From the Fargo Forum - By Wendy Reuer
HANKINSON, N.D. – St. John’s Lutheran Church of Belford Township parishioners were preparing to host sunrise Easter service. But instead of enjoying breakfast at the church, they were speedily cleaning up broken glass and debris in the chapel, basement and storage room.
Vandals are suspected of using a bat to break six windows in the church overnight Saturday.
The incident was reported to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office at 5:47 a.m. Sunday. The more than 100-year-old church is located about four miles north of Hankinson.
The Rev. Adam Moline said the bottoms of four large stained-glass windows in the chapel were destroyed, as well as a basement window and sacristy window. A sacristy is a room for keeping church vestments and furnishings.
The stained glass was not ruined, but due to the age of the church and window size, the bottom windows must be custom-ordered, Moline said. The windows were updated in 2006.
Sheriff Larry Leshovsky estimated the damages to be about $12,000.
Despite finding the damage just before Easter services, worship continued for the congregation of about 60.
“Easter, for us, is our most important holiday. It’s our victory over sin, death and the grave, and a little bit of broken glass wasn’t going to stop us,” Moline said.
In a news release, Leshovsky said it appears vandals used a bat. The sheriff’s office also received several complaints of mailbox vandalism in the same area.
Moline said there is no history of vandalism at the church.
“We don’t know who would do this. We’ve had no threats. We haven’t had anybody we know of that is mad at us for anything,” he said.
Anyone with information about any of the incidents is asked to call the Richland County Sheriff’s Office at (701) 642-7711.
This article can be found at: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/317372/
Also see the News Reports below (not the one that appeared on TV, but still helpful.)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Easter Sunrise Service - 2011
He told us what He would do. He promised many times that He would suffer, die, and then on the third be raised from the dead.
It’s the third day. The women are at the grave. The cemetery. What do you and the women expect to see there after three days? A corpse. To anoint it. To pay your last respects. To say your final farewell.
Little did you and the women know that there was another earthquake. A violent one. Just like when He died at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Earthquakes are recorded in the Bible when God manifests Himself. Reveals Himself. The arm of the Lord’s strength was revealed in the bloody death of Jesus. And now at the tomb God is at work once again. For you. And for your justification! That is to say, your relationship with God has been changed forever because of what happened on that early Sunday morning in that borrowed tomb.
A heavy earthquake. And with it the angel of the Lord. He shows up with lightning like appearance. Whiter than snow clothes. He rolls away the sealed and secured stone door of the tomb like it’s nothing. And then he plops down on it using it as a chair. The guards shake in their boots like dead men. Who wouldn’t? After all, who sees something like this every day?
But Jesus said it would happen. He would suffer, die, and on the third rise from the dead.
Then the women show up. No need to be afraid the angel says. “No need to worry ladies. I know you expected to see the crucified corpse, anoint it, and lament what happened. Humanly speaking it was very sad, wasn’t it? But the body’s not here! That’s right! Don’t believe me? Well, be my guest. Take a good look. You saw where He was buried in here. See? There’s no body is there ladies? And you know why don’t you? Yes, that’s right. He has risen! Just like He promised!”
Just like He promised! Over and over again! The words of Jesus are put into their ears. And yours. His words that are Spirit and life! The angel is Jesus’ messenger. His preacher. “The crucified Jesus is not here folks! He has risen just as He said!” In those words the Holy Spirit bears witness and gives glory to Jesus. After all, Jesus is the one who died. Jesus is the one who rose. Jesus is the Savior.
What He promised He did! He suffered, died, and rose on the third day. And He did it all for you! No one else can do such a Savior job like that! No one else pulled off a suffering, dying, and rising. Only Jesus did. Just like He said.
And that’s good news! Because of Jesus all your sin is forgiven. God refuses to count it against you because of what Jesus did for you! And because there is forgiveness of sins in Jesus, you have peace with God. You have life and salvation.
Such good news is to be proclaimed. Preached and shouted for all. For every sinner. For disciples, you and me. For we too denied Him. We betrayed Him. We killed Him. Our sin hung Him there on the cross. We are responsible. We are guilty. And yet He prayed for us: “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” That’s right. We didn’t. And so He gave His life into death as the atoning sacrifice for all sin. The world’s. Yours and mine.
And God raised Him bodily from the grave on the third day. All is now set right. All is forgiven! Proof of that is Jesus: risen just like He said.
“So go now,” the angel says. “No need to stay here. Hurry up. Turn around. Tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead. He’s gone ahead of you to Galilee. He’ll meet you there. I give you my word.” And so off they go. Full of joy and full of fear.
And along the way there He is! “Hello ladies! It’s me! I’ve risen! Just like I said.” They fall at His feet and worship Him. It’s the Lord! He’s not done speaking. There’s more to say. “Ladies, no need to fear. Believe me, I won’t hurt you. Trust me, I’m not out to get you. Yes, I am the judge of the living and the dead but I’ve got nothing against you. See my scars? See my wounds? They’re for you. I did this for you! You’re forgiven. Everything’s all right. Now, go tell my BROTHERS to go to Galilee. Tell them that I promise to meet them in Galilee. I’ll proclaim the same good news to them that I just proclaimed to you. Off you go ladies. No time to waste. Chop chop!”
Did you catch the key term in Jesus’ words to the women? “Brothers.” “Go tell my brothers.” Sinners are now His “brothers.” Members of His family. Not enemies. But brothers! Because of what He pulled off: a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday!
And so are you! Forgiven brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus Himself. Restored members of His family. His house. He meets you not in Galilee. He promises to meet you every day in His Word of promise first preached by Peter that, “everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” (Acts 10:43). Jesus meets you in your Baptism. Put His name on you. Buried you with Him into His Good Friday salvation for you death! To you He speaks His baptismal promise: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16).
Yes, you are saved. He says so. And because He says so you belong to Him. He’s got you! You “have died” with Christ and all your sin died with Him. And you “have been raised with Christ” in His resurrection and in your Baptism.
He died for you. He rose for you. He did precisely what He promised. For you! Hidden with Christ you now are! He’s your life now. He is your life forever. And when He returns in glory on the Last Day you’ll see with your eyes with whom you’ve always been. In Christ!
He will not abandon you to the grave! His name has branded your body. His very life giving Body and Blood he gives you to eat and drink with the bread and wine. He has made your body a temple of His Spirit – the Spirit who is the Lord and Give of life! He dwells with you. Makes His home with you.
So that when the judge of the living and the dead cries out on judgment day, “Come out! Come out of your gave!” His words will do what they say. They will give what they say. Your body will be raised from the grave. Your resurrected bodies will be like His. Incorruptible. Immortal. Imperishable. And we will fall at His feet and worship Him: the crucified and risen Lord FOR YOU Jesus Christ.
In the Name of Jesus.
It’s the third day. The women are at the grave. The cemetery. What do you and the women expect to see there after three days? A corpse. To anoint it. To pay your last respects. To say your final farewell.
Little did you and the women know that there was another earthquake. A violent one. Just like when He died at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Earthquakes are recorded in the Bible when God manifests Himself. Reveals Himself. The arm of the Lord’s strength was revealed in the bloody death of Jesus. And now at the tomb God is at work once again. For you. And for your justification! That is to say, your relationship with God has been changed forever because of what happened on that early Sunday morning in that borrowed tomb.
A heavy earthquake. And with it the angel of the Lord. He shows up with lightning like appearance. Whiter than snow clothes. He rolls away the sealed and secured stone door of the tomb like it’s nothing. And then he plops down on it using it as a chair. The guards shake in their boots like dead men. Who wouldn’t? After all, who sees something like this every day?
But Jesus said it would happen. He would suffer, die, and on the third rise from the dead.
Then the women show up. No need to be afraid the angel says. “No need to worry ladies. I know you expected to see the crucified corpse, anoint it, and lament what happened. Humanly speaking it was very sad, wasn’t it? But the body’s not here! That’s right! Don’t believe me? Well, be my guest. Take a good look. You saw where He was buried in here. See? There’s no body is there ladies? And you know why don’t you? Yes, that’s right. He has risen! Just like He promised!”
Just like He promised! Over and over again! The words of Jesus are put into their ears. And yours. His words that are Spirit and life! The angel is Jesus’ messenger. His preacher. “The crucified Jesus is not here folks! He has risen just as He said!” In those words the Holy Spirit bears witness and gives glory to Jesus. After all, Jesus is the one who died. Jesus is the one who rose. Jesus is the Savior.
What He promised He did! He suffered, died, and rose on the third day. And He did it all for you! No one else can do such a Savior job like that! No one else pulled off a suffering, dying, and rising. Only Jesus did. Just like He said.
And that’s good news! Because of Jesus all your sin is forgiven. God refuses to count it against you because of what Jesus did for you! And because there is forgiveness of sins in Jesus, you have peace with God. You have life and salvation.
Such good news is to be proclaimed. Preached and shouted for all. For every sinner. For disciples, you and me. For we too denied Him. We betrayed Him. We killed Him. Our sin hung Him there on the cross. We are responsible. We are guilty. And yet He prayed for us: “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” That’s right. We didn’t. And so He gave His life into death as the atoning sacrifice for all sin. The world’s. Yours and mine.
And God raised Him bodily from the grave on the third day. All is now set right. All is forgiven! Proof of that is Jesus: risen just like He said.
“So go now,” the angel says. “No need to stay here. Hurry up. Turn around. Tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead. He’s gone ahead of you to Galilee. He’ll meet you there. I give you my word.” And so off they go. Full of joy and full of fear.
And along the way there He is! “Hello ladies! It’s me! I’ve risen! Just like I said.” They fall at His feet and worship Him. It’s the Lord! He’s not done speaking. There’s more to say. “Ladies, no need to fear. Believe me, I won’t hurt you. Trust me, I’m not out to get you. Yes, I am the judge of the living and the dead but I’ve got nothing against you. See my scars? See my wounds? They’re for you. I did this for you! You’re forgiven. Everything’s all right. Now, go tell my BROTHERS to go to Galilee. Tell them that I promise to meet them in Galilee. I’ll proclaim the same good news to them that I just proclaimed to you. Off you go ladies. No time to waste. Chop chop!”
Did you catch the key term in Jesus’ words to the women? “Brothers.” “Go tell my brothers.” Sinners are now His “brothers.” Members of His family. Not enemies. But brothers! Because of what He pulled off: a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday!
And so are you! Forgiven brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus Himself. Restored members of His family. His house. He meets you not in Galilee. He promises to meet you every day in His Word of promise first preached by Peter that, “everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” (Acts 10:43). Jesus meets you in your Baptism. Put His name on you. Buried you with Him into His Good Friday salvation for you death! To you He speaks His baptismal promise: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16).
Yes, you are saved. He says so. And because He says so you belong to Him. He’s got you! You “have died” with Christ and all your sin died with Him. And you “have been raised with Christ” in His resurrection and in your Baptism.
He died for you. He rose for you. He did precisely what He promised. For you! Hidden with Christ you now are! He’s your life now. He is your life forever. And when He returns in glory on the Last Day you’ll see with your eyes with whom you’ve always been. In Christ!
He will not abandon you to the grave! His name has branded your body. His very life giving Body and Blood he gives you to eat and drink with the bread and wine. He has made your body a temple of His Spirit – the Spirit who is the Lord and Give of life! He dwells with you. Makes His home with you.
So that when the judge of the living and the dead cries out on judgment day, “Come out! Come out of your gave!” His words will do what they say. They will give what they say. Your body will be raised from the grave. Your resurrected bodies will be like His. Incorruptible. Immortal. Imperishable. And we will fall at His feet and worship Him: the crucified and risen Lord FOR YOU Jesus Christ.
In the Name of Jesus.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Holy Saturday - Easter Vigil - Died and Buried for you
This years Lenten Sermons are adapted from a series prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, Murdock, NE.
Matthew 27:57-66 - Dead & Buried: For You!
The eternal Son of God is dead. The Good Friday hymn “O Darkest Woe” puts it very starkly and appropriately: O grosse Not! Gott selbst ist tot! God Himself is dead! And buried. In the body of the God-Man Jesus. It’s all according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15). Joseph spent three years as good as dead in jail. Samson was locked up in Gaza. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. And now the Lord Jesus rests in the belly of the earth – three days and three nights.
For your sake He died on the Cross. For your benefit the Lord uses a secret disciple to audaciously ask Pilate for permission to bury Christ’s corpse. Yes, all this is for your good. Even Christ’s burial counts for you!
All your sins are buried and sealed in Christ’s grave. Jesus has buried them all in the black hole of His tomb. They cannot accuse you or condemn you any longer in God’s presence.
In addition, Christ’s burial in a borrowed grave hallows or holies or adorns your grave! In His burial Jesus comes and touches your grave with His Holy Body which even in the midst of His death remains the Temple of the living God!
This means that your grave is no longer just a box for your body but a sleeping room for the living! After all, Christ’s body that lies in the grave turns your grave into a resting place. You, who believe in Jesus, will not remain in the cemetery. You, just like the risen Jesus, will be given new life on the Day of Resurrection. For Jesus is the Firstfruits of them that sleep.
Until then you are given to live in your Baptism every day. God’s way of rehearsing you for your rest in the grave and you’re your resurrection on the Last Day. Every day your old Adam must die and be interred with Christ. Every day the new man of faith emerges and arises to live before God in the righteousness and purity of Christ Himself. Death to sin. New life through faith in Christ. Death – Resurrection. Daily. That’s the life of the Christian described by the apostle Paul in Romans 6: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death.” And: “We know that our old man was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with.” In order for the new man to arise with Christ and live by faith in Him, the old Adam must die daily with all sin and evil desires through contrition and repentance.
Now, when the day of your death and burial comes, your grave and the cemetery are just resting places. For Jesus, in His burial, has sanctified your grave with the touch of His Holy Body. And in Holy Baptism Jesus has wrapped you in His burial clothes and His grave so that by the power of His death, burial and resurrection you will be raised bodily and given eternal life.
Christ’s enemies wanted to keep Him in the grave forever. Sealed it and secured it with guards. But all their cunning and strength were no match for Him. Your enemies of sin, death, and Satan would keep you in the grave forever. But because of Jesus who was buried for you they cannot hold you there. Your grave is just a place of rest after all your work on this earth until the Day of Resurrection.
