No One Else: Sermon for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

Acts 4:1-12

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. To our first reading, we have been going through the book of Acts for a while now, the Easter season assigns readings from from the book to show us the life and progress of the Christian church during that season. And in particular, we have been following up on a story that is about a miracle, what happens outside the temple, and then the fallout from that experience. And so several weeks ago, we read about Peter and John coming to the temple, and there was a paralyzed man begging outside, he asked them for money. And Peter says, silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. And of course, the man does. Not surprisingly, a crowd gathers, because that would be pretty amazing, right. And so Peter takes the time to proclaim a sermon to all of the people who have gathered in front of him. And it's basically, I didn't do this, Jesus did it. And then you killed him, and he rose from the dead. And lots of people hear and believe, as it says, In our reading, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000. I think it's pretty amazing. That in four chapters, the number of Christians goes from about 120, to about 5000, men, not counting the women. Now, this large crowd, and all of the activity of the disciples leading up to this moment, draws the attention of the authorities. And they arrest Peter and John, they gather together with the high priests and all sorts of other people. And Peter gets the chance to do one more sermon. He says, It's not us. It's Jesus. And he ends his sermon with this, saying, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. There is no other name that no one else can save. That is because our God, Jesus Christ, is the only one who can bring about the resurrection of the dead. Right. As Jesus said himself, he has the authority to lay down his life, the authority to take it up again. And he promises that all who are in his flock will be raised to new life on the last day, called out of their graves. And the Sadducees are really mad, because Peter is proclaiming this resurrection, in the name of Jesus. There is no other name. Salvation is in no one else. Because only Jesus can raise us from the dead. This proclamation of the truth and power of Jesus's name, often comes across a number of objections in the hearts of people who were once part of the church and leave. Often they have various like moral and emotional objections to the church and the world that pulls them away. And today, what I'd like to do is have those objections confront this most powerful message that no one else can say. So the first objection that I hear a lot when people leave the faith and a Christian church is very simple. The people are mean, or they're hypocrites. Right? I'm sure you've heard that before. I went to a church, they said mean things about me. The pastor was kind of a jerk. He said things I didn't like to hear. They didn't welcome me. They were cold. And, you know, you've heard those things before, right? And, in fact, there was a time when congregations were famous for having knockdown, drag out fights in congregational meetings over things like the color of the carpet. Right? And what a surprise, a place that says, We are all sinners is filled with sinners, right? The people are mean, they're kind of jerks. And what this really raises is a question. Why do you join a congregation? Why do Christians gather around Christ and His Word? Is it because you need a place where everyone knows your name, where they shout NO HARM when you walk in? That's for all you old people, right? That's cheers. Now if you want that, there's a bar down the street. They're happy to take you in, they'll smile. And if you're a regular, they'll really like you. Especially the bartender. You can join a Lions Club, they meet every week to they'll welcome you and love you. Because you need a mentor. There's all sorts of people you can pay to do that. life coaches have become a thing. You can go online and pay someone to tell you what to do with your life and mentor you. That's what you need. There's no reason to go to a church for that. Why don't we join a church? Why do we gather together? It's not because the people are great, is it? It's very simple. Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's what we keep our eyes on. Right? Only Jesus can forgive our sin. Only Jesus can raise us from the dead. Only Jesus can give us eternal life on the day that he returns when he calls us out of our graves and makes the whole world new. And I don't know about you. But I don't know. I don't care how many jerks I have to live with to get that. Right. And you guys aren't jerks. It's pretty great here. But if you were, isn't it? Isn't Jesus worth it? Isn't the resurrection worth it? That's why we gather to receive the grace of Christ through His Word and Sacraments to have the Holy Spirit delivered us to confirm us in our faith and guide us and gather us until the day he returns. Because no one else can save. So that's why we're here. Another objection that people have when they look out at the world as they think, wow, there is so much pain and injustice and hurt in the world. Natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires, starvation, children getting sick and dying of shrapnel falling from the heavens and hitting a poor little girl who could never believe in a God who allows fill in the blank. Have you heard that one before? What this is, is people look at the world and rightly see it is filled with terrible stuff. Bad things happen to relatively innocent people. Good things happen to relatively evil people. And it's an affront to our sense of justice. We look at it and we go this is wrong. Somebody should fix PSpice

right, and God could come down, right? He could come down and end the wars on the earth, he could come down and hand food every starving child, he could knock away every disease amongst the children of the world and get rid of all the terrible things that happen to all the nice people, he can do that right? Why doesn't he was because the people who are looking at it this way, actually want to fix that's too small. They want salvation from the everyday hurts and pains. From that one sickness, that one disease that one earthquake, but in the end, everyone's still going to die. In the end, we're still gonna grow old bodies are gonna fall apart just a little bit at a time. And even if we breathe our last surrounded by family and friends at the ripe old age of 350, we still breather elapsed. That's not the fix, we need. The everyday stuff. We need a cosmic solution, one that will solve all problems, defeat all sin and destroy death forever. And that's what Jesus did. Right? On the cross, He invaded death, he entered into its realm and destroyed its power so that when he rose from the dead, he could raise us from the dead to let's not settle for a small solution and ask God for the tiny thing. Let's keep our eyes on the cosmic salvation, that God includes us in Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead on the last day. Yeah, and I mourn all of the problems that I see out in the world. And just as you do, it upsets me when I see injustice, it makes me sad when I see the hurt and the pain. But you know, we all know that there's a solution that God has chosen away, to bring all injustice all hurt to an end, in Jesus Christ, as Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. But there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It's only Jesus. The final objection is one that is related to that one. Often what I see is something terrible happens to you. And to a person is not out there in the world, and not far away place or down the street, but in your own life. And it sort of knocks you loose, and then people just slowly or quickly, stop coming to hear God's word. Stop gathering around his grace, and his peace. a loved one dies, and the memories just are too much. The kids start going through a crisis, and you're so focused on that that point, everything else turns away. And then you just start thinking, you know, God was really good. Why would he allow my life to be like this? Why isn't he fixing this? Somewhere along the lines, we started to think and believe that that's what God is for. fixing things. The God is there to provide the nice things we want in life. And if we pray hard enough, or work hard enough, or believe hard enough, his job is to give us that American dream. A good family, a nice house, a full bank account, and happy life, happy children. And the really surprising thing is that actually contrary to what God's Word says, it's all over the place where Jesus tells us Study, it's hard to follow Him, and that maybe even your life will get worse. Certainly got worse for Peter and John. And Jesus rose from the dead ascended into heaven and they got arrested a lot. And why? Very simply, there is salvation in no one else, as Peter says, and there is salvation and no one else, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And it's that salvation is what God promised. That's it. And what a gift that is, isn't that worth going through? Whatever? Isn't it worth crawling through glass beating on the church doors and let me in? Going through terrible things like the apostles did. Because it's eternal. It's resurrection from the dead. It's life that lasts forever. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 10:11-18 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

John 10:11-18

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, April 21, comes from John chapter 10, verses 11 through 18. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again, no one takes it from me. But I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. Here ends the reading. John chapter 10, points us again to Good Shepherd Sunday, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. How does he define what a good shepherd is? Well, here we go. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now that seems kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? A shepherd gets benefit from the sheep by using them as his animals. Right? So the shepherd keeps the sheep because their wealth. And so he keeps them for wool, and he keeps them for food. And if he lays down his life for the sheep, then well, the sheep don't really do much for him if he's dead. Which means that this Shepherd is good, not because he knows how to take care of the sheep, so that he can use them. But because the sheep are considered more valuable to him than his life, which is really weird, right? So your hired hand does what any normal shepherd would do. Jesus says, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming leaves the sheep and fleas. And the wolf snatches and scatters them. He flees because he has a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. And so if you, if you protect, if you hire someone to protect something, pretty often, they're going to say, this isn't worth risking my life for I'm only making money here. And who cares whether the sheep live or die. Jesus is the crazy kind of Good Shepherd, who is willing to fight to the death to protect his sheep to lay down his life when the wolf comes, so that they will not be scattered. But the weird thing about this Shepherd is it's actually laying down his life when the wolf Satan comes, that defends them and protects them and destroys the wolf. The wolf attack seems like a victory for the wolf. until Christ returns to life and destroys them. Jesus says, again, I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as a father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. So once again, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. And this time he defined it by saying, I know my own, and my own Nomi. I don't know about you, but every time I look at a photo of a sheep, they all look alike. I could not tell you one sheep from another. I bet shepherds can know that maybe even that sometimes they have names for all the different ones and can keep track of it. While Jesus the Perfect, good shepherd, doesn't treat his sheep. Like they're nameless and faceless. He knows His own and His own, know him. Right. He calls them all individually through baptism and gathers them together into his flock. And he is so intimate with them by being one with Him in baptism. Just like himself and the father, as he says, just as the father's knows me, and I know the Father. And then he repeats, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus continues, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. So Jesus is letting the people know and us know that after his death and resurrection, there are lots of people to be gathered into the flock of the Christian church. And this gathering is ongoing, isn't it, that God wants all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So he gathers all through time and space, a whole flock of people to be part of this one holy Christian Church, under one flock, and one shepherd. It says, For this reason, that is for the flock, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord, I have authority to lay it down. And I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father, what an interesting way to talk about his death on the cross, right? Jesus is going not as a victim, not as someone who will be attacked and betrayed and those things will happen. Sometimes we look at Christ, and we act as if, oh, if only that hadn't happened, like he was such a victim of the circumstances. But Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. He knew what was going on. And he went, and he did it, with full knowledge, fully intending for this to be the outcome. He goes, not even just hoping or expecting the people but intentionally laying down his life for the sheep. And because he is not just a human being, but he has also got, he has the authority, the power to give up his life, and to take it back again. How nuts is that? Like, I will lay down my life, that I may take it back up again. I can't do that. You can't do that. But Jesus could die, and then bring himself back to life, how nuts but this is exactly what he came to do. And it's because he can lay down his life and take it up again, that he can be our good shepherd, even through the valley of the shadow of death, to bring us up from our graves and give us eternal life. Wow, what a shepherd we have. That's all I have for today for First John chapter 10. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 John 3:16-24 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

