Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - God Is the Key to True Enjoyment
- Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 31, 2022
Hymns 912, 820, 807, 930
First Lesson Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14; 2:18-26
Psalm 90
Second Lesson Colossians 3:1-11
Gospel Lesson Luke 12:13-21
Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14; 2:18-26
God Is the Key to True Enjoyment
I. He provides satisfaction in our work
II. He promises salvation for our life
In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, our sure hope for heaven and our greatest reason for living, fellow redeemed,
This book of the Bible doesn’t get a lot of attention. The part of it many people know is the verses quoted in a song from the 60s. But there’s more to what King Solomon wrote in this book than “A time to give birth and a time to die…a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:2,4), and so on.
Some people dismiss passages like “Nothing but vapor…Totally vapor. Everything is just vapor that vanishes” (v. 2) as the depressed ramblings of a pessimist. But, like all the Bible, these are spiritual lessons from God Himself in His Word!
And who of us hasn’t felt this way? This life is pointless! Workers back from vacation, adults scrambling in life’s busy cycle, students groaning about going back to school in one month wonder, “What’s the point?” No secular psychologist has the answer. But the Holy Spirit had Solomon, the wisest and richest man in the world in his day, write these words as king of Israel for all people of all time. God taught Solomon, the hard way, and He teaches us for good times and tough times that God is the key to true enjoyment. How? He provides satisfaction in our work, and He promises salvation for our life.
I. He provides satisfaction in our work
Most translations have meaningless. The precise definition for the word used seventeen times in the first four chapters of Ecclesiastes is “vapor”, something here one moment, gone the next. Life here is fleeting and unstable. Life can seem frustrating, without purpose, empty. It’s a good word: “vapor”. Beneath the hustle and bustle of life, behind the tinsel and glitter of good times, lurks a depressing sense of emptiness.
That isn’t how God intended life to be. In Eden, before our first parents fell into sin, there was none of that. But part of God’s judgment on sin is that “creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the One who subjected it” (Romans 8:20), that is, God Himself.
That’s ancient history, isn’t it? Things are better now, aren’t they? There have been great advances in technology since Adam and Eve. We use computers more than paper at work, cars more than feet to get around, efficient gas furnaces more than smoky wood fires to heat homes. But where have those advances gotten us? Nowhere with God!
We have a far more varied and comfortable life than Solomon could have ever imagined. Yet we nod in agreement with the king’s commentary, “I hated all the results of my hard work, for which I worked so hard under the sun, since I must leave it all to the man who comes after me. And who knows – will he be wise, or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the results of my hard work, for which I worked so hard and so wisely, under the sun” (vv. 18-19).
God had blessed Solomon richly. “God gave Solomon wisdom …greater than all the wisdom of the men of the East and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt…From all the people and from all the kings of the earth…people came to listen to his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:30,34). God also blessed Solomon with vast wealth. “The king made silver and gold as plentiful as ordinary stones” (2 Chronicles 1:15). But what good did that do him beyond this life? Even before Solomon, Moses drew the same conclusion. “The days of our lives add up to seventy years, or eighty years if we are strong. Yet the best of them are trouble and sorrow, for they disappear quickly (a vapor, right?), and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).
Trying to figure out how to get ahead, how to wring more value out of life, how to keep good times going makes our heads spin, our minds race, our stomachs churn. I can’t control the future! “This too is vapor. It’s so unfair” (v. 23)! What is the meaning of life? There has to be more than seeing how much money we can make, because we can’t take money with us. There has to be more than being well-known or well-liked, because we can’t control what others think of us.
The key is God! He reveals that here. “For there is nothing better for a man than to eat and to drink and to find joy in his work. This too, I saw, is from God’s hand” (v. 24). The bumper sticker is wrong. The one with the most toys does not win. Life isn’t about living for ourselves. God is the key to true enjoyment.
He provides us with satisfaction in our work. All lasting enjoyment comes from Him “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Why? It’s because of what He has done for us! Who owns everything we have? Not we who work hard for it, but He who gives us the ability to work! Even life itself is a gift from His gracious hand. So who has the right to say, “This is your purpose on earth! This is how you are to use what I have given you?” God! He is the key to true enjoyment.
The faithful factory worker and industrious farmer, the successful corporate executive and devoted stay-at-home mom, the retired adult and the high school student all find meaning for life when they look to Him who gives life and blessings – and who has removed sin’s curse! That is the greatest satisfaction in this life! True enjoyment is “from God’s hand” (v. 24).
II. He promises salvation for our life
For centuries philosophers have sat and thought and sat and thought and sat and thought still more about the meaning and purpose of life. But centuries of sitting and thinking have led to no definite answers to the key questions, “Why am I here? And where am I going?” It can’t be to get ahead in life because in many ways we take one step forward, then one step back. And even if we were to make it to the top of our profession, where would that get us? We can’t take it with us when we die. God says, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). Death is the great equalizer. Everyone dies.
So, what’s the point? Listen to the Lord! He is the key to true enjoyment! He doesn’t just give us reason to live here. He also gives us purpose as He promises salvation for life hereafter.
Some suppose this life is all there is. But that gives them nothing to anticipate after life in this world of sorrows. There’s no true enjoyment in that world view. There are those who know there’s a life after this one, so they try to earn heaven by impressing the Lord and wondering where they stand with Him. There’s no true enjoyment in that religious view. We know life lasts beyond the grave and know we sinners can’t do a thing to get to heaven. True enjoyment is knowing God has taken care of all we need for our salvation.
That’s only happens for sinners by the work of God’s Son, Jesus, a descendant of King Solomon. His death for us is the full payment of what we owe God: hell for every sin. His promise of life forever is more than a wish. It is the reality in which we live, connected to Him through faith. And His rising from His grave proves all this is most certainly true! He is the key to true enjoyment. He promises salvation for our life.
The Jesus who died for sinners invites sinners, “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The goal of life isn’t grabbing as many dollars and acres as we can. That doesn’t give us “rest” at night – or eternally – from the guilt of our sins. The goal of life is getting sweet “rest” and relief from our sins and guilt by the blood of the Lamb, and looking forward to joy in the presence and palace of God forever. God is the key to true enjoyment! He promises salvation to all who trust His work to save them.
Without God’s promise of heaven, life on earth is “vapor. Totally vapor. Everything is just vapor that vanishes” (v. 2) and is empty. “Apart from Him who can eat or enjoy himself” (v. 25)? But with God’s undeserved gift of salvation for us in Jesus, connected to and given “rest” by our Savior, we find meaning and enjoyment – even when enduring life’s troubles.
Job. Family responsibilities. Studies. Boring sameness? Dreary chores? Endless work? Yes, when done just to bring home a check, just to keep the house humming, just to pass classes. But when God’s people go through their work days, home routines, class assignments trusting what God has done to rescue sinners from hell forever, then ten hours in an office, all day and night changing diapers, all evening doing homework is full of meaning and fulfillment in Christ.
That applies to our service as members of God’s Church, too. Cleaning the church and doing Altar Guild work, teaching Vacation Bible School and Sunday School and daily driving children to and from our school, attending meetings and greeting worshipers isn’t the way we’d choose to spend what little free time we have if it were all about us. But it isn’t all about us. It’s all about what Jesus has already done for us. With His undeserved and blood-bought forgiveness filling our heart, we find enjoyment in all we do in His kingdom work, too.
Even with God at the center of our life, not everything in life will make us smile. Rainy days on vacation or unexpected car repairs, saying goodbye to loved ones as they leave home or depart for heaven, a job loss or family friction – all of that and more in life is disappointing or sad or crushing. But God is the key to keeping any of that from overwhelming us. He provides satisfaction in our work done to honor Him and to help others. He gives us salvation in Christ for life after this life. With that in front of us, the lows in life aren’t so devastating, the setbacks don’t lead us to seek solace in substances, the frustrations don’t make us frantic. God is the key to true enjoyment!
Imagine thinking you’re only living to work, spend money, and then die – like the guy in today’s Gospel Lesson. How pathetic! Jesus our Savior knew His purpose – then completed it perfectly for us. In Him we have the meaning of life – His and ours! Our attitude in life and among others this week and for the rest of our lives will give evidence that our life is centered in the cross of Christ. He is the key to true enjoyment! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Sixth Sunday of Pentecost - Which Service Do We Need?
- Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 17, 2022
Hymns 913, 645, 633, 893:1,9,3-4
First Lesson Genesis 18:1-14
Psalm 119B
Second Lesson Colossians 1:1-14
Gospel Lesson Luke 10:38-42
Luke 10:38-42
Which Service Do We Need?
I. Our service to Jesus is important
II. Jesus’ service for us is essential
In the name of Jesus, the only Savior for every sinner,
Morning medications or other issues make it difficult for some of you to attend the 9:00 service summer Sunday mornings. So I’m sorry my absence wiped out the Thursday evening summer service last week. But our purpose in these minutes isn’t to discuss times for worship, but to learn about service.
We call worship a service, right? Well, that leads to a question we don’t often consider – and when we do, we often answer incorrectly. The question? In worship, who is serving whom? It’s easy to focus on what we do in worship. “I set aside time to come to church. I sing praise to God. I bring God my thankoffering. I am serving God!” That’s true. But through the center of truly Christian worship, the Word and sacraments, God serves us. Through His Word and sacraments, God delivers every spiritual gift He wants us to receive.
Our service to God is good. His service for us is perfect. God loves our service to Him. But we desperately need His service for us. In fact, receiving His service for us is really the highest form of our worship, as one of our Lutheran confessions explains. “God wants to be worshipped through faith so that we receive from Him those things He promises and offers.”
We learn from our Savior’s words here how He wants us to answer the question, Which service do we need? The answer in summer isn’t, “7 PM” or “9 AM”, nor is it the rest of the year “8:00” or “10:30.” Which service, sinners, do we need? Our service to Jesus is important. Jesus’ service for us is essential.
I. Our service to Jesus is important
Remember the background of these middle chapters in Luke’s Gospel? “Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Passover was coming up. The disciples might have thought, “Sure, He’s leading us to Jerusalem for the festival.” But Jesus was going to Jerusalem to fulfill the Passover, to suffer hell and die, to use His blood so that the curse of hell we deserve would pass over us. We don’t know how close this was to Passover that year and the first Holy Week. But He knew where He was headed: to Jerusalem, to the cross.
When Jesus came to the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem, just over the Mount of Olives (roughly the distance from here to Meech Road), He was likely taking those three siblings up on an open invitation. “Lord, whenever You are in Jerusalem, You are welcome to stay with us!” Martha “welcomed Him into her home” (v. 38).
Keep that in mind as we work through this lesson. It wasn’t that Mary loved Jesus, but Martha didn’t. Do you recall what Martha said when Jesus came to that same home on another occasion, a less happy time, at the death of their brother Lazarus? Martha confessed to Jesus, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (John 1:27). This day, Martha was doing her best to make Jesus comfortable, to prepare a meal fit for the King of kings! Martha’s service was wonderful service to the Savior. Martha loved Jesus dearly because she trusted Jesus deeply as the One to come for her salvation – and the world’s. In that sense, Martha’s service to Jesus was important for her and for Him.