So, on the day we bury your graveyard dead body six feet under it will be like we’re putting one of our children to bed at night. Tucking them in until morning. For we know that in the morning it will be time to get up. So we’ll tuck you in your bed with a little dirt and wait for the resurrection morn to come. At the grave we will pray: “O Lord Jesus Christ, by Your three-day rest in the tomb You hallowed the graves of all who believe in You, promising resurrection to our mortal bodies. Bless this grave that the body of our brother may sleep here in peace until You awaken him to glory …” And then we will commit your body to the ground in the sure and certain confidence of the hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus who will change your lowly body to be like Christ’s glorious body.
All this for you because Jesus died, WAS BURIED, and rose according to the Scriptures. He is your life even in death. Even in His burial.
In the Name of Jesus.
Matthew 27:57-66 - Dead & Buried: For You!
The eternal Son of God is dead. The Good Friday hymn “O Darkest Woe” puts it very starkly and appropriately: O grosse Not! Gott selbst ist tot! God Himself is dead! And buried. In the body of the God-Man Jesus. It’s all according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15). Joseph spent three years as good as dead in jail. Samson was locked up in Gaza. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. And now the Lord Jesus rests in the belly of the earth – three days and three nights.
For your sake He died on the Cross. For your benefit the Lord uses a secret disciple to audaciously ask Pilate for permission to bury Christ’s corpse. Yes, all this is for your good. Even Christ’s burial counts for you!
All your sins are buried and sealed in Christ’s grave. Jesus has buried them all in the black hole of His tomb. They cannot accuse you or condemn you any longer in God’s presence.
In addition, Christ’s burial in a borrowed grave hallows or holies or adorns your grave! In His burial Jesus comes and touches your grave with His Holy Body which even in the midst of His death remains the Temple of the living God!
This means that your grave is no longer just a box for your body but a sleeping room for the living! After all, Christ’s body that lies in the grave turns your grave into a resting place. You, who believe in Jesus, will not remain in the cemetery. You, just like the risen Jesus, will be given new life on the Day of Resurrection. For Jesus is the Firstfruits of them that sleep.
Until then you are given to live in your Baptism every day. God’s way of rehearsing you for your rest in the grave and you’re your resurrection on the Last Day. Every day your old Adam must die and be interred with Christ. Every day the new man of faith emerges and arises to live before God in the righteousness and purity of Christ Himself. Death to sin. New life through faith in Christ. Death – Resurrection. Daily. That’s the life of the Christian described by the apostle Paul in Romans 6: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death.” And: “We know that our old man was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with.” In order for the new man to arise with Christ and live by faith in Him, the old Adam must die daily with all sin and evil desires through contrition and repentance.
Now, when the day of your death and burial comes, your grave and the cemetery are just resting places. For Jesus, in His burial, has sanctified your grave with the touch of His Holy Body. And in Holy Baptism Jesus has wrapped you in His burial clothes and His grave so that by the power of His death, burial and resurrection you will be raised bodily and given eternal life.
Christ’s enemies wanted to keep Him in the grave forever. Sealed it and secured it with guards. But all their cunning and strength were no match for Him. Your enemies of sin, death, and Satan would keep you in the grave forever. But because of Jesus who was buried for you they cannot hold you there. Your grave is just a place of rest after all your work on this earth until the Day of Resurrection.
So, on the day we bury your graveyard dead body six feet under it will be like we’re putting one of our children to bed at night. Tucking them in until morning. For we know that in the morning it will be time to get up. So we’ll tuck you in your bed with a little dirt and wait for the resurrection morn to come. At the grave we will pray: “O Lord Jesus Christ, by Your three-day rest in the tomb You hallowed the graves of all who believe in You, promising resurrection to our mortal bodies. Bless this grave that the body of our brother may sleep here in peace until You awaken him to glory …” And then we will commit your body to the ground in the sure and certain confidence of the hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus who will change your lowly body to be like Christ’s glorious body.
All this for you because Jesus died, WAS BURIED, and rose according to the Scriptures. He is your life even in death. Even in His burial.
In the Name of Jesus.
The Tomb of Jesus
Friday, April 22, 2011
Tenebrae Good Friday - Water, Blood and Spirit
This years Lenten Sermons are adapted from a series prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, Murdock, NE.
John 19:17-37; 1 John 5:5-7 Apostles’ Creed / Third Article: Water, Blood & Spirit
“It is finished.” Many tried to keep Him from saying that. Bystanders, soldiers, the religious authoritarian thugs, and one of the criminals hanging next to Him. All instruments of and temptations from Satan himself! “Come down!” they shrieked. “Save yourself! If you’re truly the King of the Jews – the promised Messiah, God’s own Son -- hop right off that cross! After all, we all know that God’s Son can’t die! So get down! And then start this salvation business from scratch! Get a kingdom of God cranked up like it’s supposed to be: without all this weak, ineffective, brutal suffering nonsense! Keep this up and we know that you’re just a fraud!”
He says it nonetheless! “It is finished!” And what He says He does!
And that’s salvation! The redemption job: done. The history of the world and the universe comes to its ultimate climax here. He who suffers under Pontius Pilate is the hinge, the linchpin, upon which the world’s rescue hangs – the fulcrum upon which it turns.
“It is finished.” He speaks. Just like in the beginning. “Let there be light.” And it was so. So now here: “Let there be salvation.” And it is so. And it is very good! Perfectly done! The Father is well pleased with this sacrifice that ends in His Son’s bloody death. Always has been. Always will be. And so all your sin is answered for in this Passover Lamb’s body hanging graveyard dead on the Tree. He is the atoning sacrifice for all your sin.
Yes, that’s right, all! All the sin you know. All that you don’t know. All the sin you love to do. All you hate to do. All sin! He didn’t leave any of your sin or any of its punishment out of His Good Friday suffering. Total Savior. He does what He says: “It is finished.” Your salvation has been won! Jesus died for you!
What a treasure! What a gift! He would now bestow and give to you the benefits of His “It Is Finished” death on the Tree.
So look what He does – even in death! For you His side, His life giving flesh is sliced wide open. The solder takes a spear. Pierces the second and last Adam’s side in the deep sleep of death. And miraculously, from this second and last Adam’s rib (if you will) flows a stream of water and blood! Water and blood!
What does this mean? Listen to 1 John 5: “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by WATER and BLOOD – Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by WATER and BLOOD.” And then John expands who’s at work for you in Christ’s WATER and BLOOD that flowed from His Body on the Cross. “And it is the SPIRIT who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the SPIRIT, the WATER, and the BLOOD and the three are in agreement.”
Do you get John’s point? John is telling you why WATER and BLOOD flowed from the Savior’s Body. WATER, BLOOD, and HOLY SPIRIT testify – they give witness that Jesus is indeed God’s Son. Just like the sky going black, the earthquakes, the rocks splitting wide open, the temple curtain torn in two from top to bottom and the tombs of many holy ones breaking open -- so too the WATER, BLOOD AND HOLY SPIRIT cry out that Jesus truly is the Savior of the world!
And more. Even today the WATER, BLOOD, AND SPIRIT testify to Jesus. The Spirit, at work in the church, through the proclamation of the Word proclaims the good news that Jesus got the salvation job done for you! Do you remember Jesus’ promise: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, HE WILL TESTIFY ABOUT ME,” (John 15:26) “The Spirit will bring glory to me. He will take what belongs to me [salvation] and make it known to you,” (John 16:14). The holy office of preaching is the very office of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3) by which He calls you by the Gospel and enlightens you with Christ’s gifts -- the benefits of Calvary!
WATER, BLOOD, AND SPIRIT. The water of Holy Baptism and the Blood of the Sacrament of the Altar hooked with Christ’s Word are the Spirit-filled -- Lord and Giver of Life witness to the Savior who died for you on this day we call “Good.” Yes, these two sacraments are the Spirit’s own witness that you are forgiven, redeemed, and saved only for Christ’s sake! In fact, they are the very means / instruments by which He grants you the benefits Jesus won for you.
From the first Adam’s side God fashioned a wife. “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” Adam said of Eve. Now from the deep sleep of death God fashions a bride for the second and last Adam, Jesus. And she is the church. Created and sustained from the WATER and BLOOD that flow from Christ’s side. The church, Christ’s holy bride, is bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh (Ephesians 5)!
WATER AND BLOOD -- from the side of Jesus. The Holy Spirit uses the two sacraments in the church to wash and cleanse you from all sin. To quench the thirst of God’s wrath against you. You are saved through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in the baptismal flood (Titus 3). Born from above by water and the Spirit (John 3). Kept with Jesus in the true faith through the cup of the new testament in His blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
After all, the WATER and the BLOOD that flow from His side are the WATER and BLOOD of God’s very own Son in which all the fullness of the deity dwells. Life-giving WATER. Life bestowing BLOOD!
“It is finished!” (Salvation, that is!) And that very good salvation is delivered for you. Jesus says so. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” (Mark 16). “Given and shed for you. And I promise that you’re forgiven,” (Matthew 26). His words are Spirit and they are life: FOR YOU!
In the Name of Jesus.
John 19:17-37; 1 John 5:5-7 Apostles’ Creed / Third Article: Water, Blood & Spirit
“It is finished.” Many tried to keep Him from saying that. Bystanders, soldiers, the religious authoritarian thugs, and one of the criminals hanging next to Him. All instruments of and temptations from Satan himself! “Come down!” they shrieked. “Save yourself! If you’re truly the King of the Jews – the promised Messiah, God’s own Son -- hop right off that cross! After all, we all know that God’s Son can’t die! So get down! And then start this salvation business from scratch! Get a kingdom of God cranked up like it’s supposed to be: without all this weak, ineffective, brutal suffering nonsense! Keep this up and we know that you’re just a fraud!”
He says it nonetheless! “It is finished!” And what He says He does!
And that’s salvation! The redemption job: done. The history of the world and the universe comes to its ultimate climax here. He who suffers under Pontius Pilate is the hinge, the linchpin, upon which the world’s rescue hangs – the fulcrum upon which it turns.
“It is finished.” He speaks. Just like in the beginning. “Let there be light.” And it was so. So now here: “Let there be salvation.” And it is so. And it is very good! Perfectly done! The Father is well pleased with this sacrifice that ends in His Son’s bloody death. Always has been. Always will be. And so all your sin is answered for in this Passover Lamb’s body hanging graveyard dead on the Tree. He is the atoning sacrifice for all your sin.
Yes, that’s right, all! All the sin you know. All that you don’t know. All the sin you love to do. All you hate to do. All sin! He didn’t leave any of your sin or any of its punishment out of His Good Friday suffering. Total Savior. He does what He says: “It is finished.” Your salvation has been won! Jesus died for you!
What a treasure! What a gift! He would now bestow and give to you the benefits of His “It Is Finished” death on the Tree.
So look what He does – even in death! For you His side, His life giving flesh is sliced wide open. The solder takes a spear. Pierces the second and last Adam’s side in the deep sleep of death. And miraculously, from this second and last Adam’s rib (if you will) flows a stream of water and blood! Water and blood!
What does this mean? Listen to 1 John 5: “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by WATER and BLOOD – Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by WATER and BLOOD.” And then John expands who’s at work for you in Christ’s WATER and BLOOD that flowed from His Body on the Cross. “And it is the SPIRIT who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the SPIRIT, the WATER, and the BLOOD and the three are in agreement.”
Do you get John’s point? John is telling you why WATER and BLOOD flowed from the Savior’s Body. WATER, BLOOD, and HOLY SPIRIT testify – they give witness that Jesus is indeed God’s Son. Just like the sky going black, the earthquakes, the rocks splitting wide open, the temple curtain torn in two from top to bottom and the tombs of many holy ones breaking open -- so too the WATER, BLOOD AND HOLY SPIRIT cry out that Jesus truly is the Savior of the world!
And more. Even today the WATER, BLOOD, AND SPIRIT testify to Jesus. The Spirit, at work in the church, through the proclamation of the Word proclaims the good news that Jesus got the salvation job done for you! Do you remember Jesus’ promise: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father, HE WILL TESTIFY ABOUT ME,” (John 15:26) “The Spirit will bring glory to me. He will take what belongs to me [salvation] and make it known to you,” (John 16:14). The holy office of preaching is the very office of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3) by which He calls you by the Gospel and enlightens you with Christ’s gifts -- the benefits of Calvary!
WATER, BLOOD, AND SPIRIT. The water of Holy Baptism and the Blood of the Sacrament of the Altar hooked with Christ’s Word are the Spirit-filled -- Lord and Giver of Life witness to the Savior who died for you on this day we call “Good.” Yes, these two sacraments are the Spirit’s own witness that you are forgiven, redeemed, and saved only for Christ’s sake! In fact, they are the very means / instruments by which He grants you the benefits Jesus won for you.
From the first Adam’s side God fashioned a wife. “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” Adam said of Eve. Now from the deep sleep of death God fashions a bride for the second and last Adam, Jesus. And she is the church. Created and sustained from the WATER and BLOOD that flow from Christ’s side. The church, Christ’s holy bride, is bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh (Ephesians 5)!
WATER AND BLOOD -- from the side of Jesus. The Holy Spirit uses the two sacraments in the church to wash and cleanse you from all sin. To quench the thirst of God’s wrath against you. You are saved through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in the baptismal flood (Titus 3). Born from above by water and the Spirit (John 3). Kept with Jesus in the true faith through the cup of the new testament in His blood shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
After all, the WATER and the BLOOD that flow from His side are the WATER and BLOOD of God’s very own Son in which all the fullness of the deity dwells. Life-giving WATER. Life bestowing BLOOD!
“It is finished!” (Salvation, that is!) And that very good salvation is delivered for you. Jesus says so. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” (Mark 16). “Given and shed for you. And I promise that you’re forgiven,” (Matthew 26). His words are Spirit and they are life: FOR YOU!
In the Name of Jesus.
Tre Ore - 2011 - Seven Last Words of Christ
As part of the Tre Ore service at Immanuel and St. John's this year, we will read the seven last words of Christ along with the sermons that go along with them. The Tre Ore service commemorates the last three hours of Christ's life as he hung on the cross, while we also look ahead to Easter and His glorious resurrection.
