His final steps led to a tomb.

 

Sermon for Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2023

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.

His final steps led to a tomb.

Dear travelers on a sorrowful road,

            Many years ago, a pastor friend of mine preached a series of three sermons using the themes: “If I die,” “When I die,” and “I am dying.”  The point was to show our need for a Savior through the each of those stages in our lives.  When a person is young, especially young men, we kind of think ourselves ten feet tall and bulletin proof.  We scarcely give any thought to the possibility of dying.  As we move into middle age and have to deal with deaths of parents and even friends, we begin to consider that we too will some day die.  Finally, if we should contract some terminal illness or reach more advanced age, it becomes impossible to escape the reality that death grows ever closer. 

All that being said, how might a person react if he knew exactly when his death would come?  Would we be even more careless as teenagers if we were certain we would live for decades yet?  Would we find it easier to put off attending church, getting to know God and His Word, or even living a God-fearing life, if we knew we had years to repent before dying?  Would we plan more carefully, or treasure our days more fully if we could count down the exact time to our demise?  Or, might we be tempted to indulge our carnal nature even more with the expectation that we still had time to repent?  If you knew every moment of your life how and when you would die, how much pain you would endure on the way, or what friends and loved ones you would watch die before you, would that change how you live?

More likely, most people don’t even want to consider their death.  We see evidence of that in the growing number of people who kill themselves rather than face a painful death, or an extended period of difficulty before death.  On the other hand, we spend billions of dollars each year in our country trying to forestall the cold grip of death.  But, what really is the sin here?  The sin comes when we forget that “whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:8)  Who says, “I know the plans I have for you,…plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

On Ash Wednesday, we begin a walk with Jesus that led to His death.  Contrary to us, though, Jesus knew exactly when He would die, how He would die, and why He would die in the way He did.  He knew far in advance every tortured