Our service to Jesus is important, too. It isn’t wrong to do things for the Savior – using our worship, our time, our money, our abilities as we do so. And we will use all that not caring one bit if no one but Jesus knows about our service to Him. Of course, in here for worship services, others will see our service to God. Our love for Jesus, like Martha’s love for Jesus, leads us to want to serve Jesus.
Our service to Jesus makes us feel good. We give Him the best of our worship, not a mere appearance in God’s house during which we’re thinking about other things. We give Him the best of our time as we attend worship each week, not worship only when there’s nothing else on our Sunday schedule. We give Him a fair percentage of our income, not the four dollars left on Sunday after Friday night and Saturday spending. We give Him our faithful abilities, not a few minutes every so often. We give God our lives, not just our words. And our service to God is important!
II. Jesus’ service for us is essential
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed. A mealtime prayer, right? And a wonderful one! It’s important that God gives us food to eat. It’s important we acknowledge that our food comes from God. But it’s essential that the Lord Jesus come to us with more than food.
There were two meals being served at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus that evening. One was important for the body – the meal Martha worked hard for hours to prepare. One was essential for the soul – the meal Jesus served to Mary, and wanted to serve to Martha, and Lazarus, too, if he was around. Which service do we need? It’s not an evening or morning, early morning or late morning worship service. Jesus’ service for us is essential.
You know well the Bible verse. The Bible verse proves this lesson isn’t just about making the right choice, like Mary did. This lesson is another lesson about what Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem to do: save sinners. The verse? “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His live as a ransom for” (Mark 10:45) the world. Did you hear Jesus say it? He came not to be served, but “to serve” sinners!
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were lost and condemned sinners. Martha showed it by daring to scold the Savior. “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me” (v. 40). Really, Martha? Telling Jesus what to do?!
Mary hung on the Savior’s every word because she knew and trusted Jesus had come to rescue her from what her sins deserved. It wasn’t that Mary lazily let her sister take care of all the work in the kitchen while she sat at the feet of Jesus doing nothing but listen to Jesus talk. It was that Mary wanted to hear what the Word made flesh Himself – at their own home! – had to say about His coming payment for her damning guilt.
Though Lazarus isn’t mentioned in these verses, he, too, needed to be served by the Savior, rescued from hell by his Redeemer. Lazarus died twice. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life when Lazarus had died the first time. But Lazarus didn’t stop sinning. He died again, still sinning and gasping for his spiritual life amid the suffocating smog of his guilt.
Those three siblings needed Jesus “to serve” them. And He did. That’s why He said to Martha, “One thing is needed. In fact, Mary has chosen that better part, which will not be taken away from her” (v. 42).
We are no different than Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. We, too, need Jesus “to serve” us. We confessed that earlier. And even if you were just saying the words, but not really saying them from your heart, it’s still true you are sinful by nature, have not loved God with your whole heart or others as you should, do deserve God’s punishment now and forever. The surveillance footage God has of our actions, even our words and thoughts, from this past week is damning evidence of the damned eternity we ought to endure. We need the only One who came to rescue us and all sinners “to serve” us.
But how does what the Savior did two thousand years ago and so far from here enter our hearts, cleanse us, “serve” us, save us? Through His Gospel! That’s not just His words – as though Jesus pleads, “Come on, people! I need you to listen to Me!” His Gospel is His power by which He serves and saves sinners, the “one thing” we sinners need. Yes, the Gospel is what He says about what He has done. But His Gospel is also who Jesus is, something we’d never know had He not told us in His Word that He is true God from forever and true man since He was conceived in Mary’s womb. And His Gospel is His life and death, His keeping all His own commandments for us and His taking our guilt on His holy soul as our serving Substitute.
So, the “one thing” isn’t really a thing in the sense that we can develop it inside ourselves with a disciplined life or purchase it for ourselves at some spiritual specialty store. Even more committed to serve than Martha that evening, Jesus was committed to do all that was needed to serve us, to save us, to redeem us by paying the price necessary to remove the choking grip of our guilt from us. He gives that to us in His Word and His sacraments. The infant at the font receives faith to trust her Savior two years before she can say His name or sing His praise. The elderly believer at the Supper receives Christ’s body and blood to assure him he is forgiven. The Savior serves every sinner ever in His Gospel, giving us what we need to be His children, to be forgiven, and be with Him in glory forever.
There is, therefore, only one thing” that our congregation needs. We exist, only by God’s gracious blessing, as His Church to which, and through which, He comes with His good news “which will not be taken away from” us as we trust Him.
Standing in His house and talking to God in our worship? That, among many other things we do each week, is our service to God. This is our worship service. Our service to God is important. But our doing worship doesn’t save us. What saves us is what we receive in worship here – and in our school and at home: the Word by which the Savior gives Himself to us. The service that is essential is our Savior’s service for us. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Third Sunday after Pentecost - The Focused Savior Has Focused Followers
- Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 26, 2022
Hymns 711, 695, 932
First Lesson 1 Kings 19:19-21
Psalm 62
Second Lesson 2 Corinthians 11:21b-30
Gospel Lesson Luke 9:51-62
Luke 9:51-62
The Focused Savior Has Focused Followers
I. Our profession despised by the world
II. Our priorities directed by the Lord
III. Our purpose distracted by nothing
In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow redeemed,
“Focus!”, Mom tells kids who were asked to set the table, but are messing up because they’re watching a video on a tablet as they do so. “Focus!”, teachers tell students on a warm spring day as thoughts of fun outside override their attention to math inside. “Focus!”, the family says to Dad who is trying to find music he likes while driving on an unfamiliar road.
“Focus!” is something no one ever had to say to our Savior. “When the days were approaching for Him to be taken up, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem” (v. 51). The cross outside Jerusalem had ever been the Savior’s focus. He knew it when Mary and Joseph took Him to Jerusalem as an infant. He knew it when Mary and Joseph found Him in Jerusalem as a twelve-year old. And now, as the time for winning salvation drew near, though Jesus knew all the suffering that lay ahead, His commitment, His resolve, His focus did not waver one bit.
His words to the crowds and His disciples then are just as true for the world and His disciples now. “As this earth was not My real home, so it isn’t your real home. Stay focused on your real home, heaven, and your ultimate identity, My disciples!” Jesus was focused on His ultimate destination. He wants followers who are just as focused on that in life here. The focused Savior wants focused followers. We need to know that as our profession is despised by the world, our priorities are directed by the Lord, and our purpose is distracted … by nothing.
I. Our profession despised by the world
Jesus had said frequently for more than two years that people would reject Him and His followers. His followers were about to experience that. Jesus and other Jews from Galilee were traveling to Jerusalem for a religious festival. The one hundred mile trip took several days on foot. With no hotels along the way, travelers spent nights on the ground inside city gates.
The most direct route went through the land of the “Samaritans” (v. 52). The Samaritans were part Jews, part Gentiles – descendants of Israelites who had intermarried with Assyrians. The Samaritans kept some Old Testament teachings, but also added some different beliefs for a hybrid religion. The Jews considered themselves genetically, and spiritually!, superior to the Samaritans. The Samaritans resented the Jews.
Was it any surprise then the “Samaritan village” (v. 51) where Jesus stopped “did not welcome Him” (v. 53)? Those traveling with Jesus felt firsthand the world’s rejection of the Savior. It wasn’t just that He and His followers were despised Jews. It was also that Jesus was going to worship at the temple in Jerusalem, the place God designed to point to the Savior, rather than worship at the place of worship the Samaritans selected.
Why did James and John react as they did to the Samaritans snubbing Jesus? They recalled how Old Testament prophet Elijah once asked God to send fire from heaven to consume the soldiers of wicked King Ahaziah – and God sent it! So these New Testament disciples assumed the rude Samaritans deserved the same flaming fate from the same Almighty God.
But Jesus “rebuked” (v. 55) His disciples. Elijah acted against a king who had hardened his heart against God despite many warnings from God’s prophets. Jesus entered this village not just to get some rest, but also to provide rest – the spiritual rest of His forgiveness to Samaritans who didn’t hear that message often. The focused Savior said, “The Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s souls, but to save them” (v. 56).
The focused Savior wants focused followers who know that our profession – not our job, but our beliefs – will still be despised by the world. The apostles were attacked for calling Jesus the Son of God, and we are considered close-minded for professing Him to be the only Savior for sinners. The Samaritans supposed Galilean Jews were snobs for traveling many miles south to worship when they could have stayed closer to home to worship with Samaritans, and the world is convinced we are worse than rude for not worshiping with or inviting to the Lord’s Supper those with a different profession than ours.
Does the world despising our beliefs result in us losing focus on following the focused Savior? Not when we remember our beliefs are given us by God in His Word. When our beliefs are assailed, the attack isn’t against us, but against God. He never loses focus on His work. We are ever focused on His Word and are willing to be despised, even attacked, for it.
II. Our priorities directed by the Lord
Some say Christians are religious robots who blindly follow God’s demands because we’re brainwashed and can’t think for ourselves. The truth is we are soul-washed by Christ’s blood and willingly live for Him daily. What many consider our foolish following of the Savior is really the focused Savior leading His focused followers. Our priorities are directed by Him.
Jesus drove that point home by His answer to a man’s request, then by the Savior’s invitation to another man. A member of the traveling party boldly vowed, “I will follow You wherever You go (v. 57), Lord!” The focused Savior warned, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head” (v. 58). Jesus didn’t turn the man away, but didn’t say, “Great!”, either. We don’t follow Jesus for an easy life here, but follow His priorities in everything.
The next conversation, Jesus initiated. “He said to another man, ‘Follow Me’” (v. 59). But this guy asked to be excused from following the Savior for a bit, and for such a good reason. “Lord, first let me go and bury my father” (v. 59). Christ’s reply seems cruel. “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God” (v. 60). Jesus can read every heart. Had the man’s dad already died, the man would have been at home for the funeral, not heading to Jerusalem. And it sounds like the man’s dad was dying as an unbeliever, spiritually “dead”. So the focused Savior was directing him and us, too, to His priorities: making sure we and others stay focused on being God’s children now and ever.
This lesson leaves us hanging a bit. We’re not told what either an did, are we?. Maybe that’s the Spirit’s way to get us to hit the pause button of our busy lives to consider how we react to the same direction by the focused Savior for our priorities.
God’s Son came in the flesh at Christmas to die on Good Friday and rise Easter morning. All that was to destroy the devil’s grip on us and rescue us sinners from deserved damnation. During His earthly ministry the One who made the entire universe had no place of His own to call home. Focused followers of the focused Savior are ready to give up worldly security and daily comforts, if need be. God commands us to respect, love, and honor our parents, even in their old age. God’s answer to the man who talked about burying his dad can’t contradict God’s command, “Honor your father and mother.” The focused Savior tells us focused followers, “Set your priorities in line with what I direct for you and for all!”
Don’t look for writing in the sky or listen for whispers in your bedroom from God. He directs our priorities here. Here He tells us He suffered to remove the guilt of every sinner. Moved by His sacrificial love for us, we let Him direct our priorities.