1 John 3:16-24

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, April 21, is from First John chapter three, verses 16 through 24. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we will receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us, whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. He runs the reading. John begins with an example of love. He says, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. So this is the the idea of love, that Jesus came, lay down his life for us on a cross. That is the perfect example of love that our Heavenly Father gives us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And it's the beginning of love. God loves us, and saves us. And so then he says, Because of Christ's great love for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Now, this doesn't mean just the men of course, in in New Testament speak, men and women in Christ are all brothers, because we are heirs of God, like Christ. And in in those days, women couldn't be heirs. And so to be an heir of the promise of Christ and one of Abraham's offspring, all of us get to be brothers, through adoption as sons in Jesus. So we ought to lay down our lives for one another. Now, does this mean that we run around like throwing ourselves in front of bosses hoping to die for other Christians? No, John explains. But if anyone has the world's good, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him. So what he's saying is, we ought to love and support our community, of following Christ's Gift of Love by laying down His life for us. And so if we have worldly goods, and others are in need within our church, our brothers, we should help them. And this raises a really important thing to understand about what the early church taught about charity and love, is that the it was first and foremost for the Christian church, it is that we loved our brothers in Christ. And so that's why he says, If anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need, it's not if anyone has the world's goods and sees anyone in need. And so the primary thing of the congregation in love is to love fellow Christians and support each other. This does not mean that Christians should not love those who are of the world and help them. In fact, the overflow of love for one another is one of the things that led to the growth of Christianity as we cared for not just our own poor, but the poor of the pagans, as well. And so, God calls on us to love with the world's goods and with what we have, and says little children, then let us not loving word or talk but in deed and in truth. And that's the thing, right? Love is not a, a an emotion, or a word or an idea. Love is an action. We do love, we show up, we act we give. It continues. By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Now, I think this is wise to follow what John just said, We know we're supposed to love one another, but we can never love with the love that Jesus has. Right? Jesus's love is perfect. We Christians are imperfect. And so John follows up with some comfort, because he knows that if you if he writes, you ought to lay down your life for one another. Then that's gonna say, but I don't. So he says this. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. So when our sin comes up before our face, and we feel the guilt, know that God is greater than guilt. God's love and forgiveness is greater than our sin, and He knows everything. Then he goes, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. Now, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says something similar, whatever you ask him, my name, it will be granted to you. And we say, really, whatever we ask. And I think it's pretty clear that that's not the promise that God will give us anything as long as we tack on in Jesus name, or as long as because we are faithful. It really has to do with the gifts that God promises us. If we ask God for His grace and His mercy, he delivers it. He sends us the word to be proclaimed to us. He sends us pastors to forgive our sins, He gives us His holy body and blood through the bread and wine of communion. God promises to give us richly in His love and His grace. And he also gives us all the other things we need. Because most of us have just about everything we need, and maybe way too much more. So let's continue. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. So the commandment is interesting here, he has a commandment one, to believe in Jesus and then to, to love one another. And so it's funny that in here we see as a command, one is the gospel, right? Jesus died for you trust in His salvation. And the other is the law, that because Jesus died for you, we need to love one another. And this is he combines those two as a commandment, a gospel promise, and a law action. Whoever keeps this commandment abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now, when we hear about the love that we owe our brothers in Christ, I think it's very easy to point out all the areas where we lack it. And it is sometimes difficult to see all of the great ways that Christian congregations do love and support each other. Because the nice thing about Jesus is that when he fills us with the Spirit, all of the love that we're supposed to have just comes out and we actually start to not notice it. All the different ways we love, we talk to each other, we pray for each other, we care for each other, we give we and it's it almost becomes background noise. And then when somebody misses something, we're just like, Oh, we've got all this background love, but you did one thing wrong, and we're gonna be so mad. Or maybe even just we're gonna feel so guilty. I think we need to sit back and recognize all of the love that comes in a congregation is people that are accepting and loving and gathering and hoping and praying for each other. There is so much and that is a result of the Spirit work that God has given us. That's all I have for First John chapter three. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 23 The Psalm for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
    He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, April 21, comes from Psalm 23. A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23. It's so beautiful, right? So many people know this song and love it. It's just a wonderful image. And we're going to try to take a look at it and break it down. Psalm 23, begins the first part of a number of readings about being a shepherd. Sometimes this is called Good Shepherd, Sunday, and we hear God being our shepherd in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. This first statement is a statement about God's role. And mine. In in our relationship. God is a shepherd, which means I must be a sheep. And so he is the one who's in charge. I am the one who follows. He takes care of me, I let him and you know, you laugh about that, right? That's kind of a funny way of thinking about God, because many of us think about God as a relationship where we're constantly trying to do something, right. Like, we need to praise him, we need to shower him with our prayers and our love and devote our lives to Him and all of that. But the shepherd motif is really different. Right? The shepherd takes care of the sheep, because he wants to, and the sheep in its natural and normal state really can't do anything for the shepherd, the shepherd cares for the sheep, because he finds the sheep valuable, and the sheep, let him there is nothing the sheep can do for the shepherd, to cause the shepherd to love them. And that really important in understanding this, this little Lord is my shepherd thing is that the shepherd is the one who is active. And the next section is I shall not want. Now, when we read this, I think we often think about that as a thing of desire. Whereas I think it better said is I shall not be in want, I shall lack nothing, I will not be in need. And that's a statement of trust, rather than a statement of desire. It trusts that the shepherd will give the sheep everything that the sheep needs. And I think sheep are like that they're not smart enough to worry about the future or to wonder where the grass will grow or to think, I wonder if the shepherds gonna give me water, they kind of just eat. And that's about it. Right? And so it's a trust statement to say the Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing, I shall not be in want, I will not be in need. And it continues with support for that. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. And so the Shepherd leads us to places where we can eat. He gives us water where we can drink. The Shepherd is the one who's concerned about providing for us. And then it flips out of the out of the shepherd and sheep metaphor and goes directly to God's role with the human being. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Now sheep don't care about paths of righteousness. And, and it doesn't matter if a sheep is righteous or unrighteous for anybody, but for the human being for Christians righteousness is a big deal is that God restores us and leads us down the Path, our job is simply to follow, we go where our shepherd tells us to. And this path of righteousness can lead us to some pretty dark places, as other people might see it. And that's what this next section is, says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. So now, it's even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because God is with us. And so this could be sheep metaphor, again, or human being walking through a difficult time. When God is with us, we don't need to worry, even when we enter into death itself. And so the joyful thing about being in Christ is that when we enter into the grave, we actually don't need to be afraid of it. We don't have to fear the evil of satan, trying to grab us and pull us out of God's grasp and dragging us down into hell. Because God, our shepherd, our protector, is with us. And there's more, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I was once at a pastors conference where an African pastor demonstrated what they called the rod and the staff in shepherding. And I forget which one was which. But one was a rod, he had two things. One was a rod, one was a staff. One of them was this club that had a point that it came to. And he said that when the lions came to attack the sheep, you use the club, and you're whack it on the lion on the nose. And that's the one that you go and just like defend the sheep with. And the staff, or the other one was this thin little reed with a hook at the end that you could use to gently guide the sheep, or give them a little whack if they needed it. And it's interesting that with the rod and the staff, one is made to fight off the enemy, and the other is made to guide the sheep onto this path of righteousness, the way we're supposed to go. For Lutherans, we can easily see that the the club, the thing that you whack the roaring lion that is looking to devour the sheep, Satan himself, that is the gospel of God, His might and His power is used to destroy Satan by dying on the cross and rising from the grave. And the little staff is there as the law to gently guide the sheep when they start to go astray. And if they really start to go astray to grab them by the neck and drag them onto the path of righteousness, right. And what a joy it is that God used his big and beefy staff to knock down the devil and save us. And he's gentle guiding, to just draw us back to where we're supposed to go. And both of these are necessary, right? If we leave the path, we need to be pulled back. If we're attacked, we need to be defended. But both provide comfort when we go through the valley of the shadow of death. Because both are gifts of God, the guiding function of the law that tells us how we should change and pull away from our sin, and the gospel that destroys the power of the enemy. The next section, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. So now we've left behind the sheep metaphor all the way. There's no shepherd or sheep, because sheep don't get to sit at a table, and they don't really have enemies. They just have predators. So now it's talking about God, preparing a feast with all of these enemies around and it's, it's the person being honored the Christian being honored by God. What a joy that we can have, have a God who gives us this feast of Holy Communion. In a world that is filled with hostility. We can feast with God and be honored by him. Even as the enemies surround us. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. That anointing with oil is a kind of choosing. And God anoints all of us with the Holy Spirit by the power of Christ. And so we get to be filled with this choosing this anointing and have a full cup.

The psalm continues, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell on the house of the Lord forever. Because the Lord is our shepherd, goodness and mercy come from on him, they will always be with us. Jesus Christ, our God and shepherd constantly gives us goodness and mercy all the days of our life and beyond. With the promise that on his return, we will dwell with Him in eternity in heaven and on earth in a new creation, forever. That's all I have on Psalm 23. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Acts 4:1-12 The First Testament Reading for Sunday, April 21st, 2024

Acts 4:1-12

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The first reading for Sunday, April 21, come from Acts chapter four, verses one through 12. Let's read. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests in the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Anna's, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired by what power? Or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today, concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed. Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you Well, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. Here ends the reading. This reading continues the story that we've we've looked at over the past couple of first readings for Sundays. It's the story of the man that Peter and John healed. Here's just a reminder, Peter and John come to the temple. And there is a man who was born, unable to walk, and he asked them for money. Peter goes up to the man and says, silver and gold, I don't have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. So the man gets up and walks. Right after that, there are a crowd gathers, and Peter and starts to speak to the crowd and gives a sermon to them. And then we get to this passage, and it says, as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, came upon them greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. So Peter and John are already starting to get some attention from the priests in the captains and the Sadducees. They are annoyed that this guy is still talking about Jesus. It seems some of the frustration is that they are talking about this guy, that the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin had Pontius Pilate kill, and some of them are just like, they just want to blame us for this man's blood. Some of it is also this, proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead. I think it's not just that they're proclaiming that they killed Jesus, and they're trying to blame him for that. There's also that it is in Jesus is the resurrection from the dead. Now, of course, the Sadducees are that party that denied that there was a resurrection. They believed that once you died, you died. And that was it. And so it's not only that it's in Jesus, but also that there is a resurrection from the dead. They're frustrated with that. So they arrest them and gather them together. On the next day, they have a little bit of a trial. They gather with the elders and scribes in Jerusalem with Anna's the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, all of who were of the high priestly family. Now Now, if you remember, going back to your other gospels, you'll notice that Caiaphas was the high priest and Anis was not. Now it's Anis is the high priest and Kaya, this is not one of the things that I think is going on here is that anus was actually supposed to be the high priest, and had been deposed by the Romans, they did that a lot. They would depose them. But under Hebrew law, you couldn't depose a High Priest, there was one way to depose a high priest, and that was to kill him. You were high priest until you were dead. And then your son took over. And so that, I think, is one of the reasons why Jesus is brought to Atlantis in the Gospel of John, because they're taking him to the actual high priest, the real and true high priest. Now, the Romans are kind of gone, there's a little bit of a power problem going on here, and the Jews are getting some extra power. So Anis is back. Okay, clearing that up. So they ask a question, by what power? Or by what name? Did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to them. This reminds us of the promise that Jesus gave to His disciples, that when they would stand before kings and rulers, they shouldn't worry about what they were going to say, the Holy Spirit was going to give them words. So that's what happened. filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter says, rulers and people and elders, for being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed. So I think he starts out with a poke in the ribs, to the people there, he's like, wait, wait, wait, you're arresting us? Because a crippled man is healed? Right? Really? We didn't. We didn't cause any problems. We're not robbing. We're not stabbing we're not running around rabble rousing. We healed a crippled man. And you arrested us. I think he's there's a little poke in the ribs of the officials there. Because he knows it's not about the crippled man. But that's what they asked about, right? What power? Or what name did you do this. Then he says, Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you. So it's by the power of Jesus that the Sadducees and the priests crucified. He is the one who did this. This is Jesus, the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. So there's a psalm that talks about this, the stone that was rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone, this is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. And so Jesus who was killed is now the foundation of a new building a new Israel, and they're saying, you killed him, but God chose him. He is the one that was the cornerstone. And it goes, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, we Christians are kind of used to this sort of statement. But I want you to imagine what it would be like being a priest or Sadr see, and hearing this and saying to themselves, wait a second. There is a name that we've been given. If you go back to Moses, to Abraham, there is a name, they wouldn't have said it out loud. But it's Yahweh. They would have said, Otto and I are the Lord. There's a name. God gave his name to us. We're supposed to use it. We're supposed to use it correctly. But God gave it to Moses, God gave it to Abraham. He called on us to use it to call on him when we need him. And you're saying, no, no, no, not anymore. Now it's Jesus. Their salvation under no one else. And so then you get the the quote, right, the stone that was rejected by you, the builders which has become the cornerstone, you should hear in your head. This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. Right. This is the Lord Yawei God, the Old Testament, God did this. He has made Christ the cornerstone. And it's under him that there is no salvation And outside of him, there is no salvation.

So this would have been a radical idea for the Old Testament, Old Testament Jews to say no longer are we talking about the the one God of Moses, he has now chosen Christ to try in the Triune God to bring about salvation. It's a radical new idea. And it's only through Jesus, that there is this salvation. Like I said before, we're kind of used to it. And so we know that this is true, and that this does not deprive the father of his glory, that Christ is true God and true men and our Savior. It does not deprive the father of his glory, that He sent His Son Jesus Christ, and it's only through him the way, the truth and the life that we are saved. And this idea that only Christ, there is no other name in her under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. It's only through Christ, that we have salvation. What that means is, salvation is not about dedication. Like sometimes people will say, they're really dedicated to their faith, they pray, they've got this spirituality, God must be must save them, right? No, salvation only comes through Jesus, then they're a good person. Do you see all the great things they take care of their family, they give to the gifted charities. They're a good citizen, they show up on time they do their work, they don't complain. They're really good people, they must be saved, right? No, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. But they're really sincere and they pray hard every day. It must that must be God must love them. No other name. And that also means that for us Christian to trust in Christ, we should not be ashamed or worried or afraid. Because there is no other name. It's the only thing the necessary thing, the one thing we need is Christ. What a joy that we have him what a joy that we can trust in Him to give us this salvation. Well, that's all we have for today. That's the end of Acts chapter four verses one through 12. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Old Fulfilled; The New Revealed: Sermon for Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Luke 24:36-49