First Word: Luke 23:32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ’s first words as he bleeds and dies nailed to a cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The first words that Jesus speaks from the cross are words of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. These words echoed out from the cross, even to today. The reason we are here today is because we know we need forgiveness. We know we need forgiveness, because there is so much sin within each one of us. So much sin that separates us from God. So much hurt and pain and so much anger. The vast chasm that our sin creates separates us from God. It is so large and so unwieldy that we can do nothing to change it or to overcome it.
Murder, hate, lust, adultery, gossip, selfishness and pride. Friends, we don’t know what we are doing. So often our sin does what we know is wrong, what we know we shouldn’t do. So often do we know that we are guilty, just as guilty as those who hammered nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, the Son of the Living God, who pierced His side with a spear. But friends, Jesus’ first words are as much a prayer for you as they are for those who were there that fateful day. And Jesus’ prayer isn’t only a request or a plea. Jesus’ prayer is one that is answered. For it is in Jesus’ own blood poured out that Good Friday from His body, in His own death, that He earns forgiveness for you. “Father, forgive them, even though they don’t know what they do” Jesus’ prayer says, “and punish me in their place.” We have full and complete forgiveness in the death of Jesus.
Second Word: Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Today! Right now! Jesus makes a promise to that man on the cross. He doesn’t say, “Maybe you will be with me in paradise.” He doesn’t say, “Perhaps”, or “Tomorrow”, or “when I get around to it”. Jesus says “today”. It isn’t something that is in doubt. It isn’t something that you need to worry about. It is something that we have Today!! Right now! Today Jesus has suffered for me. Today his blood covers me. Today I am his holy precious child in the faith He pours out on me. Today.
Jesus is with me. Jesus is here and nothing can separate me from His love. It’s here for me Today, and all the Todays that are to come. Salvation is now, salvation comes right now. Salvation is yours today, because of the holy blood of Christ that spilled from his very side as he said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Today. Amen.
Third Word: John 19:25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Jesus thinks not of Himself, but of others. Even as he is bleeding and dying on that Old Rugged Cross. Even as he suffers torture and crucifixion, Jesus is thinking of others. Here he fulfills the Fourth Commandment, “honor your father and your mother”, by instructing John to take care of Mary as John would care for his own mother. Jesus’ concern is not with what is happening to himself, but rather how to care for you.
By doing this, Jesus is fulfilling the entire Law. From the moment of His birth until the moment of his death, Jesus is fulfilling what we cannot. He has kept all Ten of the Commandments, where as we have kept none. He has obeyed God perfectly and totally, and has even now submitted himself to suffering and death on the cross. And Jesus does it all because he is concerned with you. Jesus does it all because He wants you to be in that same relationship with God the Father as He is in – perfect love. As Jesus suffers in your place, he says to you, “Behold, your heavenly Father, who has adopted you in my blood.” And to His Father He says, “Behold your son, purchased and won with my holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death.” Amen.
Fourth Word: Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These words from Psalm 22 are more often than not our words. When we feel abandoned. When we feel alone, or betrayed. When we are angry or frustrated, what are our first words? God, how could you have let this happen? God, how could you have done this to me? Why have you forsaken me? Friends, in our sin, that is exactly what we deserve. Doesn’t it make sense that if we have so blatantly and utterly turned our backs on God that He should do the same? As we have confessed by our actions that He doesn’t exist, as we have said, “I know what scripture says, but I am still going to do my own thing.” We have done these things, so shouldn’t God abandon us, shouldn’t He leave us alone and bound for the Hell that we deserve?
But your God does not forsake you. Even as so many times we feel like God doesn’t care at all. Your God has not abandoned you. Your God has not left you alone or betrayed you. Rather your God took on your human flesh, and was Himself forsaken in your place on a cross. He Himself was abandoned; He himself suffered the punishment of Hell apart from God. God turned his back on Jesus. He was forsaken so that you yourself might not be, and might live with Him forever in His kingdom. There you will never be far from God. There you will never be abandoned or forsaken. There you will never be alone, for surely your God is with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus was forsaken so that you might always be in palm of your God’s hand, even forever more. Amen.
Fifth Word: John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.
I am Thirsty. I need a drink. I Thirst. Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” He told the woman at the well, “I will give you water to drink which you will drink and never thirst again.” Jesus is the river of life. Jesus has water that will satisfy. Jesus has water that is good. But so often, we thirst for other things, hoping that in them we will have satisfaction, that in them we will have peace, in them we will finally have our thirst quenched. But when we partake of them, they still leave us feeling thirsty for more.
But there is only one thing that can satisfy. There is only one thing that can give us hope, only one thing which really will quench our thirst. And that thing is the very love of Jesus. The love that is so great that he will even give up his life for you, His beloved friend. The love of Jesus which is so great that he would go to Calvary and drink the cup of God’s wrath so that you might drink the cup of God’s blessing and tenderness.
What do you thirst for? What things do you thirst for? Friends, in faith we thirst for Jesus. We thirst for His love. We thirst for His forgiveness. And as we do, we know that those springs of living water well up within us to everlasting life. Amen.
Sixth Word: John 19:29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
It is finished! It’s all done. The war our own sin began so long ago in the Garden of Eden, as Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, has now been completed. Now the battle’s o’er, the victory’s won. The battle has raged in each one of us. The battle raged as we fought against our God and our Lord. So often we deigned to be our own God. So often we claimed to be in charge of ourselves. We’ve made our own decisions, and in them so often spit in the eye of God and told Him, “I don’t need you! I don’t want you! Leave me alone!” But now the battle is o’er. Now “It is finished.”
It is finished because your sin has been taken on Jesus. All of it. Every single thing wrong, those you know about, and those you don’t know about. It is all on Jesus. You cannot keep any for yourself. He has taken it, and carried it up the hill called Golgotha, and there He has killed it once and for all. It is FINISHED! It is finished in the past as Jesus died. It is finished now as that grace and forgiveness come to you in the precious means of grace. It is finished because Christ has died for you, so that you may have new life in faith and hope and love. No longer need you be burdened by your sin – it is finished. No longer need you worry about your guilt – it is finished. No longer do you have to ask, “Is what I have done so wrong, that I can never be forgiven?” It is finished, period! Everything necessary for your salvation is FINISHED! You cannot add or subtract from it. It is finished. In Jesus, you are forgiven. Amen.
Seventh Word: Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Father into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus again praying the psalms. Jesus praying a prayer we can offer up every day. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, we are in His hands. Nothing or no one can snatch us out. As Christians, we live in faith toward God, and love for neighbor that says, “I belong to God.”
But so often this is not our prayer. So often we forget we are in God’s loving hands. So often we would like to commit our lives, or at least the moment, to something much less than God. Sometimes we commit ourselves to that which is downright evil and sinful. Because of that, we are so often afraid, afraid of getting caught, afraid of consequences, afraid of the unknown. And we can be honest, we are afraid of death.
But no child is ever afraid to go where the leader has already gone. We have seen the game, Follow the Leader. But no matter how bold or daring that leader might be, over the fence, through the yard, across the street, the others may follow their leader without fear.
Today, in our last word from the cross, Jesus teaches us how to live, and he teaches us how to die. Don’t you know that all of you who have been baptized into the death of Jesus have already died with him? You have died in the waters of Baptism, sharing in the death that Jesus dies right here, right now in our text. And if you have died with him, you also follow him through death into his resurrection, into his everlasting life, into heaven.
Father into your hands, I commit my spirit, for now I follow your Son boldly into new life with you forever. Amen.
This evening, we will continue with the Tenebrae Service of Darkening at 7:00 at St. John's Lutheran Church.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ’s first words as he bleeds and dies nailed to a cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The first words that Jesus speaks from the cross are words of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. These words echoed out from the cross, even to today. The reason we are here today is because we know we need forgiveness. We know we need forgiveness, because there is so much sin within each one of us. So much sin that separates us from God. So much hurt and pain and so much anger. The vast chasm that our sin creates separates us from God. It is so large and so unwieldy that we can do nothing to change it or to overcome it.
Murder, hate, lust, adultery, gossip, selfishness and pride. Friends, we don’t know what we are doing. So often our sin does what we know is wrong, what we know we shouldn’t do. So often do we know that we are guilty, just as guilty as those who hammered nails into the hands and feet of Jesus, the Son of the Living God, who pierced His side with a spear. But friends, Jesus’ first words are as much a prayer for you as they are for those who were there that fateful day. And Jesus’ prayer isn’t only a request or a plea. Jesus’ prayer is one that is answered. For it is in Jesus’ own blood poured out that Good Friday from His body, in His own death, that He earns forgiveness for you. “Father, forgive them, even though they don’t know what they do” Jesus’ prayer says, “and punish me in their place.” We have full and complete forgiveness in the death of Jesus.
Second Word: Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Today! Right now! Jesus makes a promise to that man on the cross. He doesn’t say, “Maybe you will be with me in paradise.” He doesn’t say, “Perhaps”, or “Tomorrow”, or “when I get around to it”. Jesus says “today”. It isn’t something that is in doubt. It isn’t something that you need to worry about. It is something that we have Today!! Right now! Today Jesus has suffered for me. Today his blood covers me. Today I am his holy precious child in the faith He pours out on me. Today.
Jesus is with me. Jesus is here and nothing can separate me from His love. It’s here for me Today, and all the Todays that are to come. Salvation is now, salvation comes right now. Salvation is yours today, because of the holy blood of Christ that spilled from his very side as he said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Today. Amen.
Third Word: John 19:25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Jesus thinks not of Himself, but of others. Even as he is bleeding and dying on that Old Rugged Cross. Even as he suffers torture and crucifixion, Jesus is thinking of others. Here he fulfills the Fourth Commandment, “honor your father and your mother”, by instructing John to take care of Mary as John would care for his own mother. Jesus’ concern is not with what is happening to himself, but rather how to care for you.
By doing this, Jesus is fulfilling the entire Law. From the moment of His birth until the moment of his death, Jesus is fulfilling what we cannot. He has kept all Ten of the Commandments, where as we have kept none. He has obeyed God perfectly and totally, and has even now submitted himself to suffering and death on the cross. And Jesus does it all because he is concerned with you. Jesus does it all because He wants you to be in that same relationship with God the Father as He is in – perfect love. As Jesus suffers in your place, he says to you, “Behold, your heavenly Father, who has adopted you in my blood.” And to His Father He says, “Behold your son, purchased and won with my holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death.” Amen.
Fourth Word: Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These words from Psalm 22 are more often than not our words. When we feel abandoned. When we feel alone, or betrayed. When we are angry or frustrated, what are our first words? God, how could you have let this happen? God, how could you have done this to me? Why have you forsaken me? Friends, in our sin, that is exactly what we deserve. Doesn’t it make sense that if we have so blatantly and utterly turned our backs on God that He should do the same? As we have confessed by our actions that He doesn’t exist, as we have said, “I know what scripture says, but I am still going to do my own thing.” We have done these things, so shouldn’t God abandon us, shouldn’t He leave us alone and bound for the Hell that we deserve?
But your God does not forsake you. Even as so many times we feel like God doesn’t care at all. Your God has not abandoned you. Your God has not left you alone or betrayed you. Rather your God took on your human flesh, and was Himself forsaken in your place on a cross. He Himself was abandoned; He himself suffered the punishment of Hell apart from God. God turned his back on Jesus. He was forsaken so that you yourself might not be, and might live with Him forever in His kingdom. There you will never be far from God. There you will never be abandoned or forsaken. There you will never be alone, for surely your God is with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus was forsaken so that you might always be in palm of your God’s hand, even forever more. Amen.
Fifth Word: John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.
I am Thirsty. I need a drink. I Thirst. Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” He told the woman at the well, “I will give you water to drink which you will drink and never thirst again.” Jesus is the river of life. Jesus has water that will satisfy. Jesus has water that is good. But so often, we thirst for other things, hoping that in them we will have satisfaction, that in them we will have peace, in them we will finally have our thirst quenched. But when we partake of them, they still leave us feeling thirsty for more.
But there is only one thing that can satisfy. There is only one thing that can give us hope, only one thing which really will quench our thirst. And that thing is the very love of Jesus. The love that is so great that he will even give up his life for you, His beloved friend. The love of Jesus which is so great that he would go to Calvary and drink the cup of God’s wrath so that you might drink the cup of God’s blessing and tenderness.
What do you thirst for? What things do you thirst for? Friends, in faith we thirst for Jesus. We thirst for His love. We thirst for His forgiveness. And as we do, we know that those springs of living water well up within us to everlasting life. Amen.
Sixth Word: John 19:29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
It is finished! It’s all done. The war our own sin began so long ago in the Garden of Eden, as Adam and Eve first disobeyed God, has now been completed. Now the battle’s o’er, the victory’s won. The battle has raged in each one of us. The battle raged as we fought against our God and our Lord. So often we deigned to be our own God. So often we claimed to be in charge of ourselves. We’ve made our own decisions, and in them so often spit in the eye of God and told Him, “I don’t need you! I don’t want you! Leave me alone!” But now the battle is o’er. Now “It is finished.”
It is finished because your sin has been taken on Jesus. All of it. Every single thing wrong, those you know about, and those you don’t know about. It is all on Jesus. You cannot keep any for yourself. He has taken it, and carried it up the hill called Golgotha, and there He has killed it once and for all. It is FINISHED! It is finished in the past as Jesus died. It is finished now as that grace and forgiveness come to you in the precious means of grace. It is finished because Christ has died for you, so that you may have new life in faith and hope and love. No longer need you be burdened by your sin – it is finished. No longer need you worry about your guilt – it is finished. No longer do you have to ask, “Is what I have done so wrong, that I can never be forgiven?” It is finished, period! Everything necessary for your salvation is FINISHED! You cannot add or subtract from it. It is finished. In Jesus, you are forgiven. Amen.
Seventh Word: Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Father into your hands, I commit my spirit. Jesus again praying the psalms. Jesus praying a prayer we can offer up every day. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, we are in His hands. Nothing or no one can snatch us out. As Christians, we live in faith toward God, and love for neighbor that says, “I belong to God.”