The focused Savior tells us our spending and giving, our work and play, our conversations and recreation, our chores and choices flow from love for Him. When the Lord who gave Himself for us sets our priorities, we rejoice to “follow” (v. 59) Him!
III. Our purpose distracted by nothing
The end of this lesson is also awful for our selfish sinful nature to swallow. But when we understand what the focused Savior meant, our new person of faith follows. Focused followers of the focused Savior have their purpose distracted by nothing.
Still on the way to Jerusalem, “another man said, ‘I will follow You, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those at my home” (v. 61). A very reasonable request, right? And in today’s First Lesson didn’t Elijah allow Elisha to do exactly that before Elisha because a fulltime prophet of the Lord? He did! Why wouldn’t the Savior let this man do the same?
Jesus was not saying the man could not bid farewell to his loved ones first. Jesus was able to read this man’s heart, too. He saw some distractions lurking inside. Jesus spoke as He did to warn this man. “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62).
Even those of us who’ll never touch a single-bottom plow or hitch a forty-foot plow to a tractor get the point. Christ wants His followers distracted by nothing! Kids, how accurately do you draw a straight line if you look up from the paper? Cooks, how tasty would a meal be if you looked over your shoulder as you poured salt from the spout? How good would the lawn look if we constantly glanced behind us while mowing?
The most important mission in the world is working “for the kingdom of God” (v. 62). The tool God gives us to use is the good news about the Savior, who was never distracted on His mission to save the world full of sinners. Those who serve in God’s kingdom, and that’s all of us believers, dare not be distracted. If we think, “I’ll take care of some business today, look after personal affairs tomorrow, then see about God’s kingdom work come fall!”, it might be too late then for a lost soul God sends our way and gives us opportunities to serve now.
Laypeople, you, too, serve in “the kingdom of God”. If you follow the Savior, you serve in His kingdom. There’s no such thing as a Christian life without Christian serving with the Christian message. Let nothing distract you from that as you do what you can in various ways here, at home, and everywhere with the goal of helping to proclaim the message of life in Christ.
Our salvation depended on the Savior staying focused on His work to rescue us. He never once wavered! He “was determined to go to Jerusalem”. The focused Savior wants His followers focused, too – always focused on His goal, His Word, His work! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Second Sunday after Pentecost - The Truth Has Given Us His Testimony
- Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 19, 2022
Hymns 871, 770, 573, 931
First Lesson Isaiah 43:8-13
Psalm 66
Second Lesson 2 Timothy 1:3-10
Gospel Lesson John 16:12-15
2 Timothy 1:3-10
The Truth Has Given Us His Testimony
I. He feeds our faith with it
II. He tells us to hold to it
In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, fellow sinners whom He bought with His blood in the greatest work ever,
With His disciples in the upper room the night before He died, Jesus told them, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Early the next morning, before He was crucified, Jesus told Pilate, “For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). Then why has Jesus left this world? If He is the Truth and came to testify to the Truth, what is the world going to do since the Truth isn’t here, but in heaven?
A faith-building fact about our lives on earth as God’s people is that Jesus’ words have Jesus’ power even when those words don’t physically come from Jesus’ mouth. Jesus puts His words on our lips. Jesus testifies to others about who He is and what He has done for the world through His people. That was true of Paul. That was true of Timothy, the first one to read this letter. That is true of us. The Truth has given us His testimony. What do we do with it? Shrug off His testimony? No! He feeds our faith with it! Look for some other testimony when it becomes clear people don’t like it? No! He tells us to hold to it!
I. He feeds our faith with it
Second Timothy was likely the last letter Paul wrote. He was in a Roman jail cell with little hope he’d ever be freed. At the end of this letter Paul wrote, “The time for my departure has come” (2 Timothy 4:6). Parts of this lesson and of the rest of this letter are what you would expect from a person in Paul’s situation. Paul dearly missed many, including the young man Timothy whom the veteran missionary had trained for the pastoral ministry. If they didn’t see each other again on earth, this letter would be a farewell to a dear friend and cherished co-worker. But the letter doesn’t drip with tear-jerking emotion. It’s packed with faith-building advice. That makes this letter such a treasure – not just for Timothy, but also for us.
If we were in prison because what God called us to do – preach Christ crucified – the government decided was illegal, we’d likely complain to God, It’s not fair! Paul didn’t. He gave thanks to God that God had led Paul to trust, worship, and “serve” (v. 3) the same God Paul’s Jewish “ancestors” (v. 3) had trusted, worshiped, and served – ancestors Moses, Samuel, David, Josiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and others. Paul thanked God that God had given Timothy, too, “the sincere faith” which God had used Timothy’s grandmother and mother to plant in him. We read later in the letter that “from infancy Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (3:15).
Do you hear it? The Truth gives us “the testimony” (v. 8) about what He did to save the world as His way to bring sinners to faith in Him. His same “testimony” is what God uses to keep the fire of faith alive in sinners who are damned without being connected to the Savior through faith. Paul’s mission travels, and Timothy joined Paul on some of them, had borne much fruit. Through the “testimony” about the Truth, the Way, the Life, many people in western Asia and Europe were given by God faith in the God who alone saves sinners.
Before Paul died, he wanted Timothy to hear once again about what the Truth wants His followers to do with His “testimony” as Timothy now took over for Paul in the congregations the Truth had called Timothy to serve as pastor. Some people in the cities where Timothy would take up the work the Holy Spirit had used Paul to begin were promoting new teachings and opposing violently “the testimony about our Lord”. Would Timothy cave to pressure to be popular and forsake “the sincere faith” God had given him to trust Christ alone? Or would Timothy keep using the “testimony” from the Truth to build up his faith in the only true Way to life with God?
That’s why Paul wrote right of the bat in this letter, “I am reminding you to fan into flame the gift of God” (v. 6). Clearly that included God’s gift of faith to Timothy. The next phrase, “which is in you through the laying on my hands” (v. 6), might mean an additional, special gift God had also given Timothy for the ministry work Timothy was taking up. But the gift Timothy had was trust in the Truth by “the testimony” the Truth had used Timothy’s mother, grandmother, Paul, and others to give and feed in him: trust in Jesus and His work for salvation.
Nineteen hundred fifty years later, not much has changed. The truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven is challenged as hate speech because it says all other ways to heaven are false. But that’s not our hate speech. That is the Truth’s “testimony” about Himself and His work for sinners. And let’s look in our own hearts, too. The truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven is boring to our sinful nature. Tell me something new! I’m tired of the same old truth! It’s not the same old truth. It’s the truth from the Truth that saves eternally. Exchange it for something more exciting? Never! There is no other “testimony” to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ! The “testimony” from the Truth is His way to feed the faith He gave us. It did so for Paul, Lois, Eunice, and Timothy. It does so for us, too.
II. He tells us to hold to it
The work of believers in God’s kingdom on earth has been called correctly a religious relay race. We believers are not, of course, carrying an aluminum baton while we run around an oval. We believers are carrying the most precious treasure in the world, “the testimony about our Lord”, the only testimony that rescues sinners from hell. The Truth used parents or spouse or friends or others to put that “testimony” in us. What are we going to do with it? Drop that “testimony” because some people don’t like it? No! The Truth gives us His testimony to hold to it – and to pass it on as we hold to it.
Had Timothy expressed some doubts about how powerful the “testimony” is and how necessary it was for Timothy to pass on all of it? Paul wrote to him, “God did not give us a timid spirit, but a spirt of power and love and sound judgment. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me His prisoner. Instead, join with me in suffering for the gospel while relying on the power of God” (vv. 7-8). The very real threat of prison hung over Timothy as he was called to carry on God’s work with God’s “testimony as Timothy replaced the imprisoned Paul. Maybe if I tone down the message a bit, tweak it a little, I can escape the imprisonment Paul is enduring. Paul wrote, “Timothy, don’t be timid. God gives us His power, love, and sound judgment. Be cheerful, positive, and confident, Timothy, as you take to others what God has used His testimony to work in us!” And when others would tell Timothy what he was teaching couldn’t be correct, Timothy was to “hold fast to the pattern of sound words that you heard from me. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, guard the good deposit…entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13-14).
The “testimony” is revealed by the Truth in His truth, not drawn up by theologians in ecclesiastical conferences. The “testimony” is revealed by the Truth in His truth, not decided by people based on popular opinion or personal preference. A reference late in the letter of Hebrews tells us Timothy was faithful in holding to God’s “testimony”, so much so that Timothy himself was later put in chains for teaching the full “testimony” from the Truth.
But why, if some of the “testimony” ticks people off, should we hold to it and pass it on? Isn’t it better to keep ourselves free and other people happy? No. A lot of people who were or are very free and happy in this life will suffer in hell forever because they didn’t like “the testimony about our Lord” as the only true Way to heaven for sinners. The Truth is the One who “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His own purpose and grace” (v. 9). The Truth controls all things and tells us how to live as His blood-bought souls. He blesses our holding to and passing on His “testimony” for as long as He keeps us alive to do so here.
And then we will live with Him there! “This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, and it has now been revealed through the appearance of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (vv. 9-10). Death is not the end for us who are connected to the Truth through faith in His work. As He rose from death, so will we. We deserve punishment for our every trespass. But Jesus let hell cover Him at Calvary for all our trespasses so that hell won’t be our final destiny. That’s why, until we die, we hold on to all the truths from the Truth, and also pass on all the truths from the Truth. “Through the gospel” in the Word and in the sacraments we have “life and immortality”. The Truth wants all to have that, and uses us to pass to it on His way to as many as we can so that many more will have “life and immortality through the gospel”, too.
The prince of hell knows how powerful the “testimony” from the Truth about the Truth is. Since Satan didn’t stop Jesus from making the sacrifice that pays for every sin, Satan suggests to sinners there are other teachings people will find more appealing. But there is no other saving truth than the saving truth from the saving Truth. The Truth has given us His “testimony” to feed our faith in Him and to hold to it even as we pass it on. That’s His way to bring His salvation to us and others. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Holy Trinity - The Triune God Can't Be Figured Out, But Can Be Counted On
- Holy Trinity
June 12, 2022
Hymns 484, 483, 617
First Lesson Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 8
Second Lesson Romans 5:1-5
Gospel Lesson John 16:12-15
Romans 5:1-5
The Triune God Can’t Be Figured Out, But Can Be Counted On
I. For peace with Him
II. For access to His grace
III. For hope of His heaven
In the name of the only true God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, dear beloved by the one, true, saving God,
How is that when you tap an icon on your phone, a split second later all your contacts or an up-to-date radar image is displayed? Information technology experts could diagram the binary system computers use, but few of us would understand any of that. For most of us, it’s enough to know that the phone application works to show us what we want to see.
Today’s Holy Trinity service focuses on the truth that there is one true God who is three distinct persons. This side of heaven we will never figure out how the one true God can be three separate persons. But we can ever count on the one true God to fill us with the greatest of gifts. The Triune God can’t be figured out, but He can be counted on for peace with Him, for access to His grace, and for hope of His heaven.