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Grace, mercy and peace beyond to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The lesson for meditation is St. Luke chapter 24, verses 36 to 49, the Gospel lesson which is already been read, I ask you what is the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Through the years, some have suggested that the New Testament is all we need, because the Old Testament is well, kind of old. So you just need to new but it's a little hard to see what the new is actually fulfilling. Without that preliminary sketch of the old as the other extreme, others have carried the old forward into the new, trying to keep for instance, all those eating regulations in the Book of Leviticus, even though Christ clearly said he has fulfilled the old and secondarily Well, it's hard for me to believe that the God who gives godly pleasure really wants us to do without bacon and pulled pork until Jesus comes again. So again, we asked what is the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Testament? Perhaps St. Augustine, your father in Christ put it best when he said, the new is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed? That is to say what is sketched in black and white in the old is fulfilled in living color, in the New Testament, especially in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. Please join me then to look at Luke 24. With this theme in mind, thus it is written. Thus, it is written in Genesis 14 That Melchizedek, the priests, the priests, without generation, a priest, unlike any other visited Abram, he brought bread and wine and he blessed Abram, and then he simply disappeared, never to be heard from again. Who was this mysterious Melchizedek in Genesis 14? Is it possible that this Melchizedek blessing Abraham, offering bread and wine is the pre Incarnate Christ, that is Christ before he took on flesh and blood. And then four times in the Bible, we read that Jesus was a priest, in the order of Melchizedek, that is to say, a priest, unlike any other for he is the high born of all ages, be conceived by the Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. And thus, in today's Gospel, the new and greater Melchizedek, the risen Christ stands among his disciples that first Easter Sunday and he says, Peace to you, a blessing from the new Melchizedek. These disciples, having seen his passion, were, of course startled and frightened. Indeed, they thought they saw a spirit, we would say, a frightening sort of bad ghost. And then he said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts, and then see in this gospel lesson, the emphasis on Jesus own flesh and blood, he says, see my hands, and by feet, a spirit does not have flesh and bones, and then repeating, and in feet. So it's all about this true flesh and blood of Christ, the new and greater Melchizedek, fully God, fully man, crucified for our sins, and yet risen from the dead, and now standing among them in the flesh, to bring the peace that only Jesus can bring. And this incarnation, this flesh and bones, his hands and feet is good news for you and me, and other church fathers said, Christ cannot redeem what he has not assumed. Again, he cannot redeemed what he has not assumed. So he has to assume your flesh and blood like you in every way, except without sin, that he may take that flesh and blood, put it on the cross to redeem you from your sins, and then rise from the dead and say to you, your sins are forgiven, a blessing from the new Melchizedek, who also comes in bread, and why. Thus, it is written in Psalm 74, that the Lord will crush the head of Leviathan, Leviathan to the ancient mind was that big sea creature, perhaps a whale, the CIA always carried the connotation of the unknown and of course of death. As an active duty Navy chaplain, I can say that things have not changed that much. But we can see Leviathan with radar these days to crush the head of Leviathan says that Jesus will be victorious over death. And so in today's Gospel lesson, Jesus showed them his hands, he showed them his feet, and then he said, you have here anything to eat. They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate it. On one level, this is important, for he says that a ghost does not have flesh and bones and of course, a ghost could not actually eat and consume a piece of fish. But there's a deeper theological meaning here fulfilling Psalm 74 that he will crush the head. of the Leviathan, that is to say, especially as you're read Psalm 74, and the psalmist rehearses God's mighty acts of salvation in this creation, that to eat something shows total mastery and power over it. And so we read in Isaiah, for instance, that Jesus will swallow up death forever, but a powerful image of the triumph of the risen Christ. In Genesis three he crushes the head of the serpent, in Psalm 74, he walks on the head of the leviathan, but then in Isaiah of equal mastery, he's going to swallow up death forever, and it's a good thing for you and I, as we're born according to our natural birth, we will be swallowed up by death itself. Think of that image of the power of swallowing something and eating it means total victory preceded by death, and then a festive banquet. Christ has conquered your sin, Christ has conquered eternal death for you, and risen from the dead. He says, not only are your sins are forgiven, but Come, come to the feast and eat my body and my blood in with an under bread and wine. Yes, this is a victory meal in the Lord's Supper, is it not? Not in the secular sense of victory, but theologically, it's a victory over sin, death, and the devil commemorated and received as you receive His true Body and Blood. Thus, it is written of old, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Think through that trio just for a moment, Moses, prophets, songs from Moses, the great law giver promised that there would be a new and greater prophet who would fulfill all that Moses foreshadows the entire sketch of the prophets, the major and minor prophets writing over hundreds of years, oh, they thundered mightily with the law, overturning kings calling Israel to repentance. But they also made it very clear that it was repentance for the sake of forgiveness in the coming, suffering Messiah. And, of course, the Psalms, the very prayer book of Christ Himself, where you can see Christ at work in every single Psalm that he himself prayed, and that it gives you a voice to pray as well. These all come together in Luke's gospel at the Transfiguration, where he saw Moses and the prophets standing on that mountain, and of course, the voice from the father giving a benediction overall saying, This is my son, here, II. Yes, thus it is written, that he must open their minds to understand the scriptures, that all these things, Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, they all come together, they are distilled as it were, into the flesh and blood of Christ. And then we read in Galatians, that this Christ was born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, again, born under the law to redeem those under the law. So you and I, of course, are born under the law. And that simply means, if we have a birthdate, on that tombstone, we will also eventually have a death date on that tombstone, for we are born in sin, and bound to die. But Christ being born under the law, as the Son of God and son of man, has kept the law for us. So in Luke's gospel, he's born during a census upon for Caesar, in Bethlehem for this census, he is in the temple at age 12. Keep in keeping the law before God and man not for himself, but for you, in his public ministry, miracles preaching, he's doing it all for you, and keeping the law where you have broken the law and taking all your sins, and suffering the wrath of the Father on the cross according to the law, and then rising from the dead to say, All is fulfill and your sins are forgiven. Thus it is written, and so it must be fulfilled, that that new and greater Jonah would rise from the dead on the third day, recall Jonah, my personal favorite sailor in the Old Testament, because he went overboard and at least came back after the man overboard. Every call, he was called to preach to Nineveh up, he said, I'll have none of that God had something else in mind, off to the sea in the belly for three days and then recall that when he finally made it to Nineveh, the people and even the king in Nineveh, repented of their sins. This black and white sketch is fulfilled in living color in the new and greater Jonah. Jesus, he must rise from the dead on the third day. For in Genesis the third day is the day that they begin to create things that have a death and life cycle such as plants, and Jonah is the day that this reluctant preacher now becomes the bold preacher willing to die for the sake of preaching the truth and Hosea said that for two days, the Lord will crush us. But on the third day, yes, the third day, the day of resurrection, the Lord will bless us that we too, may rest in peace. And so it all begins in the Old Jerusalem, that walled city where Jesus suffered and died. But starting here on the third day, and Luke 24, and through Pentecost, it's going to go beyond the old Jerusalem to the New Jerusalem, the Church, which as you know, is wherever Christ is preached on and believed, and wherever his sacraments are given there Christ is present, and the preaching of Jonah, the preaching of Jesus, the preaching of the Apostles, it all continues today, through pastors and people who say that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. And then all that was written to bold, is fulfilled in the lively propagation of the gospel. Well, may I suggest then that St. Augustine was right, the new is in the old concealed, the old is in the new revealed, all bolstered by that very important phrase, Thus it is written, therefore it's the word of God, it simply cannot be changed. And there are a few other things that are written for you this third Sunday of Easter. And always, it is written that baptism now saves you not by the circumcision of the skin, but as circumcision of the heart to make you God's own child. All the law, the prophets and the Psalms are distilled into the words, I forgive you all your sins, but the point of preaching is to give you that forgiveness. And it is written that on a night when he was betrayed, he took bread and wine which are his body and blood and the new and greater Passover, NOW comes to you to commemorate his death, and to give you life and salvation, and thus it is written and so are you. For your name is written in the Book of eternal life. God granted unto you for Jesus sake, amen. Lilia Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Acts 3:11-25 The First Testament Reading for Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Acts 3:11-25

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.

The reading for Sunday, April 14, comes from Acts chapter three, verses 11 through 21. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people utterly astounded ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this? Or Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety, we have made him walk, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you delivered over, and tonight in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses, and his name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given this man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive, until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago, he rents the reading. Let's begin with talking about the first thing that you might notice that this first reading is not from the Old Testament, it's from the book of Acts. through much of the season of Easter, our first reading is not from the Old Testament anymore. Now it's in the book of Acts. And we've been following along with the life of the church since then. And this reading begins in the middle of the story. It says, while he clung to Peter and John, the question is, who is the he and why his eat clinging to Peter? And John? The answer is simple. It comes from the story right in front of this one, Peter and John were walking into the temple, and there was a man who was born lame. He was paralyzed from before birth. And he asked them for money. And Peter goes up to the man and says, I don't have gold or silver, but what I do have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. So the man gets up and walks. Nobody has ever seen anything like this, except for those of us who know what Jesus did in his ministry, how he healed, people who were born blind, and made the lame walk and the crippled, brought back all sorts of cool stuff, right? So the people are all amazed. And this man then clings to Peter and John. And that's what's going on. So the people gathered together, and Peter sees the crowd, and he uses the opportunity. Now, what I think is really important about this, is that Peter is following the pattern that was established with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Remember, the book of Acts was written by the same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke, Luke, the one who followed St. Paul. So Peter follows Jesus's pattern. Jesus goes around and he heals. But he doesn't just heal the healings draw the crowds that allow him to preach. And we see this very explicitly. Peter and John come, they heal, and then they use that not as the main point, the main point is sharing the gospel with those who are amazed by the power. So he goes, men of Israel. Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety? We have made him walk So first thing is, is the big deal. Peter says, It's not me guys. I'm just a guy. It's not my power. It's not my faith, it is nothing, nothing about me makes this happen. It is all about Jesus. And that, of course, is the pattern for understanding how God does miracles. And why is it's not about glorifying the human being. And so the showy things that you might see on TV that look like miracles, and there's a man dancing around on the stage, doesn't really fit the, the pattern of the Gospels, it doesn't fit the pattern of the book of Acts. It always points to Jesus. So he says, It's not about us. Then he goes, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. So this first phrase, Peter calls God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. This highlights something that's really important in these initial parts of x is that nobody thought of Christianity as a separate religion. At this time. Peter and John are making a very simple claim. Everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus, and that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through Christ. And this is the same claim the Christian church makes today. That we are, we are not like a separate religion from the Old Testament, a break off from Judaism. Judaism is actually the break off from the Old Testament, and that we are following the wishes of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So now he goes into the story, he says, You delivered Him over. And just, you delivered Him over. And in the presence of pilot when pilot had decided to release Him, but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead. So he's recalling the story, right? Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he said, he is an innocent man, he even tried to get the people to choose between a murderer Barabbas and Jesus and they chose the murderer, can you believe it? And the saying you killed the author of life, and that Peter and John were there to see this. Now, here's the key point. And his name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong whom you see now. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. So he's placed in the healing in the context of the story he's trying to tell. He's like, we didn't do it. We have a story. God raised Jesus from the dead, the one that you killed, and it's by the faith in His name, that this man is made well, what they're trying to do is prove that it's through Christ, the power of God is active in the world. And this miracle is primarily there, both to give the man healing, but also to gather the crowd in so they'd have the chance to tell them. Peter continues, and now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that is Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled, repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out. that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. So Peter, gives an accusation to the people, you deny the author of life, you killed him, and you asked for a murderer to be released instead. But then he gives them the out. And now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, he says, as did your rulers, which is an important idea, right? It's not just the people who shouted crucify Him who acted in ignorance. It's also the rulers. He said, God forgive them. They don't know what they're doing right. He places is in the context of the Old Testament again, when he says, All of this was foretold by the prophets, that Christ would suffer, and this is what Jesus fulfilled. Now, repent, this has happened, it's time to turn back so that you may get one times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, then when and then when Jesus returns, you may receive blessing,

because he is in heaven until he returns to fulfill all things and restore all things. And so what's what's fascinating about this for me, I think, is that we think that the real thing of this story is the miracle that happened where like, Wow, a man was given his legs back, he could walk again. But Peter is saying the real thing is not the miracle, but the message and the power of the gospel. And that's what this really focuses in on sharing the gospel with people so that they can have the Christ on their side. And I think that's an important thing for us to remember as Christians do good things in the world is that these good things that we do what however we help, it's wonderful and good and excellent, but it's not the main mission. The main mission of the church is to do what Peter and John did. proclaim the gospel to those who gather that we can gather together all of God's people and wait for the time of His return. That's all I have on Acts chapter three. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Miracle of Belief: Sermon for Sunday, April 7th, 2024

John 20:19-31

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

He has risen, is risen indeed, hallelujah. So as always the reading we have on this first Sunday after Easter. And there at the end is poor Thomas. So often we call him Doubting Thomas. And we do, we do a little bit of a disservice really when we call him that. Because first none of the other disciples believed until they had encountered the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He just happened to not be in the room when Jesus appeared. And what's more, we do a disservice when an English we call him Doubting Thomas, because in our Gospel text, not once, not for a single second, this Thomas doubt. Of course, he doesn't actually believe either. But there's no doubt there's nothing in the middle. Thomas went further than doubting, he flat out rejected

that Jesus had resurrected, He said he couldn't believe it. He rejected he didn't believe at all. And I don't know if we can blame him. I don't know if we're any different than him. After all, the resurrection sounds preposterous, really. So many of us grew up in a world where it was just taken for a fact in our culture that of course, Jesus rose from the dead, of course, it was a real event.

Now that's less than less. The gospel has always been absurd and alien to our culture, it's just more apparent. After all, we all see with our own eyes, how this world works, you reap what you sow. You have to work. If you want to make your payments. If you want to get good grades, you have to study you do the work, you get the reward, if things work out well. So the very idea that some random Jewish carpenter 2000 years ago on the other side of the world, could have died because his death,

you escape eternal punishment when you think of it like that. It does, in fact, sound ridiculous. But that doesn't mean it's not true. After all, the things of God often sound like folly

to men. In fact, St. Paul writes about that in the first chapter of First Corinthians, He tells us that the things of God do, in fact, seem foolish, until you've been called by God, until God gives you faith until you're enlightened and your eyes are open. What a beautiful ceremony we just saw, with that chrismation, with the anointing, that your eyes may be open, that your lips may be open. Because without Christ, they're closed and we're blind. But then all of a sudden, when God works faith in us, St. Paul says in First Corinthians, that all of a sudden, the foolishness of God, we now know is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And what's more, we've all experienced that in our lives, haven't we? When faith has been kindled in our hearts,

and all of a sudden, despite what the world says, despite their message, we instead cling to Christ. And we cling to the foolishness of God.

We see that happen in the life of Thomas in our gospel reading. And it's not as if one day you are I just all of a sudden reasoned it out we put the pieces together. And we believe that the gospel was true. It's not as if one day we chose to accept it. And why is that? It's because we are spiritually dead. Without Christ, that is, humanity is spiritually dead after the fall. We cannot light that little spark of faith in our spiritually dead hearts. In fact, we cannot choose Jesus we are all like Thomas saying, I cannot believe we cannot choose Jesus because Jesus Jesus always has to choose us. First. The Small Catechism says it this way. It says, I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Humanity, you and I, we can no more make ourselves believe that a lump of clay can just sit there and form itself into a cup or a bowl or something useful. And that's because we are not creators of faith. But instead, as Christians, we are creatures, we are creations of faith, who have been formed, and had faith in the love of God placed into our hearts. And if you need to see proof of that, just look to our gospel reading, if anybody should have been able to create faith in themselves, it would have been an apostle. And yet Thomas says in verse 25, Unless I see the marks of the nail in his hand, Unless I see the hole in his sight, and place my hand and in Greek, that's his fist wants to place his fist, and Jesus is Pierside. Unless I can do that, he says, I will never believe. And this is the same Thomas, who was in the inner circle with the disciples, right? Hit FOLLOW JESUS for three years. He was with the group that was sent out to cast out demons and heal in the name of Jesus. So think of all the things that Thomas had already seen and touched. He saw Jesus calm the raging sea of Galilee, with his word. He saw Jesus touch lepers, and then be healed, or even just say, you are healing, they're healed. He sees from this point, it would have been maybe 1415 days before this event, he would have seen Lazarus come out of the tomb, a man who stinks as much because he was dead for three days, when Jesus just says, come on out. This is the same man who had put his hand on people, and in the name of Jesus healed them and cast out demons, he has already seen and touched the proof. And yet, this is the man in verse 25, who says that without proof, he cannot leave. And what's more in the Greek text, it's even more drastic than our English. Thomas says EU may pursue. So it's important little phrase, ooh, May with those two Greek words, ooh, and may can't really explain them in English, but it's almost as if he is saying, I cannot. I will never, ever be able to believe it is absolutely impossible. We don't even have a way of saying it in English, but they do in Greek. Who may? I can't? It's impossible. And Thomas is right. Because he cannot believe without encountering the risen Christ, he cannot believe apart from the Holy Spirit working faith in him. None of us can. And why? Because we are creatures of faith. Because faith is in fact, a miracle worked by God. Our God is a God who creates with his word. In the beginning, he says, Let there be light and what happened? What happened? There was light. He said it and there was in St. Paul says, in Romans 1015, that faith comes by hearing. Jesus appears to the frightened disciples in that upper room. That's Easter day. And he says, Peace be with you. And what do they have all of a sudden, peace. Because of Jesus's performative and creative word, it does what he says it will do. And so he comes to Thomas on eight days later. And he commands him. He says, Do not disbelieve, but believe. And those disciples were seeing the same one who called creation into existence, speak a miracle. And faith was worked in Thomas's heart. Thomas doesn't go over and start touching his body. Instead, he immediately confesses My Lord and my God. Thomas and the other disciples, they were blessed. They got to see and they got to touch Jesus. And afterwards, yes, they touched Jesus, they ate with them, all of these things. But the truth is encounters with the risen Lord Jesus, are much more common now than they were even in the days of the apostles. And our Lord continues to create with His Word, His word continues to be powerful and efficacious and do exactly what he sends it forth to do. And the Bible is read when the gospel is preached. The Word of Christ comes to bearing the Holy Spirit. When Christ through his servant says to your sins are forgiven, we just heard it in John 20. They are in fact, forgiven as if Jesus himself said it because the pastor is just saying the words of Jesus. And when his servant baptized, you are breonna when soon you'll be baptized, and you hear these words from a very unassuming, you're from the Midwest, right? And unassuming Midwest man, I baptize you in name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Right here with lukewarm tap water. The very triune name of the Most High God will be placed on you. You will be a daughter of the Lord. Why? Because God's Word does what it says it does. It's powerful. Sorry, I'm getting all teary eyed thinking about it.