But so often this is not our prayer. So often we forget we are in God’s loving hands. So often we would like to commit our lives, or at least the moment, to something much less than God. Sometimes we commit ourselves to that which is downright evil and sinful. Because of that, we are so often afraid, afraid of getting caught, afraid of consequences, afraid of the unknown. And we can be honest, we are afraid of death.
But no child is ever afraid to go where the leader has already gone. We have seen the game, Follow the Leader. But no matter how bold or daring that leader might be, over the fence, through the yard, across the street, the others may follow their leader without fear.
Today, in our last word from the cross, Jesus teaches us how to live, and he teaches us how to die. Don’t you know that all of you who have been baptized into the death of Jesus have already died with him? You have died in the waters of Baptism, sharing in the death that Jesus dies right here, right now in our text. And if you have died with him, you also follow him through death into his resurrection, into his everlasting life, into heaven.
Father into your hands, I commit my spirit, for now I follow your Son boldly into new life with you forever. Amen.
This evening, we will continue with the Tenebrae Service of Darkening at 7:00 at St. John's Lutheran Church.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Maundy Thursday 2011 - Holied by the Body and Blood of Jesus
This years Lenten Sermons are adapted from a series prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, Murdock, NE.
Matthew 26:17-30 Apostles’ Creed / Third Article: Sanctified / Holied by the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Sacrament!
Most Holy Jesus – God in the flesh – there He sits. Heavy with His holiness He came down from heaven. The fullness of the deity dwells -- in the upper room – in the body of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary. He takes charge. The Most High and Holy Jesus does and says a Passover meal like none ever done before. And He does it for you! For your benefit!
Incredibly He does and says this Passover meal sitting smack dab in the midst of sinners! Sinners in the presence of the Most Holy God are usually toast! Adam and Eve defiled and estranged from God – thrown out of the garden! Bounced out of paradise! Remember the prophet Isaiah? “Woe to me,” he cried in the Lord’s presence at the temple. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live with a bunch of sinners just like me! As a sinner I’m history. Before the Lord unholy, polluted sinners like me deserve nothing but damnation!” (Isaiah 6:5). In the New Testament Peter said something similar when Jesus approached him one day: “Depart from me Lord for I am a filthy, rotten sinner!” That’s you! That’s me!
But Jesus stays after sinners. Peter. James. John. You. Me. Searches them out. Finds them. Puts them on His shoulders and carries them into the upper room – His ad hoc throne room – to do one of the most incredible and most powerful Passover meals ever!
Why? To unleash His wrath against His disciples, you and me (although we all deserve it)? To reduce to ashes sinners that dare to sit in His presence? No. Incredibly the Most Heavy With Holiness Jesus welcomes unholy, polluted sinners into His presence. To serve them! To gift them. TO HOLY THEM! TO SANCTIFY THEM!
With what? How? Well, listen to what He says when He takes bread and a cup of wine in His most holy hands. What He says – what He promises – is the heart of His giving – His promising. “Take this bread. Eat it. It is my body. Drink from this cup – all of you. It is my blood of the new testament poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Those are His words. His promises. And His words are “Spirit and truth,” (John 6:63). In other words, when Most Holy Jesus speaks, the very words He speaks are Holy Spirit filled. Holy Spirit goes on where Christ’s words go on! His words and the Holy Spirit go together. His Holy Spirited words doing and giving exactly what they say and promise. “My body. My blood. For all and for you. For the forgiveness of your sins.”
Most Holy Jesus, with His promissory word of absolution hooked to the bread and wine, welcomes sinners to His table. By means of His word He gives us His crucified and risen Body. Why? For what purpose?
The answer will just blow you away! Comfort you! Overjoy you! The reason Jesus gives you His Body with the bread is to holy you! To sanctify your bodies! So that you can be with Him and He can be with you in a beneficial way. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood,” Jesus promises, “abides in me and I in him,” (John 6:56). Paradise restored. Paradise recovered. New creations in Christ through His word of promise here in this meal. The Most High God comes down all the way into our messy, sin-infested lives in order to save His people from their sins. That’s precisely why we get out of our seats in the nave and go up to the altar in the sanctuary to receive the Sacrament. For there we enter into the heavenly realm of the Triune God Himself.
With His words that bestow exactly what they say, Most Holy Jesus shockingly and yet graciously shares and bestows His own holiness – His divine holiness with YOU, sinner! What’s yours – your sin and damnation – He takes. Answers for it. Atones for it. That’s Good Friday. So that what’s His – His holiness and purity -- is now yours given in the Sacrament. “Take and eat. This is my body.” So that right now your body is a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Here, in this meal, is union with the Most High and Holy God. He comes. He serves. He gives. He is one with you and you are one with Him!
By means of His word He gives you His most holy blood to drink. With your mouth. Yes, as He gives you His blood to drink with the cup of wine He sprinkles your heart for cleansing. He purifies your conscience and your inner being with the very blood He shed on the cross to atone for all your sin! His crucified and risen blood that He gives you to drink frees you from the stain of your sin. This cup of wine is His blood that protects you from the powers of darkness! This is His blood that fills you with the Holy Spirit and all His gifts! This is His blood that transfuses you with His very own divine life! For where there is forgiveness of sin THERE IS LIFE AND SALVATION!
Now, if you’d rather not believe all that and call Jesus a liar, then the most holy body and blood of Jesus will not be for your benefit. Woe to you because the Sacrament will be like glass in your belly if you insist on pulling a Judas Iscariot and refuse to believe what Jesus says and gives with His words to sinners.
Jesus does not lie. This Sacrament is His last will and testament. He instituted it with all the seriousness of a sound mind and body on the night when He was betrayed. And on that very night before His Calvary death He names you as the heirs of His testament. The inheritance? His most holy body and blood that He gives by virtue of His words connected to the bread and wine. For you to eat and drink, not to sit and stare at! For the forgiveness of all your sins! And with His words He gives you His Spirit who calls you by the gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps you in the truth faith as the Small Catechism confesses. Sanctifies. Yes, sanctifies you. Holies you!
All His doing. All His giving. And through Christ’s own testamentary words that do and give what they say in this meal, the Holy Spirit will keep you in the heavenly realms with Jesus both now and forever.
Have a happy and holy Maundy Thursday!
In the Name of Jesus.
Matthew 26:17-30 Apostles’ Creed / Third Article: Sanctified / Holied by the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Sacrament!
Most Holy Jesus – God in the flesh – there He sits. Heavy with His holiness He came down from heaven. The fullness of the deity dwells -- in the upper room – in the body of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary. He takes charge. The Most High and Holy Jesus does and says a Passover meal like none ever done before. And He does it for you! For your benefit!
Incredibly He does and says this Passover meal sitting smack dab in the midst of sinners! Sinners in the presence of the Most Holy God are usually toast! Adam and Eve defiled and estranged from God – thrown out of the garden! Bounced out of paradise! Remember the prophet Isaiah? “Woe to me,” he cried in the Lord’s presence at the temple. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live with a bunch of sinners just like me! As a sinner I’m history. Before the Lord unholy, polluted sinners like me deserve nothing but damnation!” (Isaiah 6:5). In the New Testament Peter said something similar when Jesus approached him one day: “Depart from me Lord for I am a filthy, rotten sinner!” That’s you! That’s me!
But Jesus stays after sinners. Peter. James. John. You. Me. Searches them out. Finds them. Puts them on His shoulders and carries them into the upper room – His ad hoc throne room – to do one of the most incredible and most powerful Passover meals ever!
Why? To unleash His wrath against His disciples, you and me (although we all deserve it)? To reduce to ashes sinners that dare to sit in His presence? No. Incredibly the Most Heavy With Holiness Jesus welcomes unholy, polluted sinners into His presence. To serve them! To gift them. TO HOLY THEM! TO SANCTIFY THEM!
With what? How? Well, listen to what He says when He takes bread and a cup of wine in His most holy hands. What He says – what He promises – is the heart of His giving – His promising. “Take this bread. Eat it. It is my body. Drink from this cup – all of you. It is my blood of the new testament poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Those are His words. His promises. And His words are “Spirit and truth,” (John 6:63). In other words, when Most Holy Jesus speaks, the very words He speaks are Holy Spirit filled. Holy Spirit goes on where Christ’s words go on! His words and the Holy Spirit go together. His Holy Spirited words doing and giving exactly what they say and promise. “My body. My blood. For all and for you. For the forgiveness of your sins.”
Most Holy Jesus, with His promissory word of absolution hooked to the bread and wine, welcomes sinners to His table. By means of His word He gives us His crucified and risen Body. Why? For what purpose?
The answer will just blow you away! Comfort you! Overjoy you! The reason Jesus gives you His Body with the bread is to holy you! To sanctify your bodies! So that you can be with Him and He can be with you in a beneficial way. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood,” Jesus promises, “abides in me and I in him,” (John 6:56). Paradise restored. Paradise recovered. New creations in Christ through His word of promise here in this meal. The Most High God comes down all the way into our messy, sin-infested lives in order to save His people from their sins. That’s precisely why we get out of our seats in the nave and go up to the altar in the sanctuary to receive the Sacrament. For there we enter into the heavenly realm of the Triune God Himself.
With His words that bestow exactly what they say, Most Holy Jesus shockingly and yet graciously shares and bestows His own holiness – His divine holiness with YOU, sinner! What’s yours – your sin and damnation – He takes. Answers for it. Atones for it. That’s Good Friday. So that what’s His – His holiness and purity -- is now yours given in the Sacrament. “Take and eat. This is my body.” So that right now your body is a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Here, in this meal, is union with the Most High and Holy God. He comes. He serves. He gives. He is one with you and you are one with Him!
By means of His word He gives you His most holy blood to drink. With your mouth. Yes, as He gives you His blood to drink with the cup of wine He sprinkles your heart for cleansing. He purifies your conscience and your inner being with the very blood He shed on the cross to atone for all your sin! His crucified and risen blood that He gives you to drink frees you from the stain of your sin. This cup of wine is His blood that protects you from the powers of darkness! This is His blood that fills you with the Holy Spirit and all His gifts! This is His blood that transfuses you with His very own divine life! For where there is forgiveness of sin THERE IS LIFE AND SALVATION!
Now, if you’d rather not believe all that and call Jesus a liar, then the most holy body and blood of Jesus will not be for your benefit. Woe to you because the Sacrament will be like glass in your belly if you insist on pulling a Judas Iscariot and refuse to believe what Jesus says and gives with His words to sinners.
Jesus does not lie. This Sacrament is His last will and testament. He instituted it with all the seriousness of a sound mind and body on the night when He was betrayed. And on that very night before His Calvary death He names you as the heirs of His testament. The inheritance? His most holy body and blood that He gives by virtue of His words connected to the bread and wine. For you to eat and drink, not to sit and stare at! For the forgiveness of all your sins! And with His words He gives you His Spirit who calls you by the gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies and keeps you in the truth faith as the Small Catechism confesses. Sanctifies. Yes, sanctifies you. Holies you!
All His doing. All His giving. And through Christ’s own testamentary words that do and give what they say in this meal, the Holy Spirit will keep you in the heavenly realms with Jesus both now and forever.
Have a happy and holy Maundy Thursday!
In the Name of Jesus.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Holy Week Greetings from LCMS President Harrison
Friends,
Below are Holy Week Greetings from the Headquarters of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I invite you to take a look.
I also invite you to attend our Holy Week Services, as they are listed below:
Holy Week Schedule 2011
The Triduum –
• April 21 - Maundy Thursday w/communion @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 7:00 pm
• April 22 - Tre Ore Good Friday @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 12:15 pm (Following the LYF Cross Processional) – All are invited! This is not only an LYF event, the entire church is invited to participate!
o Following the service, we will watch the movie “The Passion of the Christ”
• April 22 - Tenebrae Good Friday @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 7:00 pm
• April 23 - Easter Vigil @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 7:00 pm
Easter Services
• April 24 - Easter Sunrise @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 6:30 am followed by LYF Sunrise Breakfast
• April 24 - Easter Service w/communion @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 8:15 am
• April 24 - Easter Service w/communion @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 9:45 am
Confirmation
• Questioning – 7:00 April 29 @ Immanuel Lutheran
• May 1 – St. John’s 8:15 am. Immanuel 10:00 am.
We are in the midst of Lent, which means our eyes are set toward Easter, and the blessed death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Easter season is what we live for as Christians, because we know that as Christ dies, our sinful selves die with him. As Christ rises on the third day, we too rise, holy and blameless for eternal life in heaven. What a blessed hope and promise God has given to us.
To celebrate the blessings we receive in Easter, this year Immanuel Lutheran and St. John’s Lutheran Churches are going to celebrate the historic Triduum (pronounced Tri-doo-um). The Triduum is an historic service that has been celebrated since the very early years of the church. It begins with Maundy Thursday with the Institution of the Lord’s Supper and continues on Good Friday with Jesus’ suffering on the cross. Finally it ends with the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, as we boldly await the resurrection of Jesus sometime early in the morning on Easter Sunday. Each of these services flows into the next one, even though we may have a break from church in between them. These services give us an opportunity to focus on the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for all of our sins, so that we might also be raised with Him into Eternal life. Please feel free to join us!
Below are Holy Week Greetings from the Headquarters of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I invite you to take a look.
I also invite you to attend our Holy Week Services, as they are listed below:
Holy Week Schedule 2011
The Triduum –
• April 21 - Maundy Thursday w/communion @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 7:00 pm
• April 22 - Tre Ore Good Friday @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 12:15 pm (Following the LYF Cross Processional) – All are invited! This is not only an LYF event, the entire church is invited to participate!
o Following the service, we will watch the movie “The Passion of the Christ”
• April 22 - Tenebrae Good Friday @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 7:00 pm
• April 23 - Easter Vigil @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 7:00 pm
Easter Services
• April 24 - Easter Sunrise @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 6:30 am followed by LYF Sunrise Breakfast
• April 24 - Easter Service w/communion @ St. John’s Lutheran Belford 8:15 am
• April 24 - Easter Service w/communion @ Immanuel Lutheran Hankinson 9:45 am
Confirmation
• Questioning – 7:00 April 29 @ Immanuel Lutheran
• May 1 – St. John’s 8:15 am. Immanuel 10:00 am.