I. For peace with Him
Polls show that well over half of those who believe in God also believe they are at peace with God because they try hard to keep God’s laws. Those who believe that are wrong. All people are sinners who anger and offend the holy God often each day. Even the good things we believers do are stained with sin. “All our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6) before the holy God. Even just one sin against God damns us forever. “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).
Our status with God, based on our performance before God, is war. On our own, we would consider God the enemy from whom we should run and with whom we want nothing to do. If we’re going to be at “peace” (v 1) with God, God has to do it because we are by nature “helpless…ungodly” (Romans 5:6), “sinners” (Romans 5:8). We did nothing, but God did everything that “we have been justified by faith and thus we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1).
Do you recognize the three persons of the one God at work for us condemned sinners? God has “justified” us, declared us, “Not guilty!”, no longer holds our sins against us. Why not? Did He change His mind, bend His rules, relax His standards? The holy God will never do that! Rather, the Father sent the Son to keep His laws perfectly, to pay completely the hell we deserve. That’s what the life of Jesus and His death have done for sinners. Still, we’d think that to be the dumbest plan in the world if not for the Holy Spirit placing in our hearts the humble “faith” by which the work of Jesus is made our own personal, prized possession.
We can’t figure out how three persons can be just one God. But we can count on the Triune God for “peace” with Him. Because it is all God’s work, our doubt is dispelled. Even our “faith” isn’t our work; it is God’s gift to us and in us. The Triune God gives us “peace” with Him, the peace we count on because it is won by His perfect, saving work.
II. For access to His grace
Some say, “I hope I don’t die while I’m sinning!” Such people don’t know what sin really is. Of course we’re going to die while we’re sinning! We all fall short of God’s demands in every way. Even not being perfect is sin, so we will die while we’re sinning. That’s horrible news. But here’s the greatest news from the Triune God. He can’t be figured out, but He can be counted on – counted on for access to His “grace”.
“Through Jesus we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (v. 2a). That, too, is all done by the Triune God. We didn’t cause the Father’s love at Christmas to send the Son to become one of us that we might be brought into His family through faith in the Son. We didn’t help the Son live and die for us, didn’t raise Him from death. We didn’t prod the Holy Spirit to put faith in our hearts by His mighty work in the Word and Holy Baptism. God alone did all that!
The Triune God has given us access to His grace. When they sinned, Adam and Eve ran from God in the Garden of Eden and tried to hide from God. We sin daily. But we aren’t on the run from the Lord because we have now what Adam and Eve didn’t have at the moment they sinned – but would receive it before that day was over: “access by faith into God’s grace”.
“Access”. Think of a room. By faith we walk into that room, the room named “grace”. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, the furniture – all “grace”. We live inside God’s grace, His love for us who deserve the very opposite of His love, His forgiveness He won for us entirely. Yes, we’re always sinning. But we’re also always forgiven! Don’t think about forgiveness as taking place every once in a while, as if we pile up sins for a time and our sins get to a certain point that they flip on the switch of God’s forgiveness, like some salvation sump pump. Forgiveness isn’t like taking a bath once a week; it’s like standing in the rain all the time. We are forgiven all the time! “Grace” is ours: access to the one true God from the one true God!
The believer is free to come to God’s throne in prayer. We pray to the Triune God not because we’ve been good enough to please Him so He gave us His prayer hot line number. We pray to the Triune God because He invites us to approach His throne of “grace”. We ask the Father to give us what we need daily and to deal with our illnesses and injuries according to His power and perfect will. We ask the Son to forgive us each day because of the sacrifice He made at His cross, and to bring His good news to friends and strangers who are banished from His presence without trust in Him. We ask the Holy Spirit to build up our faith in Jesus with that good news from His Word, and to lead others, too, to trust in Him alone.
The only reason we can come to God in prayer is that He has given us “access” to Himself. The Triune God who has every right to ban us sinners from His presence forever, instead in “grace” grants us “access” to His blessings, to His riches. How the three persons of the Triune God are just one God, we can’t figure out. But we can count on Him every second to forgive us and to hear us and to answer us for our good.
III. For hope of His heaven
The Holy Spirit had His apostle Paul write here, “We rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory of God” (v. 2b). Our rejoicing isn’t because we finally figured out the Triune God. We haven’t. We can’t figure out here how one God can be three distinct persons. But we can count on the Triune God for the “hope for the glory of God”, which is the same as the hope of being with God in the glory of His heaven.
Our sinful nature wants us to think we have what it takes to stand in God’s presence. But our sinful nature is wrong, blind, ignorant to God’s way, God’s standard. Only the Spirit can turn us from seeking reasons inside of us for God to love us to rejoicing in what the Son has done to change our status with the Father and His attitude about us. That is what we count on!
What we count on? Doesn’t the verse read, “hope for”? It does. But this isn’t “hope” in the sense we really want it to happen, but can’t be sure it will – like you hope for a particular birthday gift, but aren’t sure you’ll get it. This is the “hope” we know is ours, is the inheritance God promises, is the “glory” we will most certainly and truly enjoy in His heaven.
Until we get there, the Triune God continues to work in us toward that “hope of His glory”. And what a glorious work God’s is in us! “We also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope” (vv. 3-4). The idea behind “suffering” is pressure. Troubles squeeze every believer. Trusting in the Triune God while living in a world full of evil is tough. Enduring ridicule for doing what is God-pleasing when others want us to do what is flesh-pleasing, that’s pressure. But we “rejoice” even in those situations because the Triune God uses them to help us evaluate what is most precious in life, then leads us to His truth in His Word.
And with His Word God works “patient endurance”. As times get tough, God’s children stand on God’s promises found in God’s truth. God works in Word and Sacrament to assure us repentant sinners that in Jesus we’re His now and will be His forever. He gives us the “patient endurance” to carry on.
Through that “patient endurance” God also works “tested character”. The meaning of this word is genuineness, dependability, what is real. Sufferings come, yet we remain in the Lord. Why? Because He is genuine, His promises are dependable, His salvation is real. That gives us the “tested character” that counts, that lasts forever.
This “hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us” (v. 5). We won’t find out ever that our hope didn’t work out. The Triune God’s love for us is action love. He sees what we need and takes care of it in Jesus. Always! We can count on God to fill us with His “hope” in any situation. Whether it is our congregation’s finances or your family’s cash flow, your own health or that of a loved one, trouble with someone at work or stifling loneliness in life or whatever, the Triune God holds us up in the “hope for His glory”.
The work of the three-persons-in-one-God God isn’t a divine assembly line where each of the three persons does His perfect part, then passes the product to the next divine person at the next salvation station. Each person of the Triune God is active in each part of the work for us and for our salvation. Then why not just one person in one God? Dare we suggest we have a better way than God? And how can He be three in one? We can’t figure out the Triune God. But we can count on Him for everything that truly counts and eternally lasts! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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The Day of Pentecost - The Spirit Wants All to Speak the Same Language
- The Day of Pentecost
June 5, 2022
Hymns 588, 585, 592, 593
First Lesson Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104
Second Lesson Acts 2:1-21
Gospel Lesson John 14:23-27
Genesis 11:1-9
The Spirit Wants All to Speak the Same Language
I. That we seek God’s kingdom first
II. That we trust God’s Gospel most
In the name of Jesus, whom we’d never trust as the Savior by our own thinking or choosing, but whom we’ll ever trust as our Savior thanks to the Holy Spirit’s work, fellow redeemed,
Evolutionists and anthropologists want it both ways. They say primitive man was far less advanced intellectually than modern man is. They also say the existence of many languages long ago testifies to man’s wisdom. Both can’t be true.
There are some five thousand languages and dialects spoken today. Whether one is a humanistic scientist supposing people evolved from a common mammal, or a Bible-believing child of God confessing God as man’s Creator, the fact that so many languages arose from one common ancestor is a puzzle to ponder, not an achievement of power. What good purpose is there in the world’s seven billion people speaking so many different languages? Is that testimony to the intelligence of the human mind? No! So many different languages lead to many difficult problems in communication and cooperation.
God’s plan for man was not that different languages be spoken by those He made. God wanted all people to speak the same language. And do so in more ways than one. On this 50th day after Easter, the day when the Holy Spirit came centuries ago with astounding spiritual gifts for the first apostles, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to us today. The Holy Spirit wants all to speak the same language so that we seek God’s kingdom first and so that we trust God’s kingdom most.
I. That we seek God’s kingdom first
The Holy Spirit – and the Father and the Son – desired the whole human race speak the same language with the tongue and from the heart. The Triune God made the first man from the dust of the ground, then later that same day made the first woman from one of the man’s ribs. He put our first parents in the paradise of Eden, a perfect life where God’s kingdom always came first. Then, Adam and Eve gave in to Satan’s lies.
When sin entered the perfect world, it spread worse than weeds in a garden. Already in Genesis 6 we read, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day” (Genesis 6:5). Wicked, man-centered thinking led God to send the Flood. The only humans who survived were the eight the Lord protected in the ark.
When Noah’s family set foot on dry land for the first time in a year, God told the people with whom He was starting the human race all over again, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1). Put My kingdom first by taking to everyone My promise of the salvation I will win for the world!” But some of Noah’s descendants didn’t. In this Babel incident about one hundred years after the Flood, man was again putting his plans ahead of God’s will, God’s Word, God’s kingdom.
That’s judgmental! Theirs was an ambitious building project. Was that wrong? No, not by itself. But hear again their plan. “Let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top reaches to the sky…let’s make a name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (v. 4). It wasn’t their project that angered God; it was their purpose. God had said, “Fill the earth and seek My kingdom first!” Man replied, “Why should we spread out? Our people moved down from Mount Ararat, where Great-grandpa’s ark came to rest. It’s great in the plains between the Tigris and Euphrates. Let’s make ourselves famous right here!”
The Holy Spirit wants all to speak HisisHis language so His kingdom comes first. But already a few generations after the Flood people again put their plans first. The pronouns in one sentence here prove it: “us…ourselves…us…ourselves...we. We don’t want what the Lord wants. We want what we want!”
The Triune God – not “Let Me”, but Let us” – the three-persons-in-one-God God (the doctrine of the Trinity will be our focus next Sunday) disrupted man’s building project. He did so not only for His glory’s sake, but also for mankind’s good. “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building” (v. 5). It’s not that the all-knowing God had to get a closer look. He knew perfectly well in heaven what was happening on earth, and why! This is God’s way to say He acted according to facts, not on impulse.
God didn’t send a life-erasing flood this time. He “confused” (v. 9) their language to confound their plans. It would be hard to work on the skyscraper if the workers couldn’t understand each other. The Smiths wondered what the Joneses were saying in a language the Smiths couldn’t understand. The city they had hoped would “make a name for” them came to be named “Babel” (v. 9), close to the Hebrew word for confusion.
Rather than letting them pursue their idolatry to make themselves first, God jolted them His way to put His will and His kingdom first. That was the reason God intervened.
This is history. It’s also current events. How much that goes on – and that goes wrong – in the world is due to man-centered ideas pushing aside God-directed living? The Holy Spirit still wants all to speak the same language of seeking His kingdom first. The problem remains what brought about the many languages at Babel: sinful, selfish plans of man. These days so much of what dominates education, politics, even too much so-called religion is man wanting to elevate man. The result is confusion of more than language; it’s also confusion of values. Criminals claim their rights are violated. Wicked morals are defended as free expression. God’s Word is shrugged off.