The beautiful thing. See the very God who brought our universe into being by speaking and so he now comes to us, and He speaks and he creates and He sustains faith in us. He creates and sustains good works in us in a Christian life. And this is assurance beyond all measure because it means that faith we believe faith saves right faith alone, we confess this as Lutherans, but it means that faith is not our work. But it is the work of our perfect God. And he never fails. There's a term we use as theologians often to describe this and it's kind of a fancy word, but it's it's monetarism. I know I use it in Bible studies here all the time monetarism right mono like mono rail or like you know, a monocle means one. So monetarism means one party does all of the work absolutely all of the work. In this case, it's the Holy Spirit of Christ creating faith, strengthening us unto salvation. Right? It's monotheism that is truly Christ alone, that saves you that you and I have no part none of our works matter. It's all the completed work of Christ. Right monetarism, that our salvation rests solely in the merits of Jesus given to us. And these actions, this gift of righteousness and salvation, it is alien to us it is from outside of us, right? It's foreign when it comes inside and dwells. And so now all of a sudden, you don't have to rely upon yourself. But instead you can easily rest in the mercy of God, you can rest in the Sabbath that is the Lord Jesus. Because he is doing it all for you creating and sustaining your faith. As you hear the word preached, working in preparing good works in you and for you. But just as the gospel is foreign to this world, so is this idea of monetarism, the God does everything. It's alien to our culture, even the church's culture. It's true anywhere in the world. Whether you're in East County, or you're in Transylvania where I'm at, it's true. We have a culture that wants to make faith a good work, a good work that man has to do. Right? They want you to make a decision for Jesus, they want you to give your heart. How many of you have a clean, wonderful heart, raise your hand? What a horrible gift to give to Jesus. He gives you a new heart. In the Eastern Orthodox, they want you to live a perfect life so that you can become more godlike to then be saved. They got that backwards. montages and this idea that Christ truly is it's Christ alone, faith alone. It's alien to the church, but we have it in the Lutheran church. Thanks be to God. You know, after the emotions, and that mountaintop experience leave you how many of us have had that time where we made a decision for Jesus? And then when the emotions go and the sin and the temptation comes back, we doubt that we really meant that's ever been you if that's you right now, I do not doubt that you're a Christian. But we've been misled by that culture that rejects Christ alone and monetarism. So of course, you're going to doubt your salvation when any of it rests on you and not the Lord Jesus. A creature must be created. And we are creatures of faith, a true faith that comes from outside of ourselves. That's beautiful. Because it means you never need to worry if your faith is strong enough, or if you believe hard enough. Because the work of the Crucified Lord Jesus is more than enough for you and all of the sins in your life.

What a beautiful thing that is. After all, when you were baptized, were you baptized into your own good works? Or were you baptized into the works of Jesus?

Who are you baptized into? You are Jesus, Jesus? That's a simple one, right? When you were baptized, were you baptized into your death? Or were you baptized into the death of Jesus,

Jesus? And on that last day, when you're before the throne of God,

whose good works and merits Do you want before him? Yours are Jesus's. Yeah, it's a Sunday School question right? The answer is Jesus, Jesus. And last one who creates faith in your heart and who created it in the heart of Thomas?

Jesus through the Holy Spirit that precedes from him. So don't doubt. Don't disbelieve that you are saved that's lies of the culture. That's the lies of the devil.

Stand in your salvation. Stand in your baptism in Christ standard, his good works, his merits firmly because you can know that your salvation is the work of God. Don't doubt it. Don't disbelieve. In the words of Jesus believe. Amen. And now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, keeping guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

He Will Swallow Up Death Forever: Sermon for Easter Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Isaiah 25:9-12

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
    He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Alleluia Christ is risen. Today is the day. Today is the day that we celebrate Christ's resurrection. We spent all last week looking at the journey of Christ to the cross. We celebrated Palm Sunday as he entered into his city, a king conquering, not with armies. But with his gentle power. And his word. We we watched as he did his last supper, when to the Garden of Gethsemane, was arrested, put on trial before the priests and then punches Pilate, and was nailed to the cross and entered into death's realm, as a warrior king, to conquer and destroy his fortress, and end his might. We waited outside of the tomb last night, as we celebrated the visual of our Savior. And now today is the day hallelujah Christ is risen. Today is the day, we remember that Christ burst forth from the grave and destroyed its power forever. He faced the enemy that we could not end defeated it. He emptied the tomb, he appeared to the women, then to the disciples, then to as many as 500 people, before ascending into heaven. Today, we remember that Jesus rose not as a ghost or a spirit, but as a man who appeared to His disciples and ate fish in front of them to say, I am truly alive, body and soul. It is the day of celebration of the victory of Christ over death forever. This is the day, the day we remember Christ's victory and ours over sin and death forever. And to remember this victory, we look back, many, many centuries before Christ, to a prophet, who saw into the future and knew what was coming, who looked forward to the day of Christ's death and resurrection, and even beyond, to the day of His return, as well. Isaiah chapter 25. He says, On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow of aged wine, well refined. Many of you will be leaving today to head back to your places to have your own feasts. I'm not sure how many of you will have a rich food full of marrow. I've only had it once. It's really good. Maybe there will be aged wine well refined. But that's not really what Isaiah is talking about. What he's pointing to, is that on the mountain of God, there is going to be a celebration, a joyful celebration of the victory that God has won. Not only is God winning, but he's also providing that great food, the food that leads to joy and everlasting life. So we have to say which Mountain is he talking about? We know the mountain of the Lord is Mount Zion, the city of Jerusalem. And The celebration The victory is actually on a hill just outside the city where there was a cross and a Savior died and their nearby was a new tomb. No one had ever been laid in it. They borrowed it for the night. Because it was so close. They put the Savior in there and then it was empty. That is the mountain Isaiah is talking about where God's people will look and see the salvation of all mankind. It points to a couple of feasts that we celebrate and look forward to as well. The first is the feast at the end of time, the feast on the day that Christ's returns, we have a window into that, in the book of Revelation, we actually sing a song, based on that book, which we sang just before this, it's called, this is the feast. We celebrate and look forward to the day of Christ's return when he raises his people from the dead to give them eternal life. And that reminds us, of the foretaste of that feast, a little piece of Christ's resurrection coming to us on different mountains all over the globe, all at the same time. I don't know if you've noticed. But I'm not on a stage. up in front, right? There are stairs. It's not a flat thing that leads up to here, but a place where people might walk up. And it's designed that way to be just a little bit of the mountain of Zion, where God has prepared a feast for us to see it may not be marrow, or rich food, or even aged wine well refined. It's even better than that. The Body and Blood of Christ, with the bread and the wine given for you, as a taste of the victory on the last day as a piece of that life given to you right now. And assure promise that on the day that Christ returns, you will celebrate with him. This is a piece of that mountain. The mountain we remember today where the tomb is empty. Isaiah continues, he says, And He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. I think this metaphor of the covering the veil. It's a really interesting way of speaking about the way death affects us all. It's a it's a thing that drapes over all people. A veil that sits on top of us that presses down and we even get used to it after a little while. And each of us feels that weight. We feel the thing that that presses on us and pushes us down all the time. You may be feeling it today in your bodies. As you wake up in the morning with maybe a new pain that you didn't have last night. Like one right in your hip. You know, you kind of gotta wiggle it out. Before you get to church. Or maybe an old pain that hasn't gone away in a while. Maybe it's worse. Maybe today you are gathered here and you feel the weight of a missing loved one. Holidays we'll do that, won't they? As you gather together around your festival meal, and there's a chair that you wish was filled with or even as we sing these songs of joy proclaiming Christ's resurrection. You think to yourself we sang that at the funeral. Along with the joy there's just a little pain and grief. We know it. We feel it. It weighs on us

because it's a thing that sits on everyone. The veil that is spread over all nations, its death. But today we are reminded once more, that God swallowed up on this mountain, this very veil, he destroyed death forever. He swallowed it, he ate it like it was nothing. Because it has no power over him. Jesus Christ entered into death, and broke free from its prison. He entered into death because it could not hold him it had no power, the Lord of life could not be held in the grave. And he came out on Easter morning, tearing down the walls of the grave, paving a path wide enough for all of us to follow him through the grave, to everlasting life, swallowed up death forever. We gather here to remind ourselves of that fact. That even though we are pressed down, even though we feel the weight and the hurt and the pain, there is a pathway through it. Looking forward through the grave, to the point, when we will rise to the promise is what Isaiah says next, the thing that we cling to, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. These Easter songs, these festival hymns, the joy of Christ's resurrection reminds us that what we face now is not the end. We have a hope, beyond the pain and grief that we feel a hope that is there for the return of Jesus Christ, because we will see him coming on the clouds with power and might not like the lowly king who entered Jerusalem with palm trees, but as the mighty king to judge the living and the dead. And when He calls us out of our graves. Wow, what a day it will be when our cemeteries are the most populated places on the planet. As we look around, and we see our family members as we see the people we miss, we see with joy, our Savior. As the judge returns to make all things new. For his people, that will be a day of joy, as he wipes away every tear from every eye as he gathers His people together for joy, to live forever with Him raised from the dead, always to be with our Lord forever. This is the promise we have. For us the challenge of this promise, the difficulty is to cling to it when everything we know has the weight of death on it. When we look in our world, and we walk around and we feel that veil presses down on us, and it wants to keep us from focusing on the promise, hearing the words of Christ and saying yes, this will be so yes, this will happen. I can cling and hold to it no matter what. That's the challenge for Christians who wait for that joyful day. It reminds us what it will be like Isaiah says, it will be said on that day Behold, this is our God we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is a piece of Old Testament theology that is really important. The idea that God's people simply We wait for his promises to come true. We can't fight. We can't do it on our own. We can't go out and creates our perfect salvation from other might have our hands. All we can do is wait. And there are a lot of stories like that in the Bible. I want you to think about Noah, on the ark. Can you imagine that? That story? God comes to him and says build an ark. And he does. And he gets inside. And God sends a flood and it floods for over a year. And he's inside this ark. And he's like, What do I do now? Right? Can you imagine a storm that lasts that long? He just had to wait for the Lord. Or Israel at the Red Sea. Pharaoh is charging out after them the chariots and the horses in the military. And this rabble of Israel, no weapons, no safety, just a bunch of animals and women and children and they go oh, no, we're gonna die. But they don't. All they had to do was wait for the Lord to spread the Red Sea apart and they walked on dry ground. And then he fought. Then the Lord fought for them and drowned Pharaoh's army. Daniel, when he was thrown into the lion's den, no weapons, no defense. And instead of being torn up, he had a good cuddle with those big kitty cats. just waited for the Lord. Because that's the way God saves his people. And that's what we do. We wait for the Lord. We take courage in his promise. We hear that Christ is raised from the dead. And we know that will happen to us. And we gather every Sunday to repeat the promise back and forth to each other so we can know and cling to this thing that will save us our hope in Christ waiting for him. Because when he appears in the sky, we want to be there to say with joy, that we've waited for him. We don't want it to be a surprise and a terror. For a judge who comes to condemn. We want to be able to be there and say, Behold, this is our God we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. What a day that will be. Hallelujah Christ is risen. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Amen: Sermon for Easter Vigil, March 30th, 2024

Matthew 6:9-13

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Over this Lent season, we've been looking at the Lord's Prayer. We started all the way back in Ash Wednesday, looking at the very beginning. And we have moved through the Lord's Prayer all the way up to the end. And tonight, we just have one little, teeny, tiny, very insignificant Word. Amen. The last word and the word at the end of the prayer. Amen. You notice, we've said on mine a lot. And after every prayer, every blessing, we say it over and over and over again. We say it in church, every Sunday, over and over and over again. You might even say it, when a friend says something you agree with. Amen. Or somebody says something I really, really like I might say, preach it, brother. Right? After a little bit, this word can kind of lose its meaning. Sometimes we use the word Amen. As if it's just sort of a signal. PRAYER OVER. Right? You You say, Oh, Dear Heavenly Father, you talk to God. And then when at the end, what do you do? You just say, Hang up coaching. PRAYER OVER. Amen. I realized not too long ago how old I am. When I taught this to our confirmation students. And they didn't know what this was. Yeah. Amen. For many of us, Amen is just kind of that word, right? The word that you say when the prayer is over, or the thing that the bulletin reads that you're supposed to say after the pastor is done speaking, right. But it's more than that. Amen is a Hebrew word that's been passed down in every single language ever since the Bible was written. And Luther tells us it is something very simple. It means yes, yes, it shall be so. Amen is not just a holy hang up. Or the thing that you say in response to the pastor. Amen. is a word of faith. It says, yeah, absolutely. God's promises will be so when we say it at the end of a prayer, we're saying, I know God listens to me and promises to respond. That's why it's at the end of the Lord's Prayer. Because it's the prayer that God has commanded us to pray. And I think Amen, is perfect, for this night, as we stand vigil outside of Christ's empty tomb, because this night is the night they lay his body in the ground. And people wondered, what next? What will happen? For many people, it was a night of fear and anguish. They looked at the at the stone rolled over the tomb, and they wondered, what now my life has been dedicated to following this man, what do I do?