We are in the midst of Lent, which means our eyes are set toward Easter, and the blessed death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Easter season is what we live for as Christians, because we know that as Christ dies, our sinful selves die with him. As Christ rises on the third day, we too rise, holy and blameless for eternal life in heaven. What a blessed hope and promise God has given to us.
To celebrate the blessings we receive in Easter, this year Immanuel Lutheran and St. John’s Lutheran Churches are going to celebrate the historic Triduum (pronounced Tri-doo-um). The Triduum is an historic service that has been celebrated since the very early years of the church. It begins with Maundy Thursday with the Institution of the Lord’s Supper and continues on Good Friday with Jesus’ suffering on the cross. Finally it ends with the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, as we boldly await the resurrection of Jesus sometime early in the morning on Easter Sunday. Each of these services flows into the next one, even though we may have a break from church in between them. These services give us an opportunity to focus on the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for all of our sins, so that we might also be raised with Him into Eternal life. Please feel free to join us!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) 2011 - G - Now is the time for Christ to be Glorified for you.
Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson and the Old Testament, especially these words from John, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Thus far our text.
Now is the time! The Hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Finally after six long weeks of Lent. Finally after waiting in eager but somber expectation, the hour is here. In a few short days, Jesus will be brought to trial, be found guilty falsely, and be murdered by sinful people. Sinful people, like you and me. Sinful people who love the glory of the world more than the glory of God.
We know what the glory of the world is friends, don’t we? We know what things and which people we look up to. The glory of the world is all about me, me, me. It is all about what I want. All about what I desire. The glory of this world is what I can do and make for myself. I want a nice new house, just like I have seen on TV. I want a nice cushy job where I get more days off than I have to work. I want the nicest looking stylish clothing. And I want all of these things so that I can compare myself to others. “Look at me! Look how great I am! Look how much better I am than that poor person there! Aren’t I glorious?”
Not only do we compare ourselves with those around us, but we often times like to put those other people down, so that we ourselves are elevated. We criticize others. We judge them, all so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in doing this, we try to glorify ourselves. Anytime you judge someone else you make yourself God, you make yourself the ultimate judge. When you say, “I am better than this person,” you say, “I don’t care what you say God, I will be judge here.”
Friends the reason we do this, the reason we look to earthly glory is because we know that we have fallen short of what God’s Glory is. We have not fulfilled what God would have had us do in our lives. From the very moment of our conception, we were turning against our Lord and Creator. From the very moment our life begins, we are looking to glorify ourselves, rather than to glorify God. We are sinners, we are self-glorifiers, and we are always, ALWAYS put ourselves first.
We even try to push that picture of glory upon God. Today we welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, not so that he can suffer. Not so that he can save us, but rather to be our earthly ruler and our earthly dictator. In our Gospel lesson the people ask Jesus, “Aren’t you going to be around forever? Scripture says the Christ will be around forever. Aren’t you going to be our eternal earthly ruler? Aren’t you going to have earthly glory as your ruler over us?
But God has a different picture of glory. God doesn’t look at glory through human eyes, looking at wealth or fame or power. God looks at glory the way it is described in our Old Testament lesson, and the way that it is fulfilled by Jesus. Isaiah writes, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” Friends this is what Jesus did to glorify God. He gave up his life in your place. This very morning we celebrate his riding into Jerusalem to suffer and to die, to be lifted up on a cross having had his beard torn, he flesh opened with whips and thorns, and to hang there for you naked for all the world to see. This is not our earthly picture of glory, but it is how God glorifies himself.
Glory, not because Jesus is rich, but because he becomes poor for you. Glory, not because Jesus jesus had the best clothes, but rather because he was willing to have sinful men cast lots for the clothes stripped from his back. Glory not in an earthly mansion, but dying for you to bring you to his eternal home. Now is the hour! Now is the time, because this very week we see God’s glory, the glory of the cross.
And as Jesus suffers and dies, our text says he draws all men and women and children to himself. He draws them to himself saying, “Give up your earthly glory. It is only a shadow of true Glory, the glory that I give to you having received it on Calvary. Come to me, and I will give you glory that lasts forever, glory in baptism as you are clothed with my own righteousness. I will give you glory as here you partake in my suffering and death, eating my body and drinking my blood for your eternal life. Come to me, and I will give you glory, not as the world understands it, but rather in my own suffering and death.
Father, Glorify your Name! Glorify it as you save us poor miserable sinners, even as we put you to death. Glorify your name, as you bring Christ back to life, the first born of all of us who in faith also will receive life and salvation. Glorify your name, as your Son loves each and every one of us who betrayed him and handed him over to death. Now is the time. The hour is here for the Son of man to be lifted up, high for all to see on a cross. Give us the glory of Good Friday, and grant that we may share in it, and the life that it gives. For that is what your promise us. Amen.
Now is the time! The Hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Finally after six long weeks of Lent. Finally after waiting in eager but somber expectation, the hour is here. In a few short days, Jesus will be brought to trial, be found guilty falsely, and be murdered by sinful people. Sinful people, like you and me. Sinful people who love the glory of the world more than the glory of God.
We know what the glory of the world is friends, don’t we? We know what things and which people we look up to. The glory of the world is all about me, me, me. It is all about what I want. All about what I desire. The glory of this world is what I can do and make for myself. I want a nice new house, just like I have seen on TV. I want a nice cushy job where I get more days off than I have to work. I want the nicest looking stylish clothing. And I want all of these things so that I can compare myself to others. “Look at me! Look how great I am! Look how much better I am than that poor person there! Aren’t I glorious?”
Not only do we compare ourselves with those around us, but we often times like to put those other people down, so that we ourselves are elevated. We criticize others. We judge them, all so that we can feel better about ourselves. And in doing this, we try to glorify ourselves. Anytime you judge someone else you make yourself God, you make yourself the ultimate judge. When you say, “I am better than this person,” you say, “I don’t care what you say God, I will be judge here.”
Friends the reason we do this, the reason we look to earthly glory is because we know that we have fallen short of what God’s Glory is. We have not fulfilled what God would have had us do in our lives. From the very moment of our conception, we were turning against our Lord and Creator. From the very moment our life begins, we are looking to glorify ourselves, rather than to glorify God. We are sinners, we are self-glorifiers, and we are always, ALWAYS put ourselves first.
We even try to push that picture of glory upon God. Today we welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, not so that he can suffer. Not so that he can save us, but rather to be our earthly ruler and our earthly dictator. In our Gospel lesson the people ask Jesus, “Aren’t you going to be around forever? Scripture says the Christ will be around forever. Aren’t you going to be our eternal earthly ruler? Aren’t you going to have earthly glory as your ruler over us?
But God has a different picture of glory. God doesn’t look at glory through human eyes, looking at wealth or fame or power. God looks at glory the way it is described in our Old Testament lesson, and the way that it is fulfilled by Jesus. Isaiah writes, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” Friends this is what Jesus did to glorify God. He gave up his life in your place. This very morning we celebrate his riding into Jerusalem to suffer and to die, to be lifted up on a cross having had his beard torn, he flesh opened with whips and thorns, and to hang there for you naked for all the world to see. This is not our earthly picture of glory, but it is how God glorifies himself.
Glory, not because Jesus is rich, but because he becomes poor for you. Glory, not because Jesus jesus had the best clothes, but rather because he was willing to have sinful men cast lots for the clothes stripped from his back. Glory not in an earthly mansion, but dying for you to bring you to his eternal home. Now is the hour! Now is the time, because this very week we see God’s glory, the glory of the cross.
And as Jesus suffers and dies, our text says he draws all men and women and children to himself. He draws them to himself saying, “Give up your earthly glory. It is only a shadow of true Glory, the glory that I give to you having received it on Calvary. Come to me, and I will give you glory that lasts forever, glory in baptism as you are clothed with my own righteousness. I will give you glory as here you partake in my suffering and death, eating my body and drinking my blood for your eternal life. Come to me, and I will give you glory, not as the world understands it, but rather in my own suffering and death.
Father, Glorify your Name! Glorify it as you save us poor miserable sinners, even as we put you to death. Glorify your name, as you bring Christ back to life, the first born of all of us who in faith also will receive life and salvation. Glorify your name, as your Son loves each and every one of us who betrayed him and handed him over to death. Now is the time. The hour is here for the Son of man to be lifted up, high for all to see on a cross. Give us the glory of Good Friday, and grant that we may share in it, and the life that it gives. For that is what your promise us. Amen.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Midweek Lenten Sermon - So that I may be his own and live under Him in His Kingdom
This years Lenten Sermons are from a series prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman of Murdock, NE
Passion Reading: Calvary
Apostles’ Creed / Second Article: That I May Be His Own and Live Under Him in His Kingdom
Behold the King! Lord Jesus, Savior King Jesus! His throne? A hunk of a tree – cut and carved for a special occasion -- a crucifixion! His! Simon of Cyrene helped tote the cumbersome piece of wood up to Skull Hill – Golgotha. It is a pole on which Jesus is brutally nailed and hung. Torturously suspended until He dies.
Is Jesus King? Yes, but very strangely. He wears a crown: of thorns. And didn’t you read the notice put above His head? The governor gave the order! It clearly states in Hebrew, Greek and Latin for all to see: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS!
And King Jesus reigns. He has a kingdom – AMONG SINNERS! Criminals. One on His left. Another on His right. “Numbered with the transgressors” just as the Old Testament promised. And loads more sinners standing around. The Roman soldiers: throwing dice to gamble for His clothes. The rubberneckers – just passing by: hurling out insults and shaking their heads in disbelief at this make believe King of the Jews. The chief priests, scribes, and elders: shouting out all kinds of scorn, derision, and ridicule.
And look who else is there? Other sinners. Big time, notorious ones. Do you see them? Take a closer look. There, do you see? It’s you! It’s me! And what are we doing? What are we saying? We too are wagging our heads in contempt of the King. We too mock His Highness. We allow ourselves to be the mouthpiece of Satan himself as we too bark out this tantalizingly temptation: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross! If you’re truly the King of Israel, then unhook yourself from those nails! Save yourself! Let us see such a sign as that! And we promise – we’ll believe in you!”
Newsflash everyone! I know this may come as a shock but it’s the truth. We don’t know what we are doing! We think we do. But we don’t. Clueless! We don’t know what we are saying! We think we know. But we don’t! Trying to get Jesus to hop off the cross! Tempting Jesus to BE THE LORD – THE SAVIOR KING by avoiding the cross! Foolishly and blindly demanding to have a Jesus – a King Jesus – our way or no way! Having a Jesus according to how we call the shots. And that means a Jesus MINUS CALVARY! Divorcing Him from His suffering and death on the cross! Protecting Him from ever having to go through anything like that! “How dreadful!” we proclaim. And so like gods on Mount Olympus in the Pantheon we dare to call Good Friday evil and a Jesus without a Skull Hill good! Can’t get anymore stupidly curved in ourselves sinful than that!
But thankfully Jesus prays for us: “Father, forgive them. These folks haven’t a clue. I know they’re my enemies. I know they’re lost in their sin. But for my sake, Father, forgive them.”
His prayer for absolution creates faith. Faith in Him. “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.” His kingdom is now. Skull Hill. Where He remembers our sins and the sins of the thief no more. Buries them in the black hole of His death. “Truly, truly I say to you. Today you will be with me in paradise.” Today! All because of Jesus doing a Skull Hill Salvation. Redeemed us lost and condemned sinners. Purchased and won us from all sins, death and the power of the devil.
Why? Well, the Small Catechism nails it. Lord Jesus did all this so that I MAY BE HIS OWN AND LIVE UNDER HIM IN HIS KINGDOM.
To whom do you belong? Sin? Death? Satan? No. The Lord King Jesus! He lived for you. He died for you. He was cursed and forsaken for you. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is His suffering the curse of damnation for you. He was buried in the tomb for you. He rose for you as the Firstfruits of the new creation! Hooked to the risen Jesus by faith you are new creations. The old has passed away – behold the new has come! All that He is and does is for you! Totally!
And He extends His Good Friday reign – all of His Spiritual kingdom over you! Even today. He lords His death over you in your Baptism. In fact, He buried you with Him through Baptism into His Good Friday death. He promises that you who believe and are baptized will be saved. He reigns His Skull Hill over you by saying: “Your sin – all of it – is forgiven.” And with the bread and wine of His Supper He gives you His word that it is His Body and His Blood given and shed for your pardon.
The Sacrament of the Altar is your paradise on earth until you enter the paradise of heaven. At the Sacrament there stands a tree: the tree of life. The tree on which Jesus reigns as Savior. His cross. And the fruit He gives you to eat and the juice that He gives you to drink is His Skull Hill Body and Blood. It is the medicine of immortality. The tree from which you can eat and never die!
Jesus has come into His kingdom. He is king. The Skull Hill kind. You commend yourself, your body and soul, and all things into King Jesus’ hands. After all, we belong to Him and He reigns among us. He has the wounds and the death in which He remembers us – His died for and forgiven people.
In the Name of Jesus.
Passion Reading: Calvary
Apostles’ Creed / Second Article: That I May Be His Own and Live Under Him in His Kingdom
Behold the King! Lord Jesus, Savior King Jesus! His throne? A hunk of a tree – cut and carved for a special occasion -- a crucifixion! His! Simon of Cyrene helped tote the cumbersome piece of wood up to Skull Hill – Golgotha. It is a pole on which Jesus is brutally nailed and hung. Torturously suspended until He dies.
Is Jesus King? Yes, but very strangely. He wears a crown: of thorns. And didn’t you read the notice put above His head? The governor gave the order! It clearly states in Hebrew, Greek and Latin for all to see: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS!
And King Jesus reigns. He has a kingdom – AMONG SINNERS! Criminals. One on His left. Another on His right. “Numbered with the transgressors” just as the Old Testament promised. And loads more sinners standing around. The Roman soldiers: throwing dice to gamble for His clothes. The rubberneckers – just passing by: hurling out insults and shaking their heads in disbelief at this make believe King of the Jews. The chief priests, scribes, and elders: shouting out all kinds of scorn, derision, and ridicule.