But Pentecost undoes Babel. The God who “confused the language” of people, later empowered the apostles to speak about His kingdom in languages they’d never studied. The God who is furious when man plans to ignore His will turns man back to His kingdom of salvation and peace won by His life and death for sinners. The God who loves the people He made promises His Word will never pass away nor His kingdom end.
II. That we trust God’s Gospel most
We miss the Pentecost power completely if we hear different tongues spoken, but don’t hear the message spoken. The Holy Spirit wants all speaking the same language. Why? So we seek God’s kingdom first. How does that happen? By His Gospel. Do we see how it fits together? The Holy Spirit wants all to speak the same language so that we trust God’s Gospel most.
The sinful nature in us opposes that. The attitude on display at Babel still shows its ugly face in America four thousand years later. The attitude says, “We can do anything we put our minds and will to!” That view of life insists, “I can do whatever makes me feel good!” When that’s the way people think, they deceive themselves into supposing they can fend for themselves, decide what is best. From there, it’s only a step to say there is no seriousness in sin, no need to repent, no need for the Savior who takes away the sins of the world.
If that were true, why did God’s Son come to the world? If man can save himself with his deeds or gets to decide what is right and wrong, why does man need Christ? The truth lies in the one language given by the Spirit throughout His Word. “Those who sin, and thus pull down on themselves God’s forever anger, are rescued only by the holy life and sacrificial death of God’s Son and man’s Brother, Jesus Christ!” That’s the Gospel.
That good news first came to Adam and Eve the very day they rebelled against God. The Lord promised He would send His Son to “crush” (Genesis 3:15) the devil’s power. That good news was given to Adam’s descendants – including Noah and his family, then Abraham, Israel, and God’s prophets. All of whom spoke of the coming Messiah. Then the Savior was born from that family. That good news was fulfilled by what Jesus said and did – by His living in perfect holiness, suffering hell in place of all sinners, and rising from death in victory.
That good news is the Word of God Himself speaking to us and giving Himself to us in His sacraments. Notice, nothing done by man; nothing determined by humans; nothing planned by people. Rather, salvation planned by God; redemption bought by God; eternity assured by God. What a difference from “Babel”! What unity the Holy Spirit works in hearts with the Gospel which He has led us to trust!
The Spirit wants all to speak the same language, the language that trusts God’s Gospel most! What a change the Spirit has worked in us who look to Christ’s cross for our forgiveness! Our sinful nature wants us to trust “us and we ourselves”. Our faith, given by the Spirit, leads us to trust Him and His work!
What courage the Holy Spirit works in man! Disciples formerly afraid to be seen in public as Christ’s followers were heard the first Pentecost proclaiming to thousands Christ crucified and risen! People who wouldn’t know the first thing about God’s salvation without the Holy Spirit are now led by the Holy Spirit to speak of God’s salvation of the world to the world!
Today, faithful missionaries sent by our Synod with our mission thankofferings learn foreign languages. But they speak the same message of the Gospel about Jesus. Pentecost was the beginning of what will be true forever in heaven. Believers from many lands and languages will gather at God’s throne to sing in one language the praises of Him who saves sinners. The Spirit already in this life wants and empowers us to speak the same language, the one which trusts Christ’s Gospel most.
Whatever we do as a congregation deals with the soul. That’s not because we’re spiritually brainwashed, but because the Spirit has led us to trust the Gospel as the only way to heaven! Whatever we do as a congregation is done in keeping with the Gospel about Jesus. That’s not because we have to do so, but because the Spirit has led us to trust the good news about Jesus as the only power for salvation. May we never take the Gospel for granted, or use any power other than God’s Word! Our work is not done for this congregation or to meet its budget. We do it “declaring…the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11) to others, as Peter did in his Pentecost sermon.
Man’s proud plans work against God’s saving plan and work. Praise be to the Holy Spirit He uses the same language with us He has used since Eden! That language seeks God’s kingdom first. That language trusts God’s Gospel most. With the Holy Spirit’s year-round Pentecost blessing, that language will be at the center of all we think and say and plan and do. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Seventh Sunday of Easter and Ascension - We Are Still Praying, "Come, Lord Jesus!"
- Seventh Sunday of Easter & Ascension
May 29, 2022
Hymns 474, 472, 476, 441
First Lesson Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47
Second Lesson Revelation 22:12-17,20
Gospel Lesson John 17:20-26
Revelation 22:12-17,20
We Are Still Praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
I. Come to us in Your Gospel each day
II. Come to get us on the Last Day
In the name of the Lord Jesus, our crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, fellow sinners whom He has redeemed,
The Easter season ends today, and with it this series of lessons from Revelation, the most talked-about book in the Bible. But what most people mention about Revelation hasn’t been listed in these lessons. Not once have we tried to figure when the Last Day is going to be based on references in Revelation.
The Holy Spirit didn’t inspire John to write the words of Revelation to give us a calendar so we can calculate the date of Judgment Day. The theme of Revelation is tThe Triumph of Christ and His Church in Time and for Eternity. Instead of us scratching our heads as we read Revelation and try to come up with dates and scenarios for the end of time, we let the Lord fill us with His assurance we will live with Him forever.
So here, in the very last verses of Revelation and of all the Bible, Jesus repeats what He said at least five times earlier in this book, “I am coming soon” (v. 20). Not, “I am coming in one thousand years.” Not, “I am coming after a future battle at Armageddon.” Not, “I am coming after some rapture.” But, “I am coming soon!”
It's been more than nineteen hundred years since John heard that. Is it still “soon”? It is to God, who is not bound by time. Is it still exciting to hear our Savior that He’s coming? It is for us, who know He has covered our guilt.
Many people either dread or try to ignore the day when God will bring this world to a crashing and burning close. But we don’t dread it or ignore it! We learn from our Savior, so we are still praying, “Come, Lord Jesus (v. 20)! Keep coming to us in Your gospel each day, and come to get us on the Last Day!”
I. Come to us in Your Gospel each day
As we combine this Seventh Sunday of Easter with the Savor’s forty-days-after-His-Resurrection ascension into heaven, the Word made flesh reminds us that though He has ascended He is still with us, still revealing Himself to us, still giving Himself to us. “Come, Lord Jesus!” is more that a quick prayer that He come from heaven and take us with Him to heaven. It’s a daily prayer that He comes to us continually in His good news.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and so that they may enter through the gates into the city” (v. 14). You know from the Word in what the robes of the blessed are washed. Jesus says it repeatedly in His Word. The cleansing agent is “the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
That’s the good news that adds strength to our faith and gives power to our lives! We haven’t seen the blood flowing from His wounds. But we hear in His Word of His atoning sacrifice of blood, and we communicants receive in His Supper His blood and body with the wine and bread. In His Word and sacraments the Lord of life gives us His “water of life…as a gift” (v. 17) that is ours daily here, not just at the end of time there.
How can anyone’s blood give us “the right to the Tree of life” and entrance “through the gates into the city”? Not just anyone’s can. Only Christ’s can. He is “the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star” (v. 16). If you’ve recently been pulling up weeds by the roots or covering tomato plant roots with soil, you know a root is the source of something. “I am the Root of David” means Jesus is David’s Creator, our Creator, the Creator of all. Jesus is true God!
He is also “the offspring of David”. That means Jesus came after David. Oh, as true God, Jesus is before David from before time. But as true man, Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb and born in Bethlehem. As true man, Jesus is David’s descendant – born after David and born from David’s line.
The Savior had to be both to be our Savior – God and man in one person. He still is both God and man in one person right now, ascended into heaven and ruling there with power. He is our “bright Morning Star”. He comes to us with the light of His Word to show He is the sinner’s only path to heaven.
But not all people will be in heaven. “Outside are the dogs, that is, the sorcerers, the adulterers, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (v. 15). Our world’s casual attitude about sexual sins, cheating, aborting babies, lying, and more is dangerous to souls. We need God to show us sin in its damning ugliness. This word for “dogs” isn’t the one for trained house pets, but for wild stray dogs interested only in eating, reproducing, devouring. Such people, in the stubbornness of their unbelief, refuse to turn from their sins to the cleansing forgiveness found in Christ.
We still pray, “Come to us, Lord Jesus, daily in Your Word, regularly in Your sacrament, constantly to preserve our precious faith in You from the devil’s attacks” Do we listen to His “testimony” (v. 16) about sin and salvation He gives in His Word? Or listen more to the world? Do we pray daily, “Jesus, come to me”? Or do we pray more often, “God, give money to me”?
When we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest”, we don’t mean only, “Give us food to eat.” We also mean, “Come, Lord Jesus, to give us the food that is the good news of the salvation You have won for the world.”
II. Come to get us on the Last Day
“I am coming soon!” is Christ’s promise to come on the Last Day. We don’t dread that day. We don’t pray that day never closes in on us. As sinners cleansed by the blood of Christ, we eagerly hope and earnestly pray for that day. “Come, Lord Jesus, to get us on the Last Day and take us to heaven!”
Heaven? Do we have a chance at that? It sounds like Jesus is shutting the gate to heaven on us when He says, “My reward is with Me, to repay each one according to what He has done” (v. 12). We do sin. But the gates of heaven are still open to us because heaven is “a gift”. The “reward” of which Jesus speaks in His last words is the result of His victory for us.
“But a gift, Jesus? What about your words, ‘to repay each one according to what he has done’ (v. 12)? Doesn’t that mean we have to earn heaven with a good life?” No! That would contradict everything the Bible says so clearly about sinners saved by grace, by God’s undeserved love for us!
“To repay each one according to what he has done” is Christ’s way to say, “The kind of works you do in life, and the reason you do them, is evidence of your faith in Me – or your lack of faith in Me. It is faith in Me that saves, faith that is God’s free gift to you and that trusts My free forgiveness of your sins!”
We deal with glitches in our plans, delays in our travels, interruptions in our work. Will Jesus? What if He who says He’s coming soon, gets held up in heaven? He won’t! “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (v. 13). Circumstances don’t control Christ. Christ controls circumstances. Time doesn’t trap Jesus. Jesus is beyond the boundaries of time. He is eternal, “the Beginning and the End”. He is God and has authority over everything. He will take us home to heaven on the Last Day when He is ready for the Last Day to come, the day that He has already set.
“The One who testifies about these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon’” (v. 20). Those are the very last words of Jesus in His Word. How assuring to us that His last words give us His unbreakable promise to come “soon” to get us! When He comes, Jesus won’t set up a kingdom here on earth where we can walk up to Him and shake hands, won’t need a secret service detail to protect Him from assassin’s bullets, won’t need a private jet to fly Him around. When Jesus comes it will be in great glory to bring an end to this sinful world, to welcome His people into heavenly bliss as He raises believers with glorified bodies, and to condemn all those wild “dogs” to forever in the punishing fires and literal God-forsakenness of hell.