Men would have been useful to them. Can you imagine? If the disciples had heard the word that Jesus said to them, over and over, and over it, heard it and believed? The Son of Man is going to Jerusalem. It will be delivered up to the hands of sinful men, crucified. And after three days rise What if they had simply said, Amen. Can you imagine what the vigil for them would have been like? Sitting outside the tomb? Waiting? Could have been how could it be now? What is the Sun gonna come up? Come on that's what it was. That's not what it was like for them. The disciples were hiding. They were afraid. They were worried they locked the doors were feared the Jews they had scattered, abandoned Jesus. They were terrified. They were so stressed out, and all they could have done was just say Amen. Yes, it shall be so. After three days, Christ, the rocks lost so much stress. Just trust that promise. So many of your stories were examples of that tonight, right? You've got Pharaoh chasing Israel, they are at the edge of the Red Sea and they look back and they say, we could have been buried in Egypt, Moses. And then we wouldn't have to walk this far. When they could have just said, we heard the promise. We know what's going to happen. Amen. Noah stepped into the ark of frosting. And the door closed behind him and the rain poured and he is like, can you imagine? And he said, Amen. When he built an ark, I carried him safely through the waters. Well, God judged the rest of the sinful world. And the best, of course, was saved for last. The three young men put up against the entire power of the greatest empire of their day, King Nebuchadnezzar away at the top, who says, Who will save you from my power? They knew just said Amen. We know the promise. Maybe our God won't save us right now. But we won't serve that thing that you made. God saved them to the fiery furnace so much that their clothes didn't even smell like smoke. Amen. And what about us? Amen is a word of faith at the end of a prayer that trusts in our Father in heaven, who loves us, as his dear children. Amen. is the word that we say. When we receive the body and blood of the Christ? And we say yep, there it is. For me. Amen is the word that we say. When I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and you say, yep, that's what Jesus one for me. Amen is the word that we say, when we are blessed at the end of the service? If you say, Yeah, God's blessing is on me. Amen. And Amen is the word that we can say, when we face the kinds of fears and stresses that are not quite like a king Nebuchadnezzar with a fiery furnace. A huge flood that covers the whole earth, or even a cross or a tomb with a stone roll in front of it. We just say, Amen. To our Savior, Jesus Christ, and trust in His promises. How much stress do we lose? How much anxiety will just roll off our backs? How much joy can we have? Because our dear Savior or broke free from the grave the stone was rolled away. He appeared to Mary Magdalene and the disciples and all the others up as to as many as 500 people, and then he ascended into heaven and he's coming back. And all we have to do is be still awake. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

But Deliver Us From Evil: Sermon for Good Friday March 29th, 2024

John 19:28-30

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 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. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are back again, to one of the most holy nights in the Christian Church year, the night where we read through the story of Jesus, and His crucifixion, His death on the cross, and his crowning and glory. And every time I go through this night, something else pops out to me. Just recently, reading through this, I realized, the sacrifice that Joseph of Aaron mithya and Nicodemus made, taking Jesus down from the cross. Not only would they have been seen in a negative light going after Jesus. But notice the little detail that the high priests did. They did not go into pilots headquarters, because they didn't want to be defiled for the feast the next day. But Joseph Nicodemus, they love Jesus enough to touch his body, to prepare him for death, and miss the feast. Their love for the Savior, shines out in that little detail of peace that I had missed up until this week. That's part of reading this passage, every single year, you grow a little more familiar. You notice things that are a little different. You see the power that Christ has for us. Over the season of Lent, we have been exploring another passage, the Lord's Prayer is looking at the different pieces and what it means for each one of us, taking it line by line all the way through from Our Father who art in heaven. All the way up to the final passage, which is,

but deliver us from evil. Isn't that the perfect prayer for the crucifixion, but deliver us from evil?

Is that not what Jesus did? The night that he tricked Satan into letting him come into his territory.

That's what the cross is, after all, it's a trick. It's an invasion.

By a warrior king is entering into the territory of the enemy, to destroy him. Deliver us from evil. Martin Luther explains it in this way. We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven, would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation. And finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to himself in heaven. But deliver us from evil. There's actually a debate among scholars about the best way to translate that petition from the original Greek, we have the traditional one that we've all memorized that comes down the traditional way. But there's actually the right in front of the word evil, which means it could also be translated to deliver us from the evil one. Not just evil, generally. But Satan, himself. Deliver us from evil is a summary of the Lord's Prayer, gathering everything together all our wants and desires and our needs and saying God save us from everything. And especially Satan, himself. Because he does not want God's kingdom to come among us by God's grace and mercy. He only wants our doom and our destruction is the enemy that hounds us day and night harasses us in our thoughts, desires and our actions. He whispers in our minds to undermine God's word and take us from the Christian faith that he has Powerful, he is real, and he is dangerous. Deliver us from evil. And tonight, we celebrate the day our King Jesus entered into his domain to destroy him.

That is why we call it Good Friday. Because on the cross, Jesus tricks death

into swallowing THE LORD OF LIFE. Jesus walked face first, into the stronghold of Satan, to destroy it from within. Tonight, we celebrate the crowning of our King on his glorious throne, the cross by his death there he destroyed the power of sin and death over us. But deliver us from evil. That's what his death is. It is not a tragedy. It's a horror, though it is brutal. It's a triumph. Victory. crowning glory, where Jesus begins his defeat of sin, death and the devil. And it's why at the very end, Jesus cried out, it is finished. Jesus himself says that it is his glory. In John chapter 12, verse 23, he says, And Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And only a few chapters later, use cruciform. In the Gospel of Mark, we see something very similar. The familiar story of where James and John go to Jesus, and they asked to sit at his right hand and his left when he comes into his glory. And Jesus responds, that's not for you. But those who are prepared for you. Mark 15 records this. And the inscription of the charge against him read the King of the Jews. And with him, they crucified two robbers, one on his right, and one on his lap. The cross is the glory of Jesus Christ, the triumph over sin, death and the devil and invasion of the devil's kingdom to destroy his stronghold and ruin his power, finalised by the resurrection to come on Sunday morning.

The glory of Jesus for us is His death on the cross. This is why when St. Paul goes out to the Corinthians he proclaims for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. That's the power of God for you. The wisdom of God for you the salvation of God for you. Similarly, in Colossians chapter two, he writes, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgress trans passive trespasses. by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. The cross is where he nailed our sins and destroyed the power of the rulers, the authorities the powers, even Satan himself by climbing up onto that grisly and glorious throne, what power? What salvation? What joy deliver us from evil. Tonight, we look at the cross and we ponder it again. Sometimes, we like to look at the cross and mourn. Every once in a while I have gone to a a service where we look at the crucifixion. And we kind of act like it's a funeral for Jesus. Who have you thought about it that way before We're all we all gather together and we look at the cross and we're supposed to mourn and be upset and feel bad. Grieving like we lost our friend. That's not what it's about. Tonight we celebrate. Tonight, we remember that we celebrate that we did not need to be nailed to that tree. Jesus took our place. We celebrate that Satan's power no longer has dominion over us. Jesus nailed it to the cross. The victory begins now. That is why we celebrate on Good Friday. And remember the joy of the cross the triumph of our Savior, it happens now. And it's also why we can be hopeful when we face our own deaths.

Because Jesus destroyed death. It certainly can hold us that Jesus Himself even entered into the tomb. He marched into death through the cross and paved the way through the grave. And because he did that, we can look at our own deaths and say, This is not the end. Even our Savior die, he paved the way for us. He paved the way through the enemy's stronghold, so that we can live forever with Him. We know that all who are in Christ follow his path, we follow the pattern, everyone who is baptized into him. The Crucifixion is just the beginning. Jesus was crowned on the cross destroyed our enemies there. Now, this does not mean that the cross should not cause us moments of hesitation and maybe some pain. Because we also when we look at the cross, we can see not just our victory, but the price that our sin deserves.

Because that is what we deserve. Right? The penalty for sin should cause us just a little bit of sadness, but not for our Savior and for ourselves.

Because we still live in these sinful bodies.

We still face our own sinfulness every day. And so when we look at the cross, sadness we should feel is repentance.

causing us to turn from our sin in gratefulness to the victory that our Savior won by facing this terrible death. Because the cross is that a warrior king enters the enemy's stronghold, and Satan watches as the Savior destroys his power. It's the destruction of our death for salvation. The cross is how Jesus delivers us from evil. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Sermon for March 28th, 2024

Matthew 6:9-12

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Over the season of Lent, we have been looking at the Lord's Prayer and the meaning of each petition. We began with the beginning, all the way back in Ash Wednesday, looking at the address, Our Father who art in heaven.

We talked about how we know that God is our father, because he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us, who tells us to call him father and promises that he listens whenever we pray.

Next, we looked at hallowed be thy name. We discussed how honoring God's name means, knowing what he teaches, and then doing it. Right seems to make sense that Kingdom Come was about how God's kingdom comes to be among us, by the means of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit spirit.

Thy will be done has a lot to do actually, with what we'll be talking about tonight.

How God protects us from the spiritual forces that wants to turn us away from Christ, and not allow his kingdom to come among us.

Next, we talked about Give us this day, our daily bread.

And we remembered that God gives us what we need, whether we pray or not.

But prayer is a way of reminding ourselves, that we rely on him. And all good things come from him.

Forgive us our trespasses was about asking whether we wanted to live in a kingdom where sins are forgiven, or punished.

And we decided that it's much better if we forgive others, so that our sins can be forgiven. If we live in a kingdom where all sins are forgiven, it's way better than meeting out punishment for every single one.

And tonight, we're almost at the end to lead us not into temptation. Tonight, we're celebrating a lot of stories in Jesus's life. Readings could have chosen from any one of a number of different events. We began with our gospel reading, looking at the beginning of the evening story, going to find a place where Jesus and his disciples could eat the Passover. And what Jesus does is he gives us a roadmap for how to plan your next vacation, I find a guy carrying some water to go and stay there. Perhaps Only Jesus could come up with a plan like that. But he gathers with his disciples and gives them a new covenant, helping them to remember the old covenant that Israel promised they would do and failed.

And none of the bloods of their sin offerings and peace offerings could take away their sin. At the meal, Jesus predicts one will betray him. Judas hustles off to go find the guards. And the disciples go out to the garden of Gethsemane where they face a time of temptation. Jesus goes off to pray and instead of watching and praying with him, they fall asleep twice And when he wakes them up, the torches are coming for him to be arrested. And Judas greets him with a kiss, before turning him over, to be arrested and put on trial before he is crucified on Friday.

Lead us not into temptation. There was some temptation that night. When we talk about our temptation, I can only think of one thing, the candy drawer in Kathleen's office. It's always there. Every time I walk past it. And most days, I can say no. For the first hour or two. Sometimes we talk about temptation like that, where temptation is just a, it's a willpower problem. I really, really wanted to I could just say no, no candy for me.

Or like training for a marathon, which I'm getting ready to do again. When I know I have to wake up early, my alarm goes off at 5am. I've got stuff I need to do. I wake up and I go, I don't want to run. Do I smack the alarm to go back to sleep? Temptation is about willpower.

That is not the kind of temptation that we are praying about. Not the kind of temptation, the disciples and even Jesus faced in the Garden of Gethsemane. Temptation for the Christian is an attack by the spiritual forces of this world to turn us away from Christ.

Luther says this, God tempts no one. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our own sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory. The devil, the world and our sinful nature. These are the same things that prevented want to prevent God's Will from being done among us.

The devil in the world and our sinful nature, spiritual forces that attack us and want to take us from Christ. The devil, First Peter Five, Verse eight, tells us, the sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Luther describes the devil's temptation, as the temptation to turn us away from the freedom of the gospel. To deny the grace that Christ gives us or deny that we need it. It's a spiritual temptation that plays on our own human instincts. Because we say to ourselves, I'm kind of a good person. Or we try to talk ourselves into it, where we say I'm really a good person to ourselves.

the world who there talks about the world that throws all sorts of shocking and horrible things, and it tries to offend us or make us angry or, or even just anxious about the state of things. You and I were a little overwhelmed by the amount of information we get right. We've got little things in our pocket that bring all the sadness of the world right to our eyeballs every day, nonstop. And it means we get anxious about a lot tempted the world.

How many of you have spent more than a few seconds worrying about Ukraine in the last couple of years? or about a bridge in Baltimore? about climate change? the crime rate in San Francisco? and what our president or future president might say, either one of them?

Have you spent more than a few minutes worried about these things, you know exactly what it means to be attacked by temptation. As these things don't matter.

They will not change your life one bit.

But the world wants us to be pulled away.

fear and worry about these things.

And if that weren't enough, the devil the world we have ourselves.

We tempt ourselves. Isn't that great?

St. Paul says,

I do not understand my own actions.

I do not do what I want. But the very thing I hate.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

For I do not do the good, I want it. but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

identify with that.

Some days as a Christian, we cling to grace.

We cling to the promises of Christ. We wake up in the morning, we feel strong, and then we open our eyes and get out of bed and

not as much.

Who can defend us from this temptation.

You can protect us from the devil in the world. And our sinful nature

is only the Savior who made a new covenant with us

by His body and His blood.

A savior who gives us bread to eat and wine to drink, and decided not to sprinkle a whole bunch of blood on the congregation every Sunday.

St. Paul continues to say, Who will deliver me this from this body of death. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It's Jesus, who defends us from this temptation.

Not by making us better or perfect, but keeping us safe in his perfection, because Jesus himself defeated temptation for you.

And when I say that, you're probably thinking of the story of Jesus out in the wilderness. Right? Jesus fasting 40 days when the devil comes up to him, and tries to tempt him, even with the Word of God and Jesus cast him aside. Yes, that's a moment of temptation. Satan trying to derail this, this mission of Christ before it even starts.

But I really think the great temptation of for Christ is in the garden.

Right before everything's about to get started.

Or at the trial,

when they smack him and they say, Are you a king,

he could have called the angels down,

could have broken free, he could have done whatever he wanted.

And they insulted Him on the cross. And they say, Here, the King come on down from there.

He caught up.

But he didn't.

He defeated temptation.

He lived perfectly

and sacrificed himself for you. So that when you eat his body and drink his blood, that victory becomes yours. The defeat over temptation is yours. And when you are in Christ in this New Covenant given to you

commutation doesn't have to worry you anymore.

Sure, we still struggle.

Sure, we're still attacked.