And look who else is there? Other sinners. Big time, notorious ones. Do you see them? Take a closer look. There, do you see? It’s you! It’s me! And what are we doing? What are we saying? We too are wagging our heads in contempt of the King. We too mock His Highness. We allow ourselves to be the mouthpiece of Satan himself as we too bark out this tantalizingly temptation: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross! If you’re truly the King of Israel, then unhook yourself from those nails! Save yourself! Let us see such a sign as that! And we promise – we’ll believe in you!”
Newsflash everyone! I know this may come as a shock but it’s the truth. We don’t know what we are doing! We think we do. But we don’t. Clueless! We don’t know what we are saying! We think we know. But we don’t! Trying to get Jesus to hop off the cross! Tempting Jesus to BE THE LORD – THE SAVIOR KING by avoiding the cross! Foolishly and blindly demanding to have a Jesus – a King Jesus – our way or no way! Having a Jesus according to how we call the shots. And that means a Jesus MINUS CALVARY! Divorcing Him from His suffering and death on the cross! Protecting Him from ever having to go through anything like that! “How dreadful!” we proclaim. And so like gods on Mount Olympus in the Pantheon we dare to call Good Friday evil and a Jesus without a Skull Hill good! Can’t get anymore stupidly curved in ourselves sinful than that!
But thankfully Jesus prays for us: “Father, forgive them. These folks haven’t a clue. I know they’re my enemies. I know they’re lost in their sin. But for my sake, Father, forgive them.”
His prayer for absolution creates faith. Faith in Him. “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.” His kingdom is now. Skull Hill. Where He remembers our sins and the sins of the thief no more. Buries them in the black hole of His death. “Truly, truly I say to you. Today you will be with me in paradise.” Today! All because of Jesus doing a Skull Hill Salvation. Redeemed us lost and condemned sinners. Purchased and won us from all sins, death and the power of the devil.
Why? Well, the Small Catechism nails it. Lord Jesus did all this so that I MAY BE HIS OWN AND LIVE UNDER HIM IN HIS KINGDOM.
To whom do you belong? Sin? Death? Satan? No. The Lord King Jesus! He lived for you. He died for you. He was cursed and forsaken for you. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is His suffering the curse of damnation for you. He was buried in the tomb for you. He rose for you as the Firstfruits of the new creation! Hooked to the risen Jesus by faith you are new creations. The old has passed away – behold the new has come! All that He is and does is for you! Totally!
And He extends His Good Friday reign – all of His Spiritual kingdom over you! Even today. He lords His death over you in your Baptism. In fact, He buried you with Him through Baptism into His Good Friday death. He promises that you who believe and are baptized will be saved. He reigns His Skull Hill over you by saying: “Your sin – all of it – is forgiven.” And with the bread and wine of His Supper He gives you His word that it is His Body and His Blood given and shed for your pardon.
The Sacrament of the Altar is your paradise on earth until you enter the paradise of heaven. At the Sacrament there stands a tree: the tree of life. The tree on which Jesus reigns as Savior. His cross. And the fruit He gives you to eat and the juice that He gives you to drink is His Skull Hill Body and Blood. It is the medicine of immortality. The tree from which you can eat and never die!
Jesus has come into His kingdom. He is king. The Skull Hill kind. You commend yourself, your body and soul, and all things into King Jesus’ hands. After all, we belong to Him and He reigns among us. He has the wounds and the death in which He remembers us – His died for and forgiven people.
In the Name of Jesus.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Lent 5 - 2011 - G - The Resurrection of Lazarus... And you!
Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 11. "Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha the sister of the dead man said to him, “Lord by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”" Thus far our text.
Dear friends, in a few weeks, we will gather together and meditate on the death and torture that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will suffer on Good Friday. He will be beaten, spit on, mocked tortured and crucified. He will cry out, “It is finished, Tetelestai,” and have earned us salvation and life. we know with certainty Christ has suffered in our place, and that in that, we now have life eternal. We have certainty of life.
But do we truly have certainty? Do we really believe that Christ was raised from the dead? I have never seen anyone rise from the dead. I have never seen someone whose heart has ceased beating for more than a few minutes, who has come back to life. It doesn’t make sense. How can it really be true that someone could rise from the dead?
That is exactly what happens in our text today. If we look at the story of Lazarus, we see it is quite the interesting story. It takes place about a week before Good Friday. We see a friend of Jesus is sick, and dies. They bury him in a tomb, and by the time Jesus arrives, he has been laying there for four days. He isn’t just sitting in the tomb, there is no doubt at this point that Lazarus is dead. He has passed into eternal rest, and nothing can bring him back.
The family, certain of this has begun to mourn and wail. All of Lazarus’s friends come and weep for the loss of their friend Lazarus. But he is gone, nothing can bring him back. Even Jesus mourns at the loss of Lazarus. He mourns that because of sin, mankind must die. He mourns that in our sin we must deal with death. Lazarus too was a sinner, and in that sin, he has now died. The loss associated with death overcomes all those around. Death hurts.
But Jesus tells that mourning family, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And here he proves it. Jesus has the tomb opened, and standing outside calls forth Lazarus alive. The one who is dead returns to life. The one who was dead is returned to his family. The mourning of loss turns into joyful shouts, and celebration. By the mere speaking of His words, Jesus brings one of his believers back to life. By His word, Christ can make death run backwards.
It’s a miracle! It really happened! Today, you can go and see this, Lazarus’s first tomb. There are even members here who have been there. You can walk down inside of it, and see where Jesus called Lazarus forth from death. You can walk the same steps Lazarus walked out of the tomb. It is a miracle that God used to show that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life (John 10) That He is the Lord of life.
This miracle happened, because Christ is true God. Jesus could raise Lazarus because he was headed to his own suffering and death. But unlike Lazarus, Jesus would not die for his own sin, but for your sin. Jesus would suffer and die, and be laid in a tomb, just like Lazarus.
But Christ has power over death and life. Even as Jesus is killed, the grave cannot hold him in. Even though He is executed, His life cannot be permanently ended by human means. Instead, Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. He is Lord over life and death.
And He has earned that right. He earned it by obeying God’s law completely and totally. He earned it by passively submitting to the will of the Father and drinking the cup of wrath prepared for sinners. Christ took our place and He suffered for us. And when our salvation was assured to us by the spilling of his holy precious blood, He announced to the world that sin and Satan were defeated by His rising again on the third day from the tomb.
Friends, almost 2000 years ago, the tomb of Jesus was found empty, just like the tomb of Lazarus was found empty. Just as Jesus called Lazarus back into life, God the Father raised Jesus back to life through His glory and power.
But Jesus’ resurrection was even more wonderful than Lazarus’. Lazarus would die again. Lazarus had two tombs, one in Bethany and one that church tradition holds was in the city of Larnaca on the island of Cyprus. Lazarus served as a pastor there until again he died and was reburied.
But Jesus will not die again. As the prophet Isaiah says, “He has swallowed up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:8) Where O death is thy victory, Where O death is they sting? (1 Corinthians. 15:55, Hosea 13:14) It is gone forever. Death cannot defeat Jesus Christ, because by his own death, he defeated death. When the tomb was found empty, that message has resounded throughout all the world. “Through Christ, death is defeated. Through Christ you have life.”
This is the message of the church. This message is important to the whole world, especially to you and me. God’s word tell us we are in the same boat. We hear that we have not kept God’s law. Scripture even says that “If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We are poor miserable sinners, and as sinners we too must die. Just as Lazarus died from his illness of sin, we too will die unless we live to see that last day. Just as Jesus laid in a tomb, we too will lay in a grave of some kind. It is the price that we must pay for our sin. It is the consequence of our disobedience to our heavenly Father.
And we see that in our daily lives. Even when we try to obey God, we fail. And in our failure we are trapped. We are uncertain which way we should turn. We are uncertain if there is a way out at all! All we can do is flounder around in our sin.
Being trapped in our sin is very much like being trapped in a grave. In our sin we are dead. In our sin we cannot climb or dig our way out. There is nothing that we can do. We are stuck, permanently. Just as a dead Lazarus could not remove himself from his own tomb, neither can we rescue ourselves. We are lost in our sin. We are dead in sin.
But Christ is risen. His tomb has been opened and the message of His victory has been spread over the entire Earth. It has come to our ears as we hear that beautiful message both in song and word. Even as this Lenten season we look forward to the death of Christ, we know that is not the end. The tomb will be opened with angel proclaiming the victory of the Lamb.
Because Christ is risen, so too are you risen. We have the promise of eternal life. In Christ, you have life. In Christ you no longer need fear death or the power or the power of the devil. You are set free, to live and reign with hi for all eternity. In Christ’s life, you too receive life, life to the full.
Death has no power over you. Even if you shall die, yet shall you live. In Christ there is victory. In Christ you triumph, the enemy is destroyed. Today, you have eternal life. You are risen with Christ.
Our text today comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 11. "Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha the sister of the dead man said to him, “Lord by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”" Thus far our text.
Dear friends, in a few weeks, we will gather together and meditate on the death and torture that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will suffer on Good Friday. He will be beaten, spit on, mocked tortured and crucified. He will cry out, “It is finished, Tetelestai,” and have earned us salvation and life. we know with certainty Christ has suffered in our place, and that in that, we now have life eternal. We have certainty of life.
But do we truly have certainty? Do we really believe that Christ was raised from the dead? I have never seen anyone rise from the dead. I have never seen someone whose heart has ceased beating for more than a few minutes, who has come back to life. It doesn’t make sense. How can it really be true that someone could rise from the dead?
That is exactly what happens in our text today. If we look at the story of Lazarus, we see it is quite the interesting story. It takes place about a week before Good Friday. We see a friend of Jesus is sick, and dies. They bury him in a tomb, and by the time Jesus arrives, he has been laying there for four days. He isn’t just sitting in the tomb, there is no doubt at this point that Lazarus is dead. He has passed into eternal rest, and nothing can bring him back.
The family, certain of this has begun to mourn and wail. All of Lazarus’s friends come and weep for the loss of their friend Lazarus. But he is gone, nothing can bring him back. Even Jesus mourns at the loss of Lazarus. He mourns that because of sin, mankind must die. He mourns that in our sin we must deal with death. Lazarus too was a sinner, and in that sin, he has now died. The loss associated with death overcomes all those around. Death hurts.
But Jesus tells that mourning family, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And here he proves it. Jesus has the tomb opened, and standing outside calls forth Lazarus alive. The one who is dead returns to life. The one who was dead is returned to his family. The mourning of loss turns into joyful shouts, and celebration. By the mere speaking of His words, Jesus brings one of his believers back to life. By His word, Christ can make death run backwards.
It’s a miracle! It really happened! Today, you can go and see this, Lazarus’s first tomb. There are even members here who have been there. You can walk down inside of it, and see where Jesus called Lazarus forth from death. You can walk the same steps Lazarus walked out of the tomb. It is a miracle that God used to show that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life (John 10) That He is the Lord of life.
This miracle happened, because Christ is true God. Jesus could raise Lazarus because he was headed to his own suffering and death. But unlike Lazarus, Jesus would not die for his own sin, but for your sin. Jesus would suffer and die, and be laid in a tomb, just like Lazarus.
But Christ has power over death and life. Even as Jesus is killed, the grave cannot hold him in. Even though He is executed, His life cannot be permanently ended by human means. Instead, Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. He is Lord over life and death.
And He has earned that right. He earned it by obeying God’s law completely and totally. He earned it by passively submitting to the will of the Father and drinking the cup of wrath prepared for sinners. Christ took our place and He suffered for us. And when our salvation was assured to us by the spilling of his holy precious blood, He announced to the world that sin and Satan were defeated by His rising again on the third day from the tomb.
Friends, almost 2000 years ago, the tomb of Jesus was found empty, just like the tomb of Lazarus was found empty. Just as Jesus called Lazarus back into life, God the Father raised Jesus back to life through His glory and power.
But Jesus’ resurrection was even more wonderful than Lazarus’. Lazarus would die again. Lazarus had two tombs, one in Bethany and one that church tradition holds was in the city of Larnaca on the island of Cyprus. Lazarus served as a pastor there until again he died and was reburied.
But Jesus will not die again. As the prophet Isaiah says, “He has swallowed up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:8) Where O death is thy victory, Where O death is they sting? (1 Corinthians. 15:55, Hosea 13:14) It is gone forever. Death cannot defeat Jesus Christ, because by his own death, he defeated death. When the tomb was found empty, that message has resounded throughout all the world. “Through Christ, death is defeated. Through Christ you have life.”
This is the message of the church. This message is important to the whole world, especially to you and me. God’s word tell us we are in the same boat. We hear that we have not kept God’s law. Scripture even says that “If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We are poor miserable sinners, and as sinners we too must die. Just as Lazarus died from his illness of sin, we too will die unless we live to see that last day. Just as Jesus laid in a tomb, we too will lay in a grave of some kind. It is the price that we must pay for our sin. It is the consequence of our disobedience to our heavenly Father.
And we see that in our daily lives. Even when we try to obey God, we fail. And in our failure we are trapped. We are uncertain which way we should turn. We are uncertain if there is a way out at all! All we can do is flounder around in our sin.
Being trapped in our sin is very much like being trapped in a grave. In our sin we are dead. In our sin we cannot climb or dig our way out. There is nothing that we can do. We are stuck, permanently. Just as a dead Lazarus could not remove himself from his own tomb, neither can we rescue ourselves. We are lost in our sin. We are dead in sin.
But Christ is risen. His tomb has been opened and the message of His victory has been spread over the entire Earth. It has come to our ears as we hear that beautiful message both in song and word. Even as this Lenten season we look forward to the death of Christ, we know that is not the end. The tomb will be opened with angel proclaiming the victory of the Lamb.
Because Christ is risen, so too are you risen. We have the promise of eternal life. In Christ, you have life. In Christ you no longer need fear death or the power or the power of the devil. You are set free, to live and reign with hi for all eternity. In Christ’s life, you too receive life, life to the full.
Death has no power over you. Even if you shall die, yet shall you live. In Christ there is victory. In Christ you triumph, the enemy is destroyed. Today, you have eternal life. You are risen with Christ.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Lent Midweek 4 - 2011 - 2nd Article of the Creed - Not with Gold or Silver
This year's Lenten midweek sermons are from a series prepared by Pastor Brent Kuhlman, of Murdock, NE.