“Amen (v. 20) ,eams This is most certainly true! It is most certainly true that the Lord Jesus is coming again. “Come, Lord Jesus.” Each morning, we pray that way. “Come, Lord Jesus. Take me home to heaven today. I’m ready and eager to join You, my loved ones who died trusting in You, and all the saints of all time and Your angels in heaven. Camping next month, graduating this spring, getting my own phone, celebrating my birthday and Christmas with loved ones – all of that is nothing compared to You taking me to heaven to live there with You!”
“Come, Lord Jesus.” Each night, we pray that way. “Come, Lord Jesus. Take me home to heaven as I sleep. Take me away from the sufferings that so often make this life so dreary. Take me away from the dangers that threaten us so frequently. Take me away from this life with its financial worries, moral wickedness, and political bickering. Take me safely to Your perfect home to live there in Your presence forever!”
This weekend marks the beginning of the vacation season. The thoughts of many turn to time away, more leisurely schedules, summer travel plans with family. All of those are blessings from God. But none of those are more important than the coming of our ascended Lord. “Come, Lord Jesus”, we continue to pray. “Come to us each day where You promise to meet us – in Your gospel good news. And as You ascended in glory, so come back to get us on the Last Day when You take us home with You forever. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
Pastor David A. Voss
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Sixth Sunday of Easter - The Living God Is Among Us!
- Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 22, 2022
Hymns 460, 557, 713
First Lesson Acts 14:8-22
Psalm 65
Second Lesson Revelation 21:21-27
Gospel Lesson John 16:16-24
Acts 14:8-22
The Living God Is Among Us!
I. Revealing Himself to us, not made up by us
II. Giving Himself to us, not demanding from us
In the name of our living Lord Jesus, crucified and risen from death, the sinner’s only Savior, fellow redeemed,
Most every Christian congregation claims to follow God and says, “God is among us, and we worship Him!” That sounds good, until we hear explanations by some about who their god is, what their god desires, or how their god wants them to live. Some of that doesn’t line up with what the only true God has said about Himself and His will in His Word. And that false thinking about God threatens to infect us, too.
So we’re not done growing in knowing God’s Word. What we believe about Him and what we intend to do with Him in our lives is not what we decided to accept or do. It is what the Lord has planted, watered, nurtured, and grown in us. The living Lord is still among us to keep us growing His way and doing His work. The living God is among us, revealing Himself to us, not made up by us, as the way of truth. And He gives Himself to us, not demanding from us, as the way of salvation.
I. Revealing Himself to us, not made up by us
This is Acts 14. At the end of the Acts 13 we read about a new phase in God’s mission work. Paul and Barnabas were the first workers since Christ’s resurrection to be sent exclusively to Gentiles, non-Jews. Before this, they had worked among Jews who knew the history of their ancestors, the Israelites, and who believed in one God, though many Jews rejected Jesus as God. Now Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra (south central Turkey today) preaching to pagans, people who had no idea of one true God. Their religion revolved around many different gods with many different powers and personalities.
There, a lame man “was listening to Paul…speaking” (v. 9) about the one true God. God’s great apostle to the Gentiles was speaking about Jesus the Savior, maybe mentioning miracles Christ did to prove He is truly God.
Then the living Lord further revealed Himself. It was not in the flesh like Jesus did to Thomas, the rest of the disciples, and others in the first forty days after He rose from death. Jesus revealed Himself to the man and the rest of the crowd in Lystra by the power of His Word from the mouth of Paul.
“Paul looked at the man closely” (v. 9) because the living God had let Paul know God wanted that man healed. “Paul said in a loud voice, `Stand up on your feet’” (v. 10)! No touching, no feverish gibberish, no crying or pleading or ranting. Just the healing Word of the living God. That’s how the living God revealed Himself to that man and to the Lystrans that day.
But what of the phrase, Paul “saw that he had faith to be healed” (v. 10)? Never is one healed because of anything he’s done. If so, the healed person would get at least a bit of credit for getting better. The living God let Paul know the lame man had been filled by God with “faith” to trust what God was about to do. From the power of God’s Word he had heard, the man trusted the living God was with him and could heal him.
Why was he healed and no others? Surely there were other injured, sick, handicapped, dying people. It’s not that God didn’t care about them. But the living God used him, known to all in Lystra to be hopelessly handicapped “from birth” (v. 8), to show all in Lystra His power as the one true God.
That there is only one God was a new idea to those pagan people. Their religion was, “We see the sun; there must be a god who sends it”, so they made up a sun god. “We see grain grow, flowers bloom, rain fall”, so they made up a god for grain, one for flowers, another for rain, and so on. But all that religion the living God condemns as ignorant, damning idolatry.
We’re tempted to congratulate ourselves for not worshiping false gods. But we have and still do! How? We make up our own gods to fit our nice niches in life. We convince ourselves God approves of what we like to do because He wants us to be happy. That’s the lie Satan uses so often on God’s people.
That lie is idolatry! We don’t make God what we want Him to be. The living God is among us, revealing Himself to us, not inviting us to dress Him up according to our wishes. God reveals Himself to us here, in His Word. Here God speaks to us. Here He tells us who He is. The truth is not man’s mistaken ideas like A loving God will never damn anyone to hell. The truth is the living God saying, “This is who I am and what I do!” When His Word guides everything, the living God is among us.
II. Giving Himself to us, not demanding from us
Some say, “Religion is complicated.” But every religion really boils down to one of two categories: Your god demands you do something to earn his favor, or, Your God has already done everything to give you His favor. Which do we want? Yes! And that’s one we have! Not because we worked hard to get it. But because the living God is among us, giving Himself to us, not demanding anything from us, for salvation.
The Lystrans were convinced Paul and Barnabas were gods. They had heard Paul and Barnabas speak, and at Paul’s words the man who’d never taken a step in his life “jumped up and began to walk” (v. 10). They thought Paul and Barnabas were “gods…come down…in human form” (v. 11). The priest of Zeus in town “brought bulls and garlands to the city gates…to offer sacrifices” (v. 13) to Paul and Barnabas.
Legend had it that Lystra was on the blacklist of the gods because earlier Zeus and Hermes had come to town, but were given hospitality by only one elderly couple while the rest of the Lystrans ignored Zeus and Hermes as ordinary humans passing through as strangers. This time they’d spare no effort or expense to show Zeus and Hermes appropriate praise. Behind all the fuss making and sacrificing was the thought If we don’t treat them right this time, they’ll never bless us again!
The living God was among the Lystrans, but not in the form of Paul or Barnabas. That’s why the two apostles did all they could to show the people they weren’t gods, but were only humans “with the same nature as you. We are preaching the good news to you so that you turn from these worthless things (idols) to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them” (v. 15).
And the best news Paul and Barnabas taught was about the Savior. It worked! “Disciples” – the New Testament term for believers in and followers of the Savior – “disciples then gathered around” (v. 20) Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. As has happened to us, so there the Holy Spirit used the truth about Jesus paying for all sins to bring sinners to trust the Son of God who took our place to suffer our hell and open heaven to us.
“The living God” is among us, not tapping His foot impatiently or wiggling His finger menacingly to demand money from us before we get gifts from Him, or to drain blood from us in payment for our sins against Him. “The living God” is among us to give us and all the world His forgiveness, grace, and heaven. Some people are terrified about the living God coming to them. If you know any like that, tell them what God has done for you and for them! “The living God sacrificed Himself to pay our debt for sin! He loved us before we do anything for Him!”
Others are bored by the thought of the living God being a part of their lives on earth. “Give me something more interesting or valuable!” If you know any like that, tell them what He has told you. “The living God has what all sinners need – full forgiveness of every sin, given us before we lift a finger for Him!”
Some people are tempted to abuse the gift of the living God being among us to give us Himself. All my sins are covered? Then I can sin all I want and come crawling back to God, right? Wrong! If you know any like that, tell them, “The living God is among us all the time. He has given us Himself to save us forever. But those who trust Him and His work will not go out and misuse His love as a license to sin. We thank the living God by living for Him with all we do and think and say!”
The living God is among us. No one else can give us what He has won for us and given to us: forgiveness of sins every moment every day, perfect commitment to keep us His own, the rock-solid guarantee He’ll take us to heaven when we die. No career or sport or political view or even family member is more important in our lives than “the living God”. By giving us Himself, He makes us the richest people in the world.
There is only one true God! And that living God is among us to reveal Himself to us in His Word as the only true God and as the only truth in this sinful world of lies whispering, We can make our god anyone or anything we want to and still be okay. There is only one true God! And that living God is among us to give Himself to us as our only salvation. How great He is! How blessed we are to have the living God among us! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Fifth Sunday of Easter - What Does Love Have to Do with Glory?
- Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 15, 2022
Hymns 443, 469, 445, 450
First Lesson Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 67
Second Lesson 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Gospel Lesson John 13:31-35
John 13:31-35
What Does Love Have to Do with Glory?
I. Love is founded in God’s glory
II. Love is followed to God’s glory
In the name of Christ Jesus, whose blood cleanses us from the guilt of all sin, fellow redeemed,
Love isn’t often associated with glory. To many, love is only an emotion, and most see glory as honor resulting from a great victory. But here the Lord taught about love right after talking about glory. Clearly Christ Himself connects love and glory.
That’s not a connection sinners can make on their own. Like the people of Paul’s day, so we people who’ve just been fed by God with Paul’s familiar words in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 need to be reminded all the time that true “love” isn’t waiting for someone else to be loving toward us. Like the Lord’s disciples, so we disciples of God frequently fall into the trap of self-glorification, of thinking, Glory be to me for what I did and do!
So, what does love have to do with glory? The Savior tells us! The word for “love” (v. 34) He used here and Paul wrote there, and the idea behind being “glorified” (v. 31), teach us that love and glory aren’t just for us to get some tender affection and rousing recognition. Rather, true love is founded in God’s glory and true love is followed by us to God’s glory.
I. Love is founded in God’s glory
John Chapters 13 through 17 are full of words the Savior spoke in one spot – the upper room the night He was betrayed, before He prayed in Gethsemane and was then arrested and tried and crucified and risen. In fact, the term our new hymnal no longer uses for that night, Maundy Thursday, is from this lesson. Maundy comes from the Latin word for command, “A new commandment I give you” (v. 34). But few people know that. Holy Thursday covers the events more completely, right?
Did you think we were past the Passion History of our Lord? After all, Good Friday was thirty days ago! But if we don’t know the background of these words, we won’t get the full truth from them. When “Judas left” (v. 31) the room in a huff, Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do more quickly” (John 13”27). The eleven others thought Jesus meant, “Judas, since you handle our funds, get more food for our Passover meal.” But the all-knowing Lord knew what Judas had already plotted with the Jewish church leaders to do.
“After Judas left, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (v. 31). What Judas had left to do would start the chain of events and actions God would use to bring all honor to Him since those events and actions would bring salvation to sinners. What would glorify God was the Son of Man and the Son of God, man and God in one person, Jesus!, suffering death and hell for all who rebel against His holy will. Those events and actions would include the Redeemer rising from death, His ascending into heaven, and His right-now reigning in all power.