But the devil attacks us by trying to deceive us or mislead us. Because he knows he has no power. He can't grab us or take us or kidnap us or throw us and drag us off. He's got to try to trick us

because Jesus has here

he has claimed it as his own

his name

amen

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 16:1-8 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, March 31. Easter Sunday is from Mark chapter 16, verses one through eight. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early, on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb. And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, Do not be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. He rents the reading. This is the great gospel reading for our Easter Sunday celebration, the resurrection news about Jesus who was dead, and is now alive. So let's dig in. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices. So we see to Mary's other gospel readings have other people, but we know here today, it's Mary Magdalene. This is the woman that Jesus cast out demons out of and marry the mother of James and Salome. They have spices to go and anoint Jesus. Now, this means that they are going to the tomb to expect to find a dead body. They found the spices that are traditionally part of the burial preparations. They obviously don't know that Joseph of Aaron mithya did all of that the night before oil two nights before, before the preparation for the Passover. And so you can imagine lots of confusion, everything happens suddenly. And then you have to rest for a day for the Passover. And now they got to make sure it's okay. So they're going expecting to find a dead Jesus. Otherwise, they wouldn't have brought spices. Otherwise, they would have been skipping and laughing and jumping and being going to the tomb being like Wednesday coming out. But no, they did not. So very early, on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. So this is on the first day of the week. We know it's Sunday morning, as the sun had risen, they're now at the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb. So they have a logistical question. They want to get there. They want to anoint Jesus's body. And so someone's going to have to take the stone away. And it's not going to be them. Part of the challenge, of course, with the chaos and the planning, and all the terrible stuff that had been happened is that they didn't really have a way of putting together a definite logistical plan for anointing Jesus's body. And they're like, Oh, we might get to the tomb and not be able to do anything. But when they get there, something strange happens. And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, and it was very large. So there's here's begins a mystery. And entering the tomb. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. So they go, the stone has rolled away mystery number one, and they enter into a tomb and they see a young man sitting there. mystery number two, because that's kind of weird. I don't know about you, but I don't hang out in tombs, sitting on a place where bodies usually lay. So they go in. They see the young man He's dressed in a white robe. And this is code talk Bible speak for probably an angel. And they were alarmed. That's what people do when they see angels and heavenly messengers, they are afraid, they are alarmed. And they go, Oh, I mean, it's also kind of weird that they go into this tomb, expecting to find a dead Jesus. Instead, they find no Jesus, and a young man sitting where his body is supposed to be. What's going on? The young man tries to calm them, he says, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him. So he says, Don't be alarmed. Calm down, it's okay. I know why you're here, you seek Jesus who was crucified. So Jesus who was truly dead, who was laid here, he was crucified, He has risen, he is not here. I mean, obviously, he's not there, you can't see his body. But it's not because somebody dragged him away. It's because he is now alive, of a man who had been crucified and tortured to death is now alive. And he points to the place where they laid him see, look where they placed him. And so the great news that Jesus has destroyed, the power of death is delivered by this angel to the women. Look, this is an amazing thing. Next, the angel says, but go tell his disciples and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him just as he told you. Now, here's a little sad piece of this, it's Go and tell his disciples, and Peter, this could be a reference to Peter's denial of Jesus. And that when Peter went to the trial, and they accused him of knowing Jesus, and he said, I don't three times Peter stepped out of the disciples group, and needed to be reinstated. And we see that story, the reinstatement of Peter in the Gospel of John, but it's this is a little bit of a painful moment in the gospels, like, Hey, Peter, remember, but they say, is Peter and his disciples to go to Galilee, and they'll see them they're there, you will see him just as he told you. Next, the says, And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now, that's a weird way to end the gospel of Mark, isn't it? And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Like, Hallelujah, Christ is risen, right? Oh, yeah. This is the great story. Not so much. Where is the appearance to Mary Magdalene? What about the guys on the road to a mass or the locked room or any of that stuff? Where's Jesus? We don't even get to see Jesus in this story. I think that's the actually the point. Where is Jesus, the angel says, There you will see him just as he told you. And I think the point here is that it's not about actually seeing Jesus in this gospel, but believing His Word. God sends an angel to proclaim the good news that Jesus is alive, the tomb is empty. And the people just need to believe, believe and go to Galilee. And you'll see him there. And the women respond with fear. They go, we don't know what's going on. This is kind of crazy, and they run off and hide. And it's kind of a challenge to the Christian church, because they're a little bit more like the women in this particular story is that Jesus does not appear to all of us, he doesn't come and show up and say, Hey, I'm alive, believe in me. And so we have to depend on the word of others, the witnesses who were there, the people who saw the angel, the apostles who wrote down their stories, the people who lived and walked with Jesus. Are we going to be like the women who hear the news of the resurrection and then say nothing to no one and be afraid? Or are we going to take heart? The proclamation that Christ is risen, that death is destroyed, and believe and speak.

I think I know which one I want to be And I bet you want to be that way to not like people who are cowering in fear, but bold, knowing that Christ is alive. He has risen. Hope to see you on Sunday when we celebrate that amazing resurrection. Our worship services are 830 and 11. It we a joy to have you there. Talk to you then. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for March 31. Easter Sunday comes from First Corinthians chapter 15, verses one through 11. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I delivered to you as a first important what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to surface, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they, so we preach. And so you believed, Here ends the reading. First Corinthians chapter 15, I think is one of the most important passages in Scripture for the Christian church right now. And I think so because it gives us a good correction, for the way that we talk about eternal life. And we'll talk about it in a little bit, and I'll go through it. But what Paul is trying to do right here is correct an error that the Corinthians had the Corinthians were saying, that there is no resurrection from the dead. Not that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, but that human beings don't rise from the dead. That is, salvation is not your body comes out of the grave, and returns to life. Instead, salvation is when your soul goes to heaven. Now Paul, is trying to tell them, This is not how it works. And he begins with the gospel of Jesus Christ and reminding them what happened with Jesus. So let's dive in. Now, I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So this opening paragraph is to remind them that what he's about to tell them is nothing new. They already heard this, Paul preached it to them, probably over and over and over again, Paul told them, yes, Jesus died. And then he rose physically, bodily from the grave, and appeared to all these people. And so he's saying, this is the gospel that made you a Christian. You heard it from me, and then you received it, then in which you stand, you believed it. And then by which you are being saved, it now saves you this message of Christ's resurrection. That is, as long as you hold fast to what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So what he's reminding them is, this is nothing new. You You don't need to hear this again. But I guess I have to remind you of it anyway. Because you guys are denying that there's a resurrection from the dead. And if there's no no resurrection from the dead for everybody, then why was Jesus raised? He continues, For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. Now this is important, he says, as of first importance, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of first importance in the Christian church. It lays the pattern for salvation. It is the heart and center of the gospel, without a bodily death and a bodily resurrection, there is no salvation. He continues, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And then he appeared to surface, then to the 12. Now, if you've been a Christian for a while, you probably have heard the stories, right? If you go to the Holy Thursday, Monday, Thursday services, and then the Good Friday services and the Easter Vigil services and all those things, you've heard the stories of Christ went to Jerusalem, he, he initiated Holy Communion, he was tempted in the garden because 70 arrested on Good Friday will remember his death, his torture, his mock fake trials, and, and then he is, dies on the cross is laid in the tomb. And he rises to new life on Sunday. And then on Sunday, we begin all the readings about Jesus's appearances, he appears to the women outside the tomb, he appears to Thomas and then to Peter and the 12. And these are all the stories that are written down in the gospels that St. Paul is referring to. He says, This is what I was told. And it is also what I told you the most important thing, he died, and he was buried, and He rose. Now, he lists a number of people that Jesus appeared to first itch to surface that is Peter. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Okay, so why is St. Paul running through a list of the people that Jesus appeared to? Well, if you're saying there's no resurrection of the dead, which means then that Jesus wasn't raised from the dead? If you're saying that, how would you be corrected? Well, you could actually go and talk to the people who are there, right? Now, I want you to imagine the craziness that is so foreign to us, of being able to go and actually talk to a person who saw Jesus die, and then saw him alive again. And that's sort of the weird thing about the Christian church during that era, is that you the authority of the gospel wasn't based on a book. It was based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles, like you could go to Peter and say, Hey, dude, you're saying some pretty crazy stuff. Did this really happen? Were you actually there? And he'd be like, oh, yeah, I know. It's not right. This is, can you even believe it? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe it. And there are 500 people that you can do this to. And the interesting thing is that this also happened for a good period of time afterward, you get people, historical figures, who would say, Yeah, I was a disciple of John Polycarp, he would say, I was a disciple of John, I learned at his feet, I spent time with him. I know this is the truth, cuz I talked to someone who was there. And what this says, is that the Christian church doesn't base our faith without evidence. People were there. They saw Jesus die. They saw him rise from the dead. We have proof. It's eyewitness testimony. And then they wrote it down for us so that we can have it preserved for 2000 years. We can look at the testimony of the men and women who were there and say, they saw this, they wrote it, we have it. Evidence of Christ's resurrection. So then St. Paul continues, last of all is one untimely born, he appeared also to me. St. Paul was talking about his appearance as Jesus appeared to him in on the road to Damascus, and he was called to become an apostle and follow Christ and preach to the Gentiles.

This is an amazing vision and appearance of Christ to St. Paul. And what I think is also amazing is that Christ It has not stopped appearing to people. One of the cool things about the Muslim world these days is that Jesus is appearing to hundreds and 1000s of Muslims, to tell them to follow him. It's happening everywhere. And it's it's so joyful, that Christ still goes out to people who would otherwise be his enemies and appears to them and calls them to salvation. Paul continues, for I'm the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. What an amazing joy, that the grace of God extends to the people who fought God's Church, the people who would have destroyed it, who would turn Christians in who would kill them, the grace of God goes out to them, and we can go from enemy to brother in Christ in just a moment. Paul continues, on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is within me. And so he says, The converts zeal comes out here, right. For people who grew up in the faith, often it becomes banal, almost boring part of the background. But for someone who discovers it, and the beauty of the gospel, and has a before and an after, they can be so on fire and excited. And so there's joy in that. And St. Paul says, I worked harder than any, but he gives the glory to God instead. And then finally, he returns to the main point, whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So it goes back to the main point. The gospel here is that Jesus died physically and Rose, physically, His death and resurrection is the center of the gospel. Whether it's the apostles that preach it, or Paul or the 500 eyewitnesses. That is the heart of the gospel. And that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. You should come and check it out. 8:30am and 11am on Sunday, at first Lutheran Church, we'll see you there. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 16 The Psalm for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Psalm 16

A Miktam of David.