High treason! Charged with perverting the nation, forbidding people from paying their taxes, and claiming to be a king! Paint the preacher as a radical! An agitator! A menace! Against all law and order! He’s a threat to society!
False charges of course. Jesus was innocent. Completely. But the hatred against Him was so heated. So immense. Let’s see if the governor will fall for it. Especially the charge that the preacher claims to be a king. Make the preacher out to be a danger to the Roman government. The governor will have no choice. And then we’ll eliminate that Jesus fellow once and for all!
But Jesus is innocent! And Pilate knows it. Five times the governor says it. “I find no fault in this man. You don’t have a case against this man.” “I have examined him … and have found nothing in this man guilty of any of your charges against and neither did Herod.” The splendid white robe, although done in jest by Herod, was what Romans put on a man elected to the office of mayor. Even the governor’s wife knew the truth. “Don’t have anything to do with this preacher! I’ve had a horrible dream about shedding innocent blood!”
Governor Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. And he knows that there are absolutely no legal grounds to sentence the preacher to death! So he plays another card. All right then, bring out Barabbas. You know, the Benedict Arnold. Yes, criminal Barabbas notorious for his treason and murder in the rebellion. The governor will play the odds. Surely the chances are in Jesus’ favor. These Jews, given the choice, will certainly pick the
preacher and send the real Benedict Arnold Barabbas packing to his solitary cell on death row. After all, the real criminal is Barabbas, not the preacher! So, “which of the two do you want me to release for you?”
The governor’s gamble doesn’t pay off. He played the wrong card. Outrageously the chief priests and elders shout: “Put the preacher to death! Let Barabbas off the hook! We’re willing to let Barabbas walk our streets! But not this Jesus! He’s an absolute peril to our children and society!”
Shocked, the governor tries to reason with them. “Look folks. Calm down for a second! Take a deep breath. The preacher may be a little weird. I’ll grant you that. But legally He’s done nothing wrong. He doesn’t deserve the death penalty at all. How many times do I have to tell you?” But the shouts grow louder and louder: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
The governor tries another approach. Maybe a flogging will satisfy the crowds. Surely when they see such a brutal and bloody beating, the intense humiliation and mockery at the hands of the soldiers, they will have had enough, drop all the false charges, and go home. Not hardly! They’re at the point of rioting. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
And then Jesus’ enemies pull out the biggest trump card of all – the religious one! “We have a law. And that law is from the Bible. Moses, the greatest prophet of God says this Jesus must die because He claims to be God’s Son!” If you can’t get rid of Jesus through the civil statutes, then pull off a clincher: divine law! It certainly gives Pilate pause. Even frightens him. “Where are you from Jesus? Why won’t you speak to me? Don’t you know who I am? I have the power of life and death over you!” Jesus finally speaks up: “The power that you have over me comes from above. And he who has trumped up all these charges against me and handed me over to you has the greater sin.” And Pilate keeps on trying to have Jesus released. But to no avail.
“If you let this preacher go, you’ll be asking for trouble with a capital T. Caesar won’t like it one bit that you allow a pretender king to walk freely on the streets! So get rid of Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!”
And then the unthinkable! The governor shirks his duty to set the completely innocent Jesus free. He washes his hands of the whole affair. He sets Barabbas free and orders Jesus to be crucified! In order to satisfy the riotous crowd the governor buckles. The innocent of everything Jesus is sentenced to death by crucifixion!
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” You said it too! You too desperately wanted the preacher dead. You didn’t want Him. He was a threat to your sovereignty. Just like our first parents Adam and Eve that wanted to kill God and make themselves into little deities! “His blood be on us and our children! We’ll take full responsibility! Hand me those nails! Give me that hammer!” Our last-ditch attempt to dethrone God and install and crown ourselves as His replacement! What evil! What treachery! What villainy! What monstrous sin!
And Jesus suffers all of it innocently! Takes it all! Completely! Totally! For you! For your salvation! Scripture puts it this way in Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord made this happen and it is a miracle before our eyes.”
Yes, this is God’s plan. His magnificent, miraculous way of saving the lost -- those offended by Stone Jesus – those that put Him to death so calculatingly, cunningly, and coolly! That’s you. That’s me.
The Small Catechism puts is this way: Lord Jesus, true God and true man, has redeemed me a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver BUT WITH HIS HOLY PRECIOUS BLOOD AND HIS INNOCENT SUFFERING AND DEATH!
Innocent Jesus suffers. Not because He has sinned. He suffers on account of all our sins. Yes, our sins. All of them. Every last one of them. He leaves none out. And He bears them in His body all the way to the cross. “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6). “He was crushed for our iniquities,” (Isaiah 53:5). “Numbered [counted] with sinners,” (Isaiah 53:12). He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21)!
Jesus was flogged to set you free from the whipping of God’s eternal wrath and damnation. Jesus endured the crushing fists and stinging reed to His face so that you will never have to experience the forevermore beatings of Satan’s angels in hell. Jesus was crowned with thorns for you in order to crown you in heaven. Jesus was wounded for you in order to heal you. Jesus died for you so that death is now changed to the doorway to heaven. Your sins are His. They don’t belong to you. All your sin was counted against Jesus. God doesn’t count them against you anymore. All is forgiven! Because of Jesus’ innocent suffering and death on your behalf!
“Behold the man!” He has redeemed you. Purchased and won you from all sins, from death, from the power of the devil. How? Not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. His innocent blood is on you and on your children. In this way: to purify and cleanse you from all sin. You are no longer guilty. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are covered with the Good Friday blood of Jesus. That is the absolute truth!
In the Name of Jesus.
High treason! Charged with perverting the nation, forbidding people from paying their taxes, and claiming to be a king! Paint the preacher as a radical! An agitator! A menace! Against all law and order! He’s a threat to society!
False charges of course. Jesus was innocent. Completely. But the hatred against Him was so heated. So immense. Let’s see if the governor will fall for it. Especially the charge that the preacher claims to be a king. Make the preacher out to be a danger to the Roman government. The governor will have no choice. And then we’ll eliminate that Jesus fellow once and for all!
But Jesus is innocent! And Pilate knows it. Five times the governor says it. “I find no fault in this man. You don’t have a case against this man.” “I have examined him … and have found nothing in this man guilty of any of your charges against and neither did Herod.” The splendid white robe, although done in jest by Herod, was what Romans put on a man elected to the office of mayor. Even the governor’s wife knew the truth. “Don’t have anything to do with this preacher! I’ve had a horrible dream about shedding innocent blood!”
Governor Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. And he knows that there are absolutely no legal grounds to sentence the preacher to death! So he plays another card. All right then, bring out Barabbas. You know, the Benedict Arnold. Yes, criminal Barabbas notorious for his treason and murder in the rebellion. The governor will play the odds. Surely the chances are in Jesus’ favor. These Jews, given the choice, will certainly pick the
preacher and send the real Benedict Arnold Barabbas packing to his solitary cell on death row. After all, the real criminal is Barabbas, not the preacher! So, “which of the two do you want me to release for you?”
The governor’s gamble doesn’t pay off. He played the wrong card. Outrageously the chief priests and elders shout: “Put the preacher to death! Let Barabbas off the hook! We’re willing to let Barabbas walk our streets! But not this Jesus! He’s an absolute peril to our children and society!”
Shocked, the governor tries to reason with them. “Look folks. Calm down for a second! Take a deep breath. The preacher may be a little weird. I’ll grant you that. But legally He’s done nothing wrong. He doesn’t deserve the death penalty at all. How many times do I have to tell you?” But the shouts grow louder and louder: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
The governor tries another approach. Maybe a flogging will satisfy the crowds. Surely when they see such a brutal and bloody beating, the intense humiliation and mockery at the hands of the soldiers, they will have had enough, drop all the false charges, and go home. Not hardly! They’re at the point of rioting. “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
And then Jesus’ enemies pull out the biggest trump card of all – the religious one! “We have a law. And that law is from the Bible. Moses, the greatest prophet of God says this Jesus must die because He claims to be God’s Son!” If you can’t get rid of Jesus through the civil statutes, then pull off a clincher: divine law! It certainly gives Pilate pause. Even frightens him. “Where are you from Jesus? Why won’t you speak to me? Don’t you know who I am? I have the power of life and death over you!” Jesus finally speaks up: “The power that you have over me comes from above. And he who has trumped up all these charges against me and handed me over to you has the greater sin.” And Pilate keeps on trying to have Jesus released. But to no avail.
“If you let this preacher go, you’ll be asking for trouble with a capital T. Caesar won’t like it one bit that you allow a pretender king to walk freely on the streets! So get rid of Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!”
And then the unthinkable! The governor shirks his duty to set the completely innocent Jesus free. He washes his hands of the whole affair. He sets Barabbas free and orders Jesus to be crucified! In order to satisfy the riotous crowd the governor buckles. The innocent of everything Jesus is sentenced to death by crucifixion!
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” You said it too! You too desperately wanted the preacher dead. You didn’t want Him. He was a threat to your sovereignty. Just like our first parents Adam and Eve that wanted to kill God and make themselves into little deities! “His blood be on us and our children! We’ll take full responsibility! Hand me those nails! Give me that hammer!” Our last-ditch attempt to dethrone God and install and crown ourselves as His replacement! What evil! What treachery! What villainy! What monstrous sin!
And Jesus suffers all of it innocently! Takes it all! Completely! Totally! For you! For your salvation! Scripture puts it this way in Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord made this happen and it is a miracle before our eyes.”
Yes, this is God’s plan. His magnificent, miraculous way of saving the lost -- those offended by Stone Jesus – those that put Him to death so calculatingly, cunningly, and coolly! That’s you. That’s me.
The Small Catechism puts is this way: Lord Jesus, true God and true man, has redeemed me a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver BUT WITH HIS HOLY PRECIOUS BLOOD AND HIS INNOCENT SUFFERING AND DEATH!
Innocent Jesus suffers. Not because He has sinned. He suffers on account of all our sins. Yes, our sins. All of them. Every last one of them. He leaves none out. And He bears them in His body all the way to the cross. “The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6). “He was crushed for our iniquities,” (Isaiah 53:5). “Numbered [counted] with sinners,” (Isaiah 53:12). He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21)!
Jesus was flogged to set you free from the whipping of God’s eternal wrath and damnation. Jesus endured the crushing fists and stinging reed to His face so that you will never have to experience the forevermore beatings of Satan’s angels in hell. Jesus was crowned with thorns for you in order to crown you in heaven. Jesus was wounded for you in order to heal you. Jesus died for you so that death is now changed to the doorway to heaven. Your sins are His. They don’t belong to you. All your sin was counted against Jesus. God doesn’t count them against you anymore. All is forgiven! Because of Jesus’ innocent suffering and death on your behalf!
“Behold the man!” He has redeemed you. Purchased and won you from all sins, from death, from the power of the devil. How? Not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. His innocent blood is on you and on your children. In this way: to purify and cleanse you from all sin. You are no longer guilty. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are covered with the Good Friday blood of Jesus. That is the absolute truth!
In the Name of Jesus.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Lent 4 - 2011 - G - Covered in Blood
John 9:1-41
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Jesus he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Can you even imagine being born blind? Can you imagine having never seen the light of the sun as it lays across the snowy plains of North Dakota? Can you imagine having never seen the face of your mother or father, or even of your husband or wife? Can you imagine not being able to see anything at all, and living for years and years with this ailment. But for the man in our text, one day, his entire life changes. One day the darkness that he has been living in, suddenly comes to a close. For one day, Jesus walks by. Jesus who makes blind men to see.
Jesus comes to this man, and spits in the dirt, and mixes it together with his finger and then puts it on the eyes of the blind man, telling him to go and wash, and that in his washing he will be able to see again. How easy it would be to say, “Get your nasty muddy dirty spit off of my Jesus. That is gross.” How easy it would be to say, “Yeah right, I just go and wash, and then I can see? Go back to the funny farm.” But the man does not say these things, instead, he goes, washes, and what Jesus said would happen, happens.
Friends, you and I are so very like the blind man in our text, for there are so many things that we do not see. There are many things that we do not notice, or that we try to ignore, and most of them have to do with sin. We don’t see the selfish pride within ourselves. We don’t see the hate and murder within our own hearts. We don’t see the pain and hurt of others. In fact, we are so blind to these things, we go on like they don’t even exist at all.
But even though we are often blind to our own sin, we are often really good at identifying other people’s problems aren’t we? “Oh Pastor, did you know that so and so did this?” Or maybe, “Did you hear what John Doe said about Jane to Jack and Jill?” Yes, we are very good at seeing when someone else has done something wrong, and when someone else has publically sinned. And because we are blind to our own sin, when we see these sins in others, it is easy for us to laugh and to say, “Well, at least I know I am better than So and so over there. At least I know I am a Christian, as opposed to all of those other people over there.
Friends we are blind. Friends we are just as bad of sinners as any person you could ever meet on the face of this earth. We – yes you and me – have fallen short in our thoughts and our words and our deeds, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are guilty, even as we are so often blind to see.
In our text, some of the Pharisees don’t want to admit that they too are blind, that they too cannot see either their sin or the way that their sin affected those around them. Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” And those Pharisees ask, “Are we blind?” Are we really sinners Jesus? Are we really guilty? Do we really go against your word and trust in our selves. Do we really avoid looking at our own sin, even as we see the sin of others so clearly? Friends, yes. We are blind, we are sinners, for Jesus has come only for the blind and for sinners like you and me.
Jesus has come to heal the blind, he has come to give them sight. But Jesus does not heal you and me with just spit and mud. Jesus doesn’t just get his hands a little dirty to open your eyes to your sin –and open your eyes to your savior. Jesus goes the whole way. Jesus opens your eyes with blood, blood that has poured out from his hands and his side. Blood that flowed out from his bloody and beaten body. Blood for you. Blood for your blindness. Blood so that you might see the truth forgiveness in Jesus.
And Jesus doesn’t call you to wash in the pool of Siloam, or in a bath tub or shower. Jesus calls you to wash in the baptismal font, so that blood may come to you. That is why we are baptized, to receive the blood of Jesus, the blood that opens our eyes so that we know we are sinners, and more importantly, so that we will know our Savior, and what he has done for our sin.