That chain of events and actions is the essence of love, the foundation of love. God the Father planned the events with the Son and the Holy Spirit, then with Son and Spirit set them into motion for our salvation. Jesus wasn’t giving a riddle to the rest of disciples when He said, “I am going to be with you only a little longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come” (v. 33). Jesus was laying love’s foundation when He said that. He was talking His going to the cross in a few hours, not just to hang on a tree, but especially to suffer the punishment of hell for all sinners in the whole world. Since that was the plan of God to rescue us, successfully completing that loving plan is God’s glory. “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him”. Do you see what love has to do with glory?
Christ tells us, “Love one another” (v. 34), and is Himself the foundation of love. As we said earlier, we too often view love as a feeling or emotion of tenderness and concern for others. But true love is more than that. The “love” of which Jesus spoke and in which He laid down His life for all sinners is much more than a feeling or emotion. It is “love” which sees what the ones He loves need, and then acts to give the ones He loves what they need! That “love” is how God is “glorified”!
That’s the Good Friday and Easter season angle in this lesson: what God does for us in “love” and to His glory. It’s also the foundation of our love for others. Notice, believers in Jesus, what “love” is not. It is not love God owes us; it is His undeserved love given us. It is not love that waits for the one we love – spouse, child, friend, neighbor – to do something lovable or to nudge our love into action. Love acts first! Love even loves the unlovable! Love doesn’t say, “Do I have to do that?!” Love says, “I want to do that to help others!”
Jesus says, “Love one another” and displays love’s foundation as undeserved love, unconditional love, full love, action love. That is not a “new” love. That is love God has always desired. What would be “new” about it would be the model of Christ’s sacrificial love at Calvary just hours later. His loving suffering our hell is God’s greatest glory – and our eternal life!
II. Love is followed to God’s glory
True love isn’t forced, doesn’t need a law or command to be followed. True love is produced by, and founded on, Christ’s love for sinners – love that is the Savior-God’s greatest glory. And that connection between love and glory is another lesson from the Lord here. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another” (v. 34). Love is followed to God’s glory, as we give God glory.
It sounds easy, but it’s not. We know about love. We talk about love. But the Savior who says, “Love one another” tells us to go deeper than what poets and writers and others describe or imagine about love. “Love…as I have loved you”.
Our love is to be patterned after the love Christ has for us, the love which led Him to give Himself for us. True “love” isn’t most of all concerned with What will this mean to me? Will it hurt me financially or in some other way? True love is Christlike care and concern which most of all asks, What do the ones I love need? What am I able to do to help them?
The Savior says, “Love one another”, then teaches this love lesson: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35). When the world sees us sacrifice our rights or blessings to help others, even if it costs us time or money or popularity, the world thinks, They follow the One they claim gave Himself for them.
That was the love followed to God’s glory by the Savior’s followers in the earliest Christian congregations. We are hearing about those early believers in the book of Acts this Easter season. They looked for opportunities to share earthly gifts they had been given by God with those who didn’t have as much as they had. Let that be part of the love we follow to give glory to God as we help those who need help. “Everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”.
Unbelievers don’t understand the standard the Savior sets for love. Only those who are, thanks to the Holy Spirit, connected to Christ in faith can begin to show this kind of love. Only God changes our hearts and powers us to “love as I love you”.
Children, is the way you play with one another, the way you talk to your parents, the way of the Savior’s love? Or it is often the way of selfish Satan, expecting everything to go your way?
Spouses, is the way we speak with one another, treat one another, the way of the Savior’s love? O is it often the way of the sinful nature? You be nice to me first, then I’ll be nice to you.
Parents and spouses, is the way we deal with problems in life the way of the Savior’s love, looking for more we can do to change the situation? Or is it often the way of the scheming world, insisting the only solution is for others to change?
Young people, is the way you are looking for a future spouse the way of the Savior’s love, searching for a young man or woman who will with you grow more deeply rooted in Christ as the most important quality for your husband or wife? Or is it often infected by the world whispering, “Look for looks and fun, and when those run out the marriage can be ended!”?
Parents, is the way you raise your children and set examples the way of the Savior’s love? Or is it at times the foolish and harmful idea that says, “We’ll let our children decide about religion”? Is that a love that is followed by those who are loved forever by the Lord? Does that idea give glory to God?
The Savior says, “Love one another”, then adds, “The world is watching! The way you love – or don’t love – says volumes to the world about you being – or not being – one of My disciples”. It’s not that we’re out to gain favor with the world. It’s that we love others to give glory to God for saving us. The sinful world desperately needs love followed to the glory of God by us who are filled with Christ’s saving “love”.
The Savior says, “Love one another as I have loved you”. That love extends beyond last Sunday’s Mother’s Day and next month’s Father’s Day, beyond “I love you!” spoken on Valentine’s Day and in marriage vows and at wedding anniversaries. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with those emotions of love discussed and displayed on such special days. But our lasting love will be discussed and displayed daily – not just on special occasions, because the Savior speaks of and displays His love for us daily – not just on special occasions.
Our lasting love is founded on God’s glory in saving us. And love is followed by us, too, to give God glory for saving us. Not, Glory be to me! But “Glory be to God in the way I love Him and others, doing so the way God has loved me first.” Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Second Sunday of Easter - We Are God's Resurrection Remodeling Project
- Second Sunday of Easter
April 24, 2022
Hymns 438, 456, 470: stanza 4, 449
First Lesson Acts 5:12,17-32
Psalm 16
Second Lesson Revelation 1:4-18
Gospel Lesson John 20:19-31
Acts 5:12,17-32
We Are God’s Resurrection Remodeling Project
I. Believers made stronger by the message of this new life
II. Testimony made bolder about the power of this new life
In the name of our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ, fellow Easter believers, still rejoicing at His rising from death,
On remodeling project shows, viewers see how a house’s structural problems are solved, how a dilapidated dump becomes a delightful place to live. Your remodeling projects redo what you don’t like about the original design or repair what has broken. And it helps when money isn’t an obstacle.
Every Resurrection season we take a long look at God’s remodeling project from the book of Acts. We see how Christ’s resurrection changed the early believers. God’s remodeling project isn’t necessary because He didn’t design us correctly. It is His way to repair what we’ve broken and to restore us as He wants us to be. Not just those early Easter believers, but you and I, too, are God’s resurrection remodeling project. Believers are made stronger by the message of this new life, and testimony is made bolder about the power of this new life.
I. Believers made stronger by the message of this new life
“I can’t believe this is the same house!”, they say near the end of remodeling shows. “I can’t believe these are the same disciples of Jesus!”, we say after hearing this lesson. This was a few months after the resurrection appearances by Jesus on back-to-back Sunday evenings from today’s Gospel Lesson. What a change in His apostles from those Sundays to this day! There, huddled in hushed and frightened fear. Here, assembled in open and joyous confidence. There, stubborn Thomas. Here, strengthened Peter, James, John, Thomas, and the other apostles. There, “behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). Here, in “the temple courts… to teach” (v. 21) the work of Jesus and preach, “He is risen!”
What made the difference? “The whole message about this life” (v. 20). God had made the apostles invisible and led by one of His angels as they left the jail unnoticed. God wants the world to hear “the whole message about this life”. So He freed His main messengers to allow to tell more people about the Author of this new life, God’s Son, the world’s Savior.
What did the apostles do with their freedom? Sleep late after a nervous night in jail? Leave Jerusalem lest they be arrested again? “They entered the temple courts at daybreak” as God had His angel tell them to do, “and began to teach” more about the Savior, preach “the whole message about this life”.
Men who had been too timid to talk about Jesus now risked a return to jail by publicly proclaiming Jesus, strengthened by God with the message of this new life. Those who heard the message of this new life and believed it “continued meeting in Solomon’s Colonnade” (v. 12) outside the temple. There they heard and studied the Word, encouraged each other in the faith, and expressed their joy in this new life in Christ. God strengthened preachers and hearers with this same message.
What is “the whole message about this life”? Eternal life? Yes! But more than heaven hereafter. We are sinners from conception, were spiritually dead and separated from God by our sins and unbelief, on a trip to hell we were powerless to stop. But Jesus left heaven and came to earth to live and die in our place so sinners “may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). In Him we live, no longer separated from God but connected to Him. In Him we live with God here now, not just there forever. Right now we enjoy “life” as God’s children. We receive forgiveness of sins, won by His death and assured by His rising. All that is “the whole message about this life” in Christ who took back His life for us and is our victorious King!
That message powered God’s resurrection remodeling project for the first Easter believers. It also changes and strengthens us Easter believers. How were our lives different last week due to the resurrection truth? Sin didn’t stay away because of the resurrection, did it? But don’t we find it easier to resist Satan as we trust more than ever Jesus died and rose for us? No? Then we aren’t using “the whole message about this life”. Trouble, sickness, and disappointment didn’t vanish because of the resurrection, did they? No. New sorrows arose, right? But don’t we find it easier to handle life’s assaults and setbacks as we trust more than ever Jesus died and rose for us, He lives in us, and He won the victory for us? No? Then we aren’t using “the whole message about this life”.
God’s resurrection remodeling project continues in us. As we receive “the whole message about this life”, we grow in our faith, our joy, our confidence in Him, our desire to serve Him with all we do. Others notice our spiritual growth and our change, just like people noticed the growth and change in the apostles. When they notice, we give all glory to Him who caused the change: the risen Christ. When they ask about our spiritual remodeling, we point to God’s good news of the Savior’s removing hell from all sinners by taking it on Himself – the worst of His Good Friday suffering, and to the Savior’s rising from His tomb – the best of our Easter Sunday celebrating.
II. Testimony made bolder about the power of this new life
Some homes on remodeling shows look completely different after the project due to bold decorating statements. Here we receive a bold faith statement. God’s resurrection remodeling project in the apostles and early believers continues in us, too, as testimony is made bolder about the power of this new life.
“I can’t believe they are doing that!”, high priest Annas maybe muttered when he heard the apostles were teaching, “Christ is risen!” at the temple. That they were free wasn’t found out until morning when they were to stand trial before their church’s leaders. The officers “found the jail securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when they opened them, they found no one inside” (v. 23). God let His apostles leave jail unseen, and had the angel bolt the doors again.
The escape was bad enough for Annas. But the apostles doing what he had forbidden them to do infuriated Annas. “Did we not give you strict orders not to teach in this name” (v. 28)? Did the Jewish apostles sin by defying the Jewish high priest? No. “We must obey God rather than men” (v. 29). Before they saw the risen Christ, the apostles were afraid to mention publicly their connection to Jesus. Once they had, they did! Their testimony was much bolder about the power of this new life.
They weren’t arrogantly defiant. When led from the temple courts to “the Sanhedrin” (v. 27) court, maybe the same room where Jesus stood before Caiaphas and Annas and near where Peter denied he even knew Jesus, Peter and the others spoke boldly against them – but also to them, and for their salvation.
“The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you arrested and killed by hanging Him on a cross” (v. 30). Imagine saying that to your accusers! That’s believing boldness! The Jewish church leaders couldn’t even bring themselves to say Jesus’ name. But Peter proclaimed the same Jesus risen from death, a report the Sanhedrin had paid a big bribe to the Roman guard to keep quiet. And the apostles’ message wasn’t a new one. It was the same truth and the same faith held by Jewish “fathers” Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, David, and every faithful Jew. The promised Messiah would sacrifice Himself, then rise from the dead, to save them and all sinners.