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for March 31. Easter Sunday is Psalm 16. It reads, and MC Tom of David, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all mine delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you will hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shale. Or let your holding one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life and your presence, there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Here ends the reading. Psalm 16 begins with a phrase a Mick Tom of David. Now you might go with the MC Tom. And then you would have good company because nobody really knows. It is a heading or a title for a number of different songs. But like the word see law, or some of the other musical notation terms of the Psalms, we don't really know what it means. Now let's dig into the psalm itself. Preserve me, oh God, for you knew I take refuge, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. So this begins with a prayer to God preserve me. For a new I take refuge, there is a sort of a sense in this section, that there is a danger out there. And whether it's David actually imagining, like looking at a real danger Saul coming to get him or one of his enemies going out to fight him. We don't know for sure. But it's certainly a thing that human beings all have in common with David. I mean, we don't have like us all, who wants to throw a spear through us while we're playing a harp. But we do have danger in a world filled with disaster. And there's always something you never know when the end could be. What danger will come at us. And so we say, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge, God is our only safety. And again he repeats this, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. David is recognizing that even even he a king, who is having all sorts of stuff, he's gotten good things. In reality, nothing good is outside of God. I said that wrong. In reality, the only good that lasts forever is God. And so what that means is that day that even with the palace and a kingdom and servants and all of that stuff, he knows that the only sure thing, the only thing that lasts is God Himself. And so then he turns from God, to the fellow believers. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. King David delights in His fellow believers, as Christians should delight in our congregations and our communities, that God loves us. And we see that love in others. Then he turns to the unbelievers, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood, I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. So he turns and he looks at those who chase after other gods false gods. This was a common problem for ancient Israel. They they didn't seem to get the monotheism thing. And so they wanted to worship the true God but they also wanted everybody else to because I mean, if you get one God on your side, why not? Why not get six or seven? That's so much better than just one. And David is saying no, that's right. Only not how it works with with the true God, He demands full and faithful worship, no one else. And so he turns from those who chase after other gods whose sorrows multiply, and only after the true God, and he says, again, the Lord is my choice chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. So he turns again, and says that the good he seeks is focused chiefly on the Lord on God. It's his chosen portion and his cup, he holds the lot. And also talks about in inherit tense. This this is a language in the Bible that would often refer to things like the in the land that was passed down in Israel for people. But we also see this language through Christ for as Christians is that Jesus is the firstborn Son of God who receives the inheritance of the kingdom of the world. And then we, as sons of God, through our baptism into Christ also received a beautiful inheritance, maybe not the same one that Christ Himself received. But by being one with Christ, we receive an eternal Kingdom with our Savior. The next section, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart instructs me, I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. And so he praises God here, who gives him instruction. And so it's the word of God here that the heart and the mind of David are focused on, because these things give us guidance and counsel, and help us see the world in the right way. And because of that, we can set the Lord before us by by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not be shaken. Like when when things happen in the world that are terrible, a Christian doesn't need to worry about them. We don't need to have anxiety or fear because God is here for us. Nothing can stop his salvation. There is no earthly thing that can bother us, which is why he says, Therefore my heart is glad. And my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. He has confidence. And that is even more for you will not abandon my soul to shale, or let your Holy One see corruption. Now, this word che old sometimes is confusing. We don't really have a concept for it in in American English anymore. Sometimes people talk about shale, as if it's the punishments of hell. And it's not quite the same, though. There are places in the Bible where the word shale oil has some idea, like it's those punishments, it could connect it in that in some way. But very often, in fact, more often in the Bible, shale oil simply refers to the land of the dead, it might be something like for you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or to death. And so it sort of corresponds to the there's like an ancient world conception where there are places where people live. So heaven is the sky, and that's where the gods live. The Earth is where humans live, and under the earth is where the dead live. It's the grave. And that's kind of what che ol is. And we know this because in Psalm 139, the Psalmist cries out if I send to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and che Oh, you are there. Now, if that tell of course, it can't mean that God God's not in Hell. He's that's a place of, of abandonment. And so, if God is there, in che old, it means that che ol is part of it is like the land of the dead, and not this place of punishment in hell. We continue, you make known to me the path of life, in your presence, there is fullness of joy, as your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And so it culminates with the idea that God makes known the way of life, and we follow the path of life after Christ, our Savior, through death, and the grave, into the resurrection. And so while we are in this presence of God, we can have joy in all circumstances. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Easter Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 25:6-9 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
    He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, March 31. Easter Sunday comes from Isaiah chapter 25, verses six through nine. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts who will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow of aged wine, well refined, and He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations, He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Here ends the reading. This is one of my favorite passages from Isaiah. And one of the passages that I frequently choose when I'm preaching on it in a funeral, because of the beautiful message, the Easter message that it gives. Let's dig in. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine of rich food full of marrow of aged wine well refined. I think the first question that it will that we ask is Which mountain? On what mountain is he talking about. And while the immediate context of Isaiah 25 doesn't really talk about a particular mountain, I think it often is referring to the mountain of Jerusalem. This is a mountain, Mount Zion, that is a part of God's promises. We see throughout the Old Testament ideas about Mount Zion, becoming the tallest of them all mountains are the greatest of all mountains. And now it is the site of this feast that God is going to make for all people. And so this feast is held by the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Armies, and so God with all his might, and power is going to hold a feast and for who, for all peoples. Now, this is an interesting thing. The word peoples in the Bible is often confusing. I once had a group of fourth graders that I told ya, people can also be plural peoples and they got no there's no way people is already blurry. You've got one person, two people, right? And I got no people can also refer to an identity group, like a nation. And so there's the American people and the English people. And when you have the when you're talking about bringing together the American people in English people, you are suddenly having a meeting of two different peoples. And so what God is saying here, Isaiah is telling us that there will be a feast for all peoples, every group, every nation, every people under the sun will be gathered together on Mount Sinai for this rich food. Well, aged wine, rich food full of marrow of aged wine, well refined. Now, I don't know if you've ever had marrow like bone marrow that's well prepared. It is amazing. Just outstanding, buttery, rich, yummy. God is giving an image of a celebration, good wine, good food. And what are we celebrating? This is what it is. He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. So it's funny that at the feast, God is going to swallow not the rich food, not the food full of marrow or aged one Ain't well refined, the feasts that God is throwing is where he will swallow up death forever. And what Isaiah describes it is, is a wheat a covering of Dale that sits on the shoulders of everyone. It's the covering that is weighing down and oppressing and cast and holding down all the peoples, the veil that that is over our eyes and covers us up and makes it so that we can't do anything without seeing it. It's death. At this feast, God is going to take away the one thing that unites every human being that has ever lived. The one thing that weighs down every human being that has ever come into existence, he is going to swallow up death forever. As well as they are is predicting. And when we look at Easter, we see a mountain where God did just that. He swallowed up death on Mount Zion, the city of Jerusalem, by sending His Son Jesus Christ to the place of the skull, a hill outside of Jerusalem, where he died, and was placed in a tomb and then rose from the dead. Death is swallowed up. That is the power of Easter. Easter isn't about taking a new look at life or the renewal of spring or the anything that is is sort of like day to day. Easter is about destroying the only true problem that every human being faces, death itself. And then Isaiah has us look past the cross and the resurrection to the day of Christ's return. He says, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. So now he's looking forward not to the day of the resurrection when death was swallowed up forever. But the day of Christ's return, when he returns to wipe away every tear from every eye. The apostle John borrows some of this language from Revelation. And he says something very similar towards the end, that God will make all things new, He will wipe away every tear from every eye, and the reproach, the bad reputation, the sadness, the pain, the hurt, that death causes us all. It will be taken away. And the key here is for the Lord has spoken. He's given us His promise, a promise through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that He will come. Isaiah continues, it will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. One of the great, faithful responses to the problems in the world, especially in the Psalms, but in many places throughout the Old Testament is this phrase, wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage wait for the Lord is in Assam, my soul waits for you, oh God, as it is somewhere else. And the idea here is that the faithful, the faithful people of Israel and the faithful Christian, we know that the enemy is truly bigger than us. The enemy death is bigger than anything we could ever face. No human being can take it down. And so what we do is we wait for God to save us. That's our only hope. We can't fight it. We can't destroy it. We can't push at it. We can't do anything. All we can do is wait. And then finally, on the day of Christ's return. When he calls us up from our graves and we see Him face to face we will turn to him and say, Behold, this is our God we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And that's what we're all waiting for. The gift that Christ one for us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead when he swallowed up death by dying himself and breaking free from the grave.

The promise he gave us there is the gift we're waiting for when Jesus returns to make us alive, and wipe away every tear from every eye, and make all things new. That's all we have for this Resurrection Sunday. Join us on Easter Sunday. It's going to be wonderful 830 and 11. Join us for worship at first Lutheran church and hear a sermon on this topic. That's it. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

A King Without An Army: Sermon for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Zechariah 9:9-12

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Happy Palm Sunday. Today we are journeying through the final week of Lent. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Jesus's Passion Week as he enters into Jerusalem, the humble King, riding on a donkey with a crowd following him. They are waving their palm ranches. They are throwing their cloaks ahead of them, they shout, bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Pretty fun day, right? I imagine looking back at the crowd and being amazed at what's going on. Right? Can you see I mean, you can see in your head, right 1000s of people waiting for Jesus cheering. They had just heard that he had called Lazarus out of the grave. They're following they're throwing things. The Pharisees are looking out and going, Oh, no, what's going on? We look back at that. And we think What an impressive spectacle. What a joyful day. But it's actually kind of in contrast to what people expect it. We read in our opening that they were shouting blesseds is the is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And you think, Wait a second. Is that how kings come to a city they're about to conquer? With donkeys? On branches? No, of course not. The crowd that follow Jesus. If he were a conquering king, the king of Israel, they would have had armor and spears, shields, swords. They would have dragging behind them siege engines to bombard the walls and take them down so that they could storm Jerusalem and go after punches Pilate out the Romans and live under a new king. That would have been much more impressive, right? Jesus himself would not have been in his lowly clothes on a donkey. He would have been on a horse with a crown armor, gleaming white flashing eyes would have been very impressive. Very different from the humble King that we see. His crowd was not dangerous. They were in need of being saved. His horse was not mighty. It was a donkey. And it makes us see that Jesus is a different kind of king. A king who does not have an army that does not have warriors. But a king who operates differently and are reading today when we were standing outside pointed us to Zachariah chapter nine or Old Testament reading that looks forward to Jesus coming in on this donkey into Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fall of a donkey. Zachariah gives us a little bit about what Jesus's kingdom will be like. It says, I will cut off the chariot from Efrem and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Wait a second. How does the king rule without a chariot? A war horse or a battle bow. That's not how it works. Even God's people, when they went out to meet the nations, what did they do? They brought their weapons with them because that's how you ruled King David. He was a warrior, a leader of men he fought battles when he was going to be crowned king before that while Saul was was getting jealous of him. You know what the people chanted, Saul has killed his 1000s. David his 10s of 1000s. That's how the Kingdom of Israel enabled its rule defended its borders and protected its people. It's the same way with every other nation and Empire. If you think about the Babylonians, that's what they did when they conquered the city of Jerusalem. The Mongols, they develop the largest empire in history, by battle, by fighting the Romans to who controlled Jerusalem, they had this amazing Pax Romana, which was this whole area of the empire, you could be safe and travel and be free. And how did they enforce it? Not with gentle words, with a poke of a spear every nation ever since. And every nation that has ever existed, has enforced its rules and its boundaries with violence and threats of violence. Napoleon, Hill, Germany, China, even the United States, every one defends itself, and governs its people with violence. When they go out to the nations, they use threats, to keep the peace. What about Jesus, it will cut off the chariot, the war horse and the battle bow, there will be no guns or missiles or weapons or just peace. And his rule shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. That's how Jesus enters his city. A conqueror, a king, with no army. How does Christ rule over this kingdom? How does he deliver His salvation, enforce his boundaries and change his people govern his church. It's not with violence. It's very simple. It's by the power of the Word of God. That is how God governs his kingdom, we call the church. Now you might go wait a second. That's not all that big a deal. This is just words, after all, but we have to remember the power that is behind the humble and lowly Word of God. It is the word of God that said, Let there be lights and light came into existence. Everything that you see everything all around you was spoken into existence, by the voice of God. Out of nothing. The Word of God went out and did other things too. When Christ was out with his disciples on the water, we in the boat and the waves were washing up and everyone was scared they were gonna drown. Jesus said, Peace be still and the waves listened. We can't even get our kids to listen. And the disciples, they looked at him and said, Who is this the wind and the waves obey him was the Word of God that gathered the crowd of people to Jesus. The word that he spoke just before that when he went to a tomb, and he said, Lazarus come out. And the dead man got up and walked out of the grave that's the word of God at work. Spear can't do that. And now they're gonna missile Reagan. The same power is at work when God gave His word people. God gave his word to Moses. In the book of Exodus. He went and he spoke to Pharaoh and the plagues came. He turned the Nile to blood he brought gnats and flies and hail and disease and even blotted out the sun. All by the power of God's Word. God gave His words to Elijah when he went to Ahaz And he said it will not rain or dew until I say so.

And it didn't rain for three years. God's word, power. And the word came to the disciples which they spoke in the book of acts on the day of Pentecost, and 3000, new Christians joined the church that day. The Holy Spirit is there at work in the power of the word. Paul reminds us of this, when he says, the word is near you, in your heart, and in your mouth. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. As Isaiah puts it, where is the rain in the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, the water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent. The Word of God is the power of Christ, our King, that he uses to deliver salvation to you and govern us, his people and guide us in His Church. And it's the word of God that empowers our sacraments. Matthew 28 tells us of baptism, where Jesus says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God empowers Holy Communion. Luther tells us that as these words given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, that empowers the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, to deliver these things to give us life and salvation. The Word of God that gives strength to the absolution that I spoke before, where Jesus said to His disciples received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them, if you withhold forgiveness from any of it is withheld. The Word of God, it empowers the entirety of what the church does. It is how God changes your hearts. It's how he molds our minds. It's how he guides what we do. And it's how he gathers more people into our flock, and preserves us from the evil. It's all in the word, read and spoken and proclaimed the Word of God. As we consider the humble King, riding on a donkey, with a small crowd around him, that's not the crowd you'd expect. no weapons, no power. Would you consider that it is not a surprise then that the word of God does not appear impressive? Right? Nothing near so impressive as all of the human things that we think are pretty cool. And so often, even we who understand the word and its power, can lose confidence in it. We can say to ourselves, any number of things regarding this, but one of the things that we might say is, well, that works for people back in those days, pastor, but nobody's listening to it. Now. Kids these days need something more than they need something else to gather them to really get out there and do it. This is something the church has been saying for centuries. And it didn't work. Back when the first Lutheran colonists came over to the United States in the 1700s. That's what some of them said. They said, Ah, these Americans, they will never listen to the Word of God like we grew up with. We need a new American version that will get the young people into church didn't work. Those groups that fell off the map, were left behind. And then every couple of generations, a new group would pop up and say, Ah, this word of God, it just isn't strong enough anymore. You know what we really need, we need to do tent meetings out in the wilderness, and get those snazzy songs and get the people all riled up. Because if we do that, then then the kids will come to church. Which is why there are tent meetings in every city, every place or across the country right now. Not so much, right? Because that movement fell away to the same thing happened over and over and over again. They thought is they had to hide the Word of God behind something else, to trick people into hearing it. And instead, what they did was they focused on that whatever that thing is, they didn't get Christians. It would be kind of like a basketball league that decided that people weren't interested in basketball. So what they would do is they would have singing, and dancing. And you know what you get when you do that? Basketball players in jerseys who like to sing and dance, right? Not play basketball. When we think that we have to add something to the Word of God, what we end up doing is covering up God's power and presenting human things. Similar thing happens when we think we need to be protected from the world by something more than God's power. You see, the word of God is what defends us. The Word of God is what preserves us. And it does it through the sacraments and the word that we hear every single day. But sometimes Christians think, well, the world is just far more dangerous and terrible than it used to be. We need people who will protect and save us. And then we make alliances with people who like to use guns, and missiles to protect us, law and power. Which ends up making us no longer the church again. Because what we do is we trust the people that we vote into office, the people who make the laws. We trust them to protect and preserve us, acting as if the same power that overthrew the Roman Empire. Through the preachings of the apostles could not protect us here today in America. The same power that went out and took over the entire world, without a politician on its side. Couldn't keep us safe, until the return of Jesus Christ. You don't want to make alliances with bad people, just because we're scared. We want to trust the Savior. To gives us His word, the same word that spoke light into darkness that quieted the waves that forgives sins and saves us from the devil is here protecting us today and now. Christ gives us peace and safety. He rules over all the nations not with violence, but by the power of His Word. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. And it will be that way until the day he returns. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 118:19-29 The Psalm for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Psalm 118:19-29

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Save us, we pray, O Lord!
    O Lord, we pray, give us success!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
    up to the horns of the altar!