Coated in blood. It sounds gross doesn’t it? Just as gross as Jesus spitting in dirt and rubbing it on a man’s eyes. But that blood on you is so important. Because as you are covered in that blood, when God looks at you, he doesn’t see a blind sinner, wandering about not sure what he is doing. But when God looks at you he sees that blood that covers you. And in that blood he sees the sacrifice that took place for you as Jesus died on the cross. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus’ blood for your forgiveness.
What a blessing, to be washed in baptismal waters, to be covered in the blood of Jesus. And now, to come here to this altar and drink that blood to feed that faith. For as you come here today, know that your sins are borne by Jesus. Your sins are carried away, and now you receive forgiveness life and salvation.
Friends, you have all heard the hymn Amazing Grace, we even sang it here yesterday. Amazing Grace, because I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Friends, we do see, we see the Son of God lifted up, and pouring out his blood for you. When you see that, you know you have forgiveness, life and salvation. Amen.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Jesus he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Can you even imagine being born blind? Can you imagine having never seen the light of the sun as it lays across the snowy plains of North Dakota? Can you imagine having never seen the face of your mother or father, or even of your husband or wife? Can you imagine not being able to see anything at all, and living for years and years with this ailment. But for the man in our text, one day, his entire life changes. One day the darkness that he has been living in, suddenly comes to a close. For one day, Jesus walks by. Jesus who makes blind men to see.
Jesus comes to this man, and spits in the dirt, and mixes it together with his finger and then puts it on the eyes of the blind man, telling him to go and wash, and that in his washing he will be able to see again. How easy it would be to say, “Get your nasty muddy dirty spit off of my Jesus. That is gross.” How easy it would be to say, “Yeah right, I just go and wash, and then I can see? Go back to the funny farm.” But the man does not say these things, instead, he goes, washes, and what Jesus said would happen, happens.
Friends, you and I are so very like the blind man in our text, for there are so many things that we do not see. There are many things that we do not notice, or that we try to ignore, and most of them have to do with sin. We don’t see the selfish pride within ourselves. We don’t see the hate and murder within our own hearts. We don’t see the pain and hurt of others. In fact, we are so blind to these things, we go on like they don’t even exist at all.
But even though we are often blind to our own sin, we are often really good at identifying other people’s problems aren’t we? “Oh Pastor, did you know that so and so did this?” Or maybe, “Did you hear what John Doe said about Jane to Jack and Jill?” Yes, we are very good at seeing when someone else has done something wrong, and when someone else has publically sinned. And because we are blind to our own sin, when we see these sins in others, it is easy for us to laugh and to say, “Well, at least I know I am better than So and so over there. At least I know I am a Christian, as opposed to all of those other people over there.
Friends we are blind. Friends we are just as bad of sinners as any person you could ever meet on the face of this earth. We – yes you and me – have fallen short in our thoughts and our words and our deeds, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are guilty, even as we are so often blind to see.
In our text, some of the Pharisees don’t want to admit that they too are blind, that they too cannot see either their sin or the way that their sin affected those around them. Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” And those Pharisees ask, “Are we blind?” Are we really sinners Jesus? Are we really guilty? Do we really go against your word and trust in our selves. Do we really avoid looking at our own sin, even as we see the sin of others so clearly? Friends, yes. We are blind, we are sinners, for Jesus has come only for the blind and for sinners like you and me.
Jesus has come to heal the blind, he has come to give them sight. But Jesus does not heal you and me with just spit and mud. Jesus doesn’t just get his hands a little dirty to open your eyes to your sin –and open your eyes to your savior. Jesus goes the whole way. Jesus opens your eyes with blood, blood that has poured out from his hands and his side. Blood that flowed out from his bloody and beaten body. Blood for you. Blood for your blindness. Blood so that you might see the truth forgiveness in Jesus.
And Jesus doesn’t call you to wash in the pool of Siloam, or in a bath tub or shower. Jesus calls you to wash in the baptismal font, so that blood may come to you. That is why we are baptized, to receive the blood of Jesus, the blood that opens our eyes so that we know we are sinners, and more importantly, so that we will know our Savior, and what he has done for our sin.
Coated in blood. It sounds gross doesn’t it? Just as gross as Jesus spitting in dirt and rubbing it on a man’s eyes. But that blood on you is so important. Because as you are covered in that blood, when God looks at you, he doesn’t see a blind sinner, wandering about not sure what he is doing. But when God looks at you he sees that blood that covers you. And in that blood he sees the sacrifice that took place for you as Jesus died on the cross. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus’ blood for your forgiveness.
What a blessing, to be washed in baptismal waters, to be covered in the blood of Jesus. And now, to come here to this altar and drink that blood to feed that faith. For as you come here today, know that your sins are borne by Jesus. Your sins are carried away, and now you receive forgiveness life and salvation.
Friends, you have all heard the hymn Amazing Grace, we even sang it here yesterday. Amazing Grace, because I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Friends, we do see, we see the Son of God lifted up, and pouring out his blood for you. When you see that, you know you have forgiveness, life and salvation. Amen.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Funeral - Steven Michael Dickerman - April 2011
Confirmation verse - Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Romans 8:1-4 1
John 5:24-30 24
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today are the readings from earlier.
Troy and Lorraine, Kyle, Lacey, family and friends in Christ. On Monday of this past week, on a gravel road outside of Ayr, our son, our brother, our friend Steve Dickerman’s life was completed… and I was not there. On Monday of this past week, on a gravel road outside of Ayr, Steve’s life came to a close… and you were not there. Because we were not there, we cannot speculate on what was going on in Steve’s mind, we can’t understand his thought process, but dear friends, I know One who was there with Steve. I know one who was there, and ready to receive him in faith as his life came to its close. Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh. The One who died for you and your sin, and yes for Steve, was there.
Our Old Testament lesson today was Steve’s confirmation verse, and I believe it has much to say to us here today as we deal with the aftermath of what has happened. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Those are bold words are they not? How can we be strong and courageous, how can we be not dismayed or frightened? Our son is gone, and we hurt, and we are angry. Why did this happen? How could this have happened? What are we to do now?
Friends, we don’t have the power to be strong and courageous in ourselves. We don’t have the ability to not be angry and frightened. We do not have the answers of why and how. And so we must look at how that text ends. “Be strong and courageous…for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” The Lord God is with you. Jesus is with you. Jesus who loves you, and your family, and yes even Steve so much, that He entered our sinful world, born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a life fulfilling what you and I could not do. He was strong and courageous for us, when we felt weak and cowardly. He was free from fear when this world of sin, death and the devil was too much for us. He was not dismayed, even in the face of tragedy, even in the face of death and loss. Friends, Jesus is with you. Jesus loves you, and loves Steve.
That love is deep. That love is strong, and that love is with you wherever you go. And this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the calming for our sins. For our sins of anger. For our sins of sorrow. For your sins. For my sins. For even the sins of Steven. For there is not a single sin that our Lord Jesus has not died for. There is not a single sin that cannot be forgiven through the faith that God graciously pours out upon us from his life giving cross.
As the epistle lesson says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” There is no condemnation for those who have faith. NO CONDEMNATION. And as Jesus Himself says in our Gospel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Dear friends, in faith, all sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ’s bloody and gruesome death on Calvary.
Jesus has paid for all sins and accomplished that salvation for the entire world. And not only does He accomplish it for us, He delivers it too! He delivers the deliverance earned on Good Friday and Easter in the waters of Holy Baptism where He washes us clean and calls us to faith. He delivers the deliverance each time we read or hear or sing the precious Gospel, growing our faith and strengthening us in our weaknesses. He delivers the deliverance into our very mouths as He feeds us with the crucified and resurrected body and blood of Jesus in, with and under bread and wine for forgiveness life and salvation. This is not done in the abstract; this is not an idea or concept. It is real! It is for you! It is finished!
Troy, Lorraine, family and friends there is still pain and hurt. That will not magically disappear. There is not a magic wand that I can wave to make the hurt go away. As we read the other night at your home, even Jesus wept and hurt at the death of his friend Lazarus. There will be hard days ahead as you mourn the loss of you beloved son. You will be tempted to ask questions. “What if I would have called him a little sooner? Did I miss something? Should I have acted differently? What happened? What if this, what if that?” These questions have no earthly answers. We cannot dwell in what-ifs, for they take our eyes off the true answer. For we do have a True answer, the words of the One who knows all things, and graciously strengthens and sustains us each day, the answer of the cross.
Be strong and courageous, Jesus says, for I have borne the sins of the world, yes, Steve’s sin as well as your sin, and I have killed it on the cross. Be not frightened, for all to whom I give faith, I will carry through death into life everlasting, drowning their sins in baptismal waters, even as Steve was baptized himself. Be not dismayed, for I have been raised from the dead, even after being brutally murdered and killed, and “an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good (by the faith I give to them) will enter the resurrection of life. Be strong and courageous, not trusting in yourself, but as your Lord and your God gives you all good gifts, life, forgiveness and salvation because he took death, and swallowed it up forever. As St. Paul says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. For Christ has died for all.
Friends, our only answer is through the Holy Spirit to look to Jesus for our hope, for our promises and for our own forgiveness of sins. The answer is Jesus. The answer is His death for you. The answer is His resurrection for you into eternal life, and the fact that he bears all of us through these things in Himself. And Steve is now in God’s hands. We trust the mercy that God promises to all in faith. We trust the promises he received in his baptism, and the promises that Steve himself confessed he believed here and at his own confirmation with these words. Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you Troy, Lorraine, Kyle and Lacey wherever you go, just as He was and is with Steven even now and forevermore. Jesus in our only answer.
Romans 8:1-4 1
John 5:24-30 24
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text today are the readings from earlier.
Troy and Lorraine, Kyle, Lacey, family and friends in Christ. On Monday of this past week, on a gravel road outside of Ayr, our son, our brother, our friend Steve Dickerman’s life was completed… and I was not there. On Monday of this past week, on a gravel road outside of Ayr, Steve’s life came to a close… and you were not there. Because we were not there, we cannot speculate on what was going on in Steve’s mind, we can’t understand his thought process, but dear friends, I know One who was there with Steve. I know one who was there, and ready to receive him in faith as his life came to its close. Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh. The One who died for you and your sin, and yes for Steve, was there.
Our Old Testament lesson today was Steve’s confirmation verse, and I believe it has much to say to us here today as we deal with the aftermath of what has happened. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Those are bold words are they not? How can we be strong and courageous, how can we be not dismayed or frightened? Our son is gone, and we hurt, and we are angry. Why did this happen? How could this have happened? What are we to do now?
Friends, we don’t have the power to be strong and courageous in ourselves. We don’t have the ability to not be angry and frightened. We do not have the answers of why and how. And so we must look at how that text ends. “Be strong and courageous…for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” The Lord God is with you. Jesus is with you. Jesus who loves you, and your family, and yes even Steve so much, that He entered our sinful world, born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a life fulfilling what you and I could not do. He was strong and courageous for us, when we felt weak and cowardly. He was free from fear when this world of sin, death and the devil was too much for us. He was not dismayed, even in the face of tragedy, even in the face of death and loss. Friends, Jesus is with you. Jesus loves you, and loves Steve.
That love is deep. That love is strong, and that love is with you wherever you go. And this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the calming for our sins. For our sins of anger. For our sins of sorrow. For your sins. For my sins. For even the sins of Steven. For there is not a single sin that our Lord Jesus has not died for. There is not a single sin that cannot be forgiven through the faith that God graciously pours out upon us from his life giving cross.
As the epistle lesson says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” There is no condemnation for those who have faith. NO CONDEMNATION. And as Jesus Himself says in our Gospel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Dear friends, in faith, all sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ’s bloody and gruesome death on Calvary.
Jesus has paid for all sins and accomplished that salvation for the entire world. And not only does He accomplish it for us, He delivers it too! He delivers the deliverance earned on Good Friday and Easter in the waters of Holy Baptism where He washes us clean and calls us to faith. He delivers the deliverance each time we read or hear or sing the precious Gospel, growing our faith and strengthening us in our weaknesses. He delivers the deliverance into our very mouths as He feeds us with the crucified and resurrected body and blood of Jesus in, with and under bread and wine for forgiveness life and salvation. This is not done in the abstract; this is not an idea or concept. It is real! It is for you! It is finished!
Troy, Lorraine, family and friends there is still pain and hurt. That will not magically disappear. There is not a magic wand that I can wave to make the hurt go away. As we read the other night at your home, even Jesus wept and hurt at the death of his friend Lazarus. There will be hard days ahead as you mourn the loss of you beloved son. You will be tempted to ask questions. “What if I would have called him a little sooner? Did I miss something? Should I have acted differently? What happened? What if this, what if that?” These questions have no earthly answers. We cannot dwell in what-ifs, for they take our eyes off the true answer. For we do have a True answer, the words of the One who knows all things, and graciously strengthens and sustains us each day, the answer of the cross.
Be strong and courageous, Jesus says, for I have borne the sins of the world, yes, Steve’s sin as well as your sin, and I have killed it on the cross. Be not frightened, for all to whom I give faith, I will carry through death into life everlasting, drowning their sins in baptismal waters, even as Steve was baptized himself. Be not dismayed, for I have been raised from the dead, even after being brutally murdered and killed, and “an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good (by the faith I give to them) will enter the resurrection of life. Be strong and courageous, not trusting in yourself, but as your Lord and your God gives you all good gifts, life, forgiveness and salvation because he took death, and swallowed it up forever. As St. Paul says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. For Christ has died for all.
Friends, our only answer is through the Holy Spirit to look to Jesus for our hope, for our promises and for our own forgiveness of sins. The answer is Jesus. The answer is His death for you. The answer is His resurrection for you into eternal life, and the fact that he bears all of us through these things in Himself. And Steve is now in God’s hands. We trust the mercy that God promises to all in faith. We trust the promises he received in his baptism, and the promises that Steve himself confessed he believed here and at his own confirmation with these words. Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you Troy, Lorraine, Kyle and Lacey wherever you go, just as He was and is with Steven even now and forevermore. Jesus in our only answer.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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