“God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins” (v. 31). Being at God’s “right hand” is word picture language that the risen and ascended Jesus has all power and authority there. After urging them to repent for rejecting Jesus, the apostles urged their accusers to trust Jesus as the powerful and saving Lord of life. Only through faith in Him are sinners rescued from hell. What bold testimony about Jesus by men who had locked themselves in a room for fear of being associated with Jesus!
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him” (v. 32). After the Spirit gives sinners faith in Jesus as their Savior, believers “obey”, that is, say, “Yes!” to what the Spirit works in them. The Spirit gave them boldness about the message of this life.
We are part of God’s resurrection remodeling project. The same Spirit has given us the same testimony for the same faith in the same risen Savior. The power for God’s project remains “the whole message about this life” we have in Jesus.
When we talk about the risen Savior, we won’t be arrested for our testimony. But if a friend or loved one, if a church or job or government authority tells us to reject the risen Savior, or orders us to do something the risen Savior commands us in His Word not to do, we answer respectfully, firmly, and boldly, “We must obey God rather than men”.
Parents, don’t make your children choose between your plans and God’s will. Your family’s priorities on Sunday mornings, the way you use God’s name, your decision about devotions at home dare never force your kids to say, “Dad and Mom, God gets first place in everything! Please drop me off at church when you go shopping Sunday morning. God wants us to praise His holy name, not to use it to damn a phone that isn’t working. God wants His Word heard daily, not shrugged off because we are too busy for devotions at home .”
We are God’s resurrection remodeling project. We tell “the whole message of this life” to those who don’t yet have joy in Jesus and His forgiveness, who don’t yet know the boldness of trusting Him and the comfort of being saved by the crucified and risen Savior. We want those we know to have that, too.
We are God’s resurrection remodeling project on earth. He works to keep us growing in faith, knowing His Word, showing with our lives we do everything to thank Him for saving us. The crushing load our sins deserve is lifted off us by the triumphant work Jesus did to pay for our sins in full, and by His rising from death to prove it. “The whole message about this life” in Christ strengthens us. God continues in us His resurrection remodeling project until the project is complete and He takes us to heaven through faith in Him. Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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Resurrection Sunday - Jesus Wasn't Taken; He Is Risen
- Resurrection Sunday
April 17, 2022
Hymns 442, 458, 824, 471, 444, 461, 441
First Lesson Matthew 27:62-66; Mark 16:1-8; John 20:10-18
Psalm 118
Second Lesson 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 19-24, 51-57
Third Lesson Isaiah 25:6-9; Job 19:23-27
John 20:1-18
JESUS WASN’T TAKEN; HE IS RISEN!
I. By His own power (vv. 1-9)
II. At His Father’s approval (vv. 10-17)
III. For His people’s rising (vv. 17-18)
In the name of Jesus, the Savior crucified for us and risen for us just as He said He would rise, fellow Easter believers,
What did the women expect to see early that Sunday morning? A Roman squad guarding the tomb. A wax seal around a large disc-shaped stone covering the tomb’s opening. And a cold corpse. What did they find when they got there? The soldiers gone. The seal broken. The stone rolled to the side. And inside, no body!
We know and trust the explanation. Jesus wasn’t “taken” (vv. 2,13,15), as Mary said three times before the risen Christ revealed Himself to her. Taken is the big lie Satan still spreads. Jesus did what only God can do. He is risen! That truth is not just what you expect to hear in His house this most glorious day of the year. That truth that changes life forever. Jesus wasn’t taken; He is risen! That changes life in the greatest ways, three of which we’ll ponder in Resurrection devotions.
I. By His own power (vv. 1-9)
The first is He is risen by His own power! What those humble, believing, devoted women and two of Christ’s disciples saw early that morning puzzled them. The stone problem – “The soldiers won’t roll it aside so we can put these spices on the body of Jesus. How will we few women shove the sealed stone out of the deep groove?” – the stone problem was solved.
But that revealed a new problem. The body of Jesus was gone. They supposed grave robbers added insult to the injury of their Lord’s death. What the women didn’t notice, the disciples discovered later. Jesus recorded in His Word to prove His power every Easter after this fact: “the linen cloths were lying there. And the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was not lying with the linen cloths, but was folded up in a separate place by itself” (vv. 6-7). Would body snatchers take time to unwrap the burial cloths, then one say to the other, “Before we go with the body, let me fold this face cloth just so”? No! Jesus wasn’t taken; He is risen!
Jesus took back His life on the third day by the Jewish way of counting time, just as He had promised He would through His prophets and to His twelve disciples. John “saw and believed” (v. 8)! The next Resurrection verse, “(They still did not yet understand the Scripture that He must rise from the dead)” (v. 9), means they didn’t connect Christ’s resurrection with the Old Testament passages that predicted it, especially what King David had been given by the Holy Spirit to write one thousand years earlier about the Savior. “You will not abandon My life to the grave. You will not let Your favored One see decay” (Psalm 16:10). John had great joy in the linen proof Jesus had done what only God can do: destroy death’s power by His own power. Jesus was, is, and always will be truly God! That’s what His powerful resurrection from His sacrificial death means!
And that changes us forever! The memory of Jesus would be a cruel joke, and our trust in Him would be a false belief, if He was still dead. But He isn’t! He is risen from death! He isn’t who His enemies said He was, “A liar and a heretic to call Himself God’s Son and the promised Messiah.” Jesus is who He says He is: the eternal Son of God and the world’s only Savior! He isn’t dead and defeated. He is alive and well and ruling! The empty grave proves He is God. Jesus “was declared to be God’s powerful Son by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). That’s the life-changing truth God declared the first Resurrection Sunday. That’s the life-changing truth that drives our lives. That’s the life-changing truth we now confess in song: Hymn 471, stanzas 2-3.
II. At His Father’s approval (vv. 10-17)
Even serious students of God’s Word get confused by the order of events that Resurrection day. The events are written in all four Gospels. But by the Spirit each Gospel writer focused on different scenes. Let’s put the four together. The soul of Jesus returned from heaven and reunited with His body well before dawn that day. Then Jesus slipped invisibly and silently from the sealed tomb and went to hell to declare His victory over Satan to Satan and all wicked angels. Then two holy angels came down from heaven, punctuated by an earthquake, rolled the stone away, and their sudden arrival, gleaming appearance, and mighty power frightened the soldiers. The soldiers ran to town in fear when they saw the just-opened tomb was empty. Returning from declaring His victory in hell over the devil, Jesus appeared to some of His followers that day.
The Holy Spirit recorded many Resurrection details for all time and all people to prove that Jesus wasn’t taken, but is risen! That glorious truth changes our lives also because it proves Jesus is risen at His heavenly Father’s approval.
In John’s Resurrection report Mary Magdalene moved quickly from emotional wreck to ecstatic worshiper. It seems the two angels at first made themselves invisible to Mary, who turned right around at the empty tomb and ran maybe 800 meters to get Peter and John. When they arrived, they didn’t see the angels, either. But when Peter and John headed back to town, and when Mary peered deeper inside the tomb, she “saw two angels in white clothes sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying” (v. 12). Either she didn’t recognize them as angels, or didn’t consider why heavenly beings were at the empty tomb, because all Mary said was, “Someone has taken the body of my Lord!”
Then Mary “turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus” (v. 14). It’s possible Jesus somehow disguised His appearance to Mary, as He would do later that afternoon with two believers on the road to Emmaus. But there would be no mistaking the voice of her Lord. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary’” (v. 16). At once Mary knew it was Jesus – dead on Friday, but risen from death on Sunday!
When Mary hugged Him and tried to hang on to Him, Jesus told her He was headed to heaven. “Do not continue to cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father…I am ascending to My Father and your Father – to My God and your God” (v. 17). The risen Savior wasn’t forbidding Mary Magdalene to touch Him. The next Sunday evening the Savior invited Thomas to touch Him. There is a greater truth here. Jesus didn’t want Mary to think He was staying on earth, and so let her know His mission on earth was perfectly accomplished.
For several Sundays we’ll hear how Jesus spent forty days appearing in various ways to His followers before He ascended to heaven. There the Father welcomed Jesus as the successful Savior returning home. The Word of God says in some places that Jesus raised Himself from death, in other places that the Father raised Him from death. That’s not a contradiction. That is the glorious mystery of the Triune God. The verses that say the Father raised the Son from death emphasize this saving truth: the Father accepted His Son’s payment for our sins and approves of His Son’s work for our redemption.
Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! The resurrection is also the Father’s shout to sinners who deserve hell for every sin, “You are forgiven!” By raising His Son from death, the Father declares to the world, “My beloved Son’s work for you is accepted! Live assured My Son has My approval! And through My Son, you have My approval, too!” We don’t stop praising God for that! We do so now with Hymn 444, stanzas 4-5.
III. For His people’s rising (vv. 17-18)
The Resurrection of the Savior changes life forever! This holiest day of the year isn’t only to tell Christ, “Well done! Good for You that You rose after all You went through!” He died for us, and rose for us! Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! That life-changing truth also assures His people’s rising from the dead.
Mary Magdalene passed the Resurrection report on to others. Now she knew, had seen, and would for the rest of her life believe Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen! Mary “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’” (v. 18)! Her life had meaning.
And so does ours! Our life doesn’t end. It leads to heaven where the loving Father waits for His children who trust the Savior’s work to cover their sins completely. Life’s first short chapter is written on earth. But life-in-heaven’s chapter has no end! The death bed is only a station where the believer’s soul is carried to heaven on the early train of the Savior’s death and resurrection, while the body waits in the grave for the later train when the Savior comes back on the Last Day. The Resurrection truth is how we deal with the death of believing loved ones. We will rise with them, guaranteed by the fact that Jesus wasn’t “taken”; He is risen!
Until we die, we live here as sinners connected to the Savior through faith. We see our life’s span as the time God grants us to sink the roots of our faith in His Son’s empty cross and empty tomb so we’re ready every day for our rising to heaven. We see our life’s purpose as greater than making money, eating well, entertaining others, and enjoying ourselves. We live for Jesus in all we think, say, and do. And we shine the light of His death and resurrection that others live with Him, too.
The risen Savior’s sermon to Mary ended, “My God is your God” (v. 17). His sermon is for us, too! “My God is your God. Your faith is in Me, the powerful Son who died for you and rose for you! My Father doesn’t hold your sins against you! He won’t let you rot in the grave forever. Because I live, you, too, will live! I am risen, which means you have it all!”
Christ was not “taken”. We rejoice as we confess and sing today, “Christ the Lord is risen today! He isn’t still dead; we know that our Redeemer lives!” How long will our joy last? How long will we keep coming to hear that? The Resurrection truth is good forever! We hear it and use it today, tomorrow, next Sunday, and forever. The devil’s lie is Jesus was taken. The Triune God’s truth is Jesus is risen! That truth changes us forever! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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