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for March 24, comes from Psalm 118, verses 19 through 29. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us we pray, Oh Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Bless. It is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and He has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the facile festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you, you are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Here ends the reading. This Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving. Generally, Luther loved this psalm in the introduction to Psalm 118. From Luthers. Reading the Psalms, he writes, The 1/18 Psalm is a Psalm of thanks and my dearest most beloved conflict in meany which is the Latin title for the Psalm. It gives thanks and also prophesies of the Christian and of the Christ, the rejected cornerstone. The Psalm is a general statement of thanksgiving for all the kindnesses God daily and unceasingly showers and all men, both good and evil. The psalm praises God, especially for the greatest benefit, his He bestowed on the world, namely, for Christ and His Kingdom of grace, first promised, and now revealed. What a joy to have for this poem, Sunday reading as we talk about entering into the city of Jerusalem. And that's where it starts, open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. You know, as we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem, that's kind of what they say, Right? He's we're opening the gates of righteousness, to give thanks to the Lord Jesus is coming in for the Passover sacrifice, except he's not going to participate in offering a sacrifice, he is going to be the sacrifice. Well, he offers himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover Lamb, who finally takes away the sin of the world forever. And he enters in through this gate to give thanks. It continues, this is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. Now, of course, no one is truly righteous, except for Christ alone. So it only he could be the one who would actually enter through the gate of righteousness. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. This is a cry of the Christian and of the ancient Jew to say, God has become our salvation, we thank him. And of course, in Christ, it is the righteous one who enters through the gate, who offers Himself as a sacrifice that becomes our salvation. And then we get this classic passage, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. We see the builders as the authorities and the chief priests, the scribes and the elders of Jerusalem who rejected Jesus, who then becomes the cornerstone for the foundation of a new church of a new building Christ's Church, the new Israel built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone 23 This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. Now, I'm sure it wasn't marvelous for the disciples to look upon the death of Christ on the cross, or to see him buried in the tomb but for us, after his resurrection, celebrating the story, as we do every year, looking at the Christ as he enters into Jerusalem knowing he is about to be crowned with thorns and put on the throne of a cross in his glory. It is is marvelous in our eyes. And we can see that it's truly God's doing to make what would seem so terrible, the joy and salvation for all of humanity. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. How Good Friday is coming up. And it's hard sometimes I think, to think of joy, as we consider the death of Jesus Christ. And sometimes, that Good Friday service is seen almost like a funeral for Jesus. Like we're all supposed to get together and mourn and be sad. And that's actually the opposite of it. We call it Good Friday. Because even though Jesus Christ death was so terrible, it is also his glory and our joy. It continues, save us we pray, Oh, Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. How can you add to that? Bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the thing that they said, as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the crowds Hosanna in the highest, bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna to the Son of David, we bless you from the house of the Lord, it continues. 27 The Lord is God. And he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. So it says The Lord has made us he shines his light. And in response, God's people take the festival Festival, the festival sacrifice and they bring it to the altar, they tie it up, bring it up the horns were actually the the corners of the altar with had literal horns. And so he would kill it, sacrifice it. And that's what it is. And the psalm ends you are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever. Now this reading begins with verse 19. Psalm 118 begins with repeating, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And they say let Israel say his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say his steadfast love endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord say his steadfast love endures forever. And then it finally ends the Psalm the same way. It says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord for His good for his steadfast love endures forever. What a way to end the psalm. That's where we're going to stop today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Zechariah 9:9-12 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Zechariah 9:9-12

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, March 24. Palm Sunday is from Zechariah chapter nine, verses nine through 12. Rejoice greatly, Oh daughter of Zion, shout aloud, Oh daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fall of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Efrem and the war horse from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double. Here ends the reading. This is a famous reading that has to do a lot with Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, which is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. It's the prediction of the King coming on a donkey, which we see as Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem to shouts of Hosannas riding on a donkey. Right? So starts Rejoice greatly oh daughter, Zion, shout aloud, oh, daughter of Jerusalem, Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he. So, Zion, that is Jerusalem, the city of God and Jerusalem, they are both told to shout and sing for joy, right? Rejoice greatly because the king is coming. And this would be a great idea for rejoicing, especially after the Babylonian captivity is the king would come to protect his people again, because that was the Kings job in ancient Israel, to come and bring justice and righteousness, justice being making sure everybody's rights are protected under the law of God, and righteousness, being that he promotes the worship of God and only in the temple. So the king is coming, and everyone should shout for joy, especially those people who lost their king when the exile happened. And then it goes righteous and having salvation is he so he's not like the kings of the Old Testament, who are constantly turning away to false gods trusting after the bad guys, and seeking to make alliances with the wrong people. He is the right and good king. But here's the weird part. It says, humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Now, what kind of king is that? I mean, nobody really wants a king who rides around on a donkey. Nobody wants a king who is humble, and lowly. What we want is a king that can protect us. I mean, that's what Israel asked for when they went to when they when they went to Samuel and said, We need a king. We need someone strong, who will write out in front of us and protect us against our enemies. And here, you've got this guy on a donkey, humble, lowly. The king was supposed to be the kind of guy who would inspire fear in the enemy. One who would fight the bad guys keep everyone under control. But this is a different kind of king. And that's what God says next, he says, I will cut off the chariot from Ephrem and the war horse from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. So not only is this a lowly King, it's a king who does not rule with force, the chariot, the war horse or the bow. He doesn't fight to rule. Instead he brings peace to the nations and He rules from seed See, without conquering and attacking. You know lots of people have tried to take over the world. We see empires growing throughout all of history from the Mongols and the Chinese and the Romans and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and the Egyptians. And you know, just about everybody who ever had a great civilization wanted to take over the world. And they always did it with swords, or spears, or guns, or whatever. And now, Zachariah is predicting someone who's going to conquer the world without firing a shot. But bringing peace. So the real question is, then how does Jesus conquer the world without firing a shot without using the battle bow or the war horse of the chariot? He does it by his word. He rules from C to C by the power of the word, and especially amongst his church, which is why the church doesn't use force in making our decisions. We don't focus on bylaws, though we have them, we don't focus on who's in charge or who's in control. Because at the heart of it, Christ rules over his church, not with guns, spears, or bows, but with the word, and it's the word that God uses to change our hearts and cause us to follow him. So verse 11, and as for you also, because of my blood covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. So now he's turning to Israel, he sang I will set you free from the dungeons waterless Pit and the people of Israel will get to return to their strongholds and be restored double. But even better than that, actually, because in Christ, God's people, the people of Israel, who are now in Jesus Christ, we don't get the ancient strongholds and double the land of Israel. What a tiny piece of Earth. What we get is a rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth by the power of the word, and especially on the day of the resurrection. What a joy to have this. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Old and New Covenants. Sermon for Sunday, March 17th 2024

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are moving along in the season of Lent, as we follow Jesus on his journey to the cross. Ever since he climbed up to the top of the mountain and was transfigured there, he, we have been seeing the stories of him traveling every day, every week, on to Jerusalem, where we will finally get the story of his death, and then his resurrection. It's leading up to the moment that we remember and celebrate as Christ's sacrifice for our forgiveness, to establish a new covenant with all of God's people. That was different from the old one, a new covenant that we actually get to read about, in our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks about the two covenants, the two great covenants of the old, and the New Testaments, the one that would come after him, and the one that was established many years before him. And what he says is that God is going to make a new covenant. Here are the words to behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. It's not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. What we see here is a reference to God's covenant with Israel, during the time of Moses, Jeremiah gives us a hint of the story we all know, where Moses brought the people out of the land of Egypt, and then to the mountain of Sinai, where Moses received the 10 commandments, and all of the rules and the laws and the benefits and the blessings and the curses that were part of the Old Covenant, Moses's covenant. And it included a whole lot of stuff, more than just the commandments that we know. This covenant was established then at Mount Sinai for God's people. And it was a covenant that Israel broke. Jeremiah is also referencing a New Covenant, a covenant that he did not see very clearly yet, because it would have to wait until the days of Jesus. This covenant was established at a table with bread and wine. When Jesus said, this is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sin. You may recognize that because we say it every Sunday, as we remember this meal, and eat and drink of it ourselves, to bring this new covenant to us, a covenant in Jesus's Body and Blood, which was initiated by His sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, to deliver all of the blessings of the New Covenant to you. The question question we have for ourselves today is, what is the difference between this Old Covenant and a new covenant? What is Jeremiah trying to tell us about this great new covenant that God is giving his people? Fortunately, Jeremiah tells us, isn't that nice? And he gives us three things that are about the new covenant that God will make, and we have received through Jesus Christ. Here they are. The first one is I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. Number two, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Number three, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. What I'd like to do today is take a look at each of these and compare it with what the old covenant was like to help us understand how amazing God's gift is for us. Let's take a look at the first one, we'll add this one, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Now, as we look at this, we see, first there is a word in there that might be confusing for us Lutherans, we're used to the word law, referring to God's law, which are His commands, the demands that God puts on all of us. But that's because there is a frequent mis translation of this the word that was originally written, it is probably better as teachings, or instruction, or perhaps the Word of God. More generally, it's the same word that we use for the first five books of Moses, the Torah. And so it's the whole thing, the whole counsel of God, everything that God has ever spoken, all of his word. So it's not I will put that my law on their hearts, as in, I will demand everything and write that on their hearts. It is, I will put my word on their hearts, I will write it within them. This is different from the old covenant. Because under the Old Covenant, we didn't get the Holy Spirit working on all of the people for whom the covenant applies. That's because the old covenant wasn't just a covenant with believers. It was a covenant with unbelievers, too. It was a covenant with a nation, a nation with borders, and armies, people who believed and didn't. Israel was filled with a whole big group of people. And not everyone was filled with the Spirit, and believed in God. And we see this because over and over and over again, from the moment they leave Mount Sinai. And those unbelievers just kept turning away. They grumbled against God and against Moses, they built a golden calf, they got to the promised land and said, No, thank you. Once they got in the Promised Land, they turned to all the different gods and they did all sorts of things. And it was a covenant with a group of people that included believers and unbelievers alike. I want you to think about what it might be like to think whether the God's promises would come true for you. If it included everybody in America, where God said, I will keep my promise to you if everyone in America is faithful. Ah, spirit shoo in right? Perhaps not. Because there wasn't a covenant with individuals. It was a covenant with the whole nation. Which meant that it was a covenant that depended on the entire nation, following God's law, which was a problem for them because this covenant contained this warning from Exodus chapter 20. I, the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to 1000s of those who love Me and keep My commandments. And so many in Israel turned away, did not keep his commandments, and hated God, which meant their iniquity was on the whole nation. Isn't it wonderful? God's promises don't depend on an entire nation following him. But today in the New Covenant, it is not a covenant between God and every person, in a geographical area are genetically related to Abraham, but with all who believe in Him,

God gathers the new Israel, out of every nation on earth, every identity every people, and he gives the Holy Spirit by the word of Jesus Christ, which means He writes this word on your hearts, by the power of the Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, he writes this teaching this gospel, this grace on you. So you can know the Lord and hear him and understand Him and believe and understanding God's Word and His will. The the instruction of God is only available to those who have this Spirit. Without faith in Christ, it just doesn't make sense the way it does, when you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and know where you are going. Because if you believe that you're just going to die, and be worm food, why would you give up the things that Christians give up so that we can rise from the dead and live forever? Why would you waste a couple of hours on Sunday morning, when you could be out living it up, because tomorrow you die. But we know that's not true. We know that Christ is coming. And this simple idea written on our hearts by the power of the Spirit changes everything. Sometimes, when we Christians go out into the world, and we try to share the gospel with people, we forget that the message has to be written on the hearts of people before they realize that they have to change. Right? It doesn't make sense if you go out and say, discipline yourself, and they don't have Jesus right? It doesn't make sense. If you say live like us, I don't know why. The change, the beginning of holiness must come by the power of the Spirit, first, through faith in Christ. Only then will it actually make sense. The second piece of this new covenant that Jeremiah predicts is this, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. He explains this when he says, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. I will be their God, and they will be my people. The old covenant is a little different. So here are the words that Moses says in Exodus 19. Report reporting God to the people. He says, Now therefore, if you will, indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. There's some nice promises in there a kingdom of priests to treasured possession a holy nation, but it is preceded by the most important words in the Bible. If it's a big word, right, if if you do this, then you get this. If you don't do this, then you don't get this. And that's the heart of the Old Covenant right? Now. Therefore, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you get the promise. Worked out great. If God asks us to do something that we can do, it's not so much if it's something we can't. And Israel never did it. And Jeremiah says that he would make a new covenant that was not like the Covenant, the covenant that they broke and they broke it a lot. The Bible is filled with stories of God's people saying no thank you, God, we would pray refer other gods. Baal Ashra Moloch, the gods of Assyria and Babylon, every god under the sun except for the one true God. And the prophets their whole story is calling people back, saying, no the Lord turns to him return to the covenant. And what's fun when you when you look at the prophets, sometimes they play a really interesting trick. When they speak the word of God, to people that's been failing the covenant. What they do is they report God saying, instead of my people, they say, this, people it's a very subtle change, when you read the prophets, but look for it. Because God doesn't say, My People. Instead, he says, Those people, this people, anyone but my people, in fact. We get that, from Isaiah, where he says, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me from their lips, while their hearts are far from me. And their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. When they break the covenant and turn away, God calls them this people, not my people, because they didn't get the promises when they broke it. That's not how the New Covenant works. Because Jesus fulfilled the old, he is the one who does the if, if you indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession, that is Christ. And all who are in in him to receive this amazing blessing, which is why the New Covenant does not have an if it says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And then for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. That is because all who are in Christ receive this covenant. It is not a covenant with believers and unbelievers, it is just those who are called out of the world, brought into Christ and gathered around his his body and his blood and his word. All who are in Christ become God's people. There is no ifs. There is no if you obey my voice, there are no commandments. It is just you are my people. Because of Christ's perfect obedience, and fulfilling this covenant, you get these promises. And that leads to the final point where I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This is not the promise that was given to Old Testament Israel. Remember, they had an IF covenant, not, I will covenant. God didn't give them away to have their sins forgiven when they committed them. It was to be faithful to him and offer the right sacrifices and believe in Him and do all the things they were supposed to do, but they didn't do. And that is why they were eventually sent into exile, after being punished over and over and over again. But because of Christ, this is not you. God does not make that kind of covenant with His Church and his believers. A covenant that says if you do it right, you will be forgiven. God simply says, I will forgive their sins, I will remember their sin no more.

Which means that for all who turned to Jesus Christ looking for mercy, it is always there. There is no sin that will cast you out. There is no doubt that will push you away. There is nothing that you can do that will make Christ turn away from you. His grace is always there. Which is why a pastor can stand up in front of all of you and say, very casually. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and actually mean it. And not look out and say it well. Except for you. Everybody, when you write, which is sometimes what we think, in our hearts, we think oh, yeah, that's your doesn't know what I did. And I'm the worst. And we're maybe even more perniciously pastor doesn't know what he did. He's the worst, right? That's not how it works. All who turned to Christ. All who come to Him, knowing they need grace. All who asked for it, who confessed their sins, receive forgiveness. And we do this because God has written His instruction on your hearts, and he has made you his people which causes us to turn to Him for relief when we have that guilt, because we are brought into this new covenant through Jesus Christ. What a great gift he has given us. In Jesus name, Amen.