It might be a fishing lure, or a life ring at the lake or pool, or a boat on it's bowline. This is exactly what Jesus means. He is drawing people to himself. The definition in the Greek lexicon makes this observation for the definition of to draw; The object being moved is incapable of propelling itself, or in the case of a person is unwilling to do so voluntarily. The exertion is on the part of the mover. Now isn't that interesting.

God has saved you from sin, death, Satan, and yourself, by Himself, through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He has drawn you to the Jesus, who was lifted up for you, for your own eternal good. You know where you are going. God's plan for you has come together, and don't you love it? Amen.

The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

Sermon Lent 5B March 17, 2024 Mark 10:42-45

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

James and John, two brothers, Jesus’ disciples, wanted to be great. They asked Jesus if they could be first in honor when Jesus came into his glory. Gutsy. We might think of people who attach themselves to certain politicians so they can receive favors after the election. They wanted to get ahead of the others, and have Jesus agree to make them his closest assistants when he took over. They must have planned this for a while, because we read in Mark chapter 9 that they were arguing about which of them was the greatest, but were afraid to tell him.

Nothing has changed. That's our human condition, wanting to be first in line all the time to get the good job, or the promotion, or the best house or car.

Jesus does tell us at John 14:14, "Whatever you ask for in my name, I will do it." However, remember that what we really ask when we pray is that His will be done over our will. If it weren't that way Jesus would be a kind of Genie who gives us three wishes before he disappears, and we'd be all the greedier and more selfish than we are now.

We can learn a lot from this conversation. One is we don't always know what we are asking for. Think about the criminals who were crucified next to Jesus. After all, that’s where Jesus was glorified. God's glory was to die on the cross to win salvation for the world. Did James and John want to be in the place of those criminals? They would have been if Jesus would have given them what they asked for.

Have you prayed and asked for something, and didn't get it? Then you found out later that it was a real blessing that God didn't answer your prayer in the way you wanted? An unanswered prayer probably means that God said no, or wait. There's always an answer, but it may not be the one you expected, or may have wanted. But it is still for your good.

It's good because the Lord knows what’s coming in our lives and sees what we really need. You may think you want that promotion and deserve it, but who knows if you're ready to face the unseen difficulties that go along with it. Content yourself with what is and wait. God will provide. 

Another thing we learn from this conversation is that for the Christian, having power means to submit to being a servant. To serve Jesus is to be a servant to other people. Jesus taught his disciples not to "Lord it over one another." God does not put us in positions over others so that we feel important. He does it so we can help and care for other people. This is what Jesus himself taught us. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient, even to death, to help us with our greatest need.

James and John were not ready for responsibility, because they were being selfish. They wanted power to benefit themselves. They would never be good servants if they only want a comfy position in the coming kingdom. Later, they would serve Jesus unselfishly, even to the point of giving their lives for him, but at this point they need more training.

We're in training too. God wants us see how we can serve him. God has elevated believers to a high status. 1 Peter 1:9 says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into His wonderful light."  That means as a believer you have a priestly status. You have two jobs. One is to pray. On the cross Jesus cleansed us of our sins so that we can pray for ourselves and others. We pray to God, giving thanks for all He has done, and we pray for others, and their needs. The other priestly activity is sacrificing. This is what James and John are missing. They were not ready to sacrifice.

Jesus wanted to know of James and John, "Can you drink the cup that I drink?" In the Old Testament to drink a cup meant to share in someone's fate. Usually, it was to receive punishment from God for the wrongs you did. 

Jesus drank the cup of God's judgment against sins that others committed, not him. The disciples weren't ready to sacrifice in that way. They could not. He also asked if they were ready to be baptized with the baptism he was to be baptized with. What he means is that the suffering he is about to undergo at the hands of the people in Jerusalem is like a baptism.

Certainly, all the disciples had been baptized by this time. But the suffering they would face for being a believer would come later in their lives.

We never know where this life will lead us. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you will be led to service and sacrifice. We may receive some recognition from others, but we should not seek it. Rather, the words of Jesus ring in our ears, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all."

You can't deny that the world needs people doing good deeds for each other every day. And remember these words from 1 John 4:19; “We love because he first loved us.'

True greatness does not come from sinful people. It does not come from human works of love. True greatness comes only from God. You have been baptized, declared righteous, for the sake of Christ. It is a gift. The Spirit compels you to give an answer for the hope that is within you. You bear the same message as the Apostles did, the resurrection of God’s Son Jesus from the dead, and forgiveness in his name. You humbly serve others, laying down your lives as living sacrifices for the sake of Christ. Led by the Holy Spirit, you look beyond this present life of persecution, and instead look to the glory of the world to come, when you shall, with all the Saints, sing for the praise of God who became a slave in human flesh. To Him alone be all glory forever, with the Father and the Spirit.  Amen.

The peace that surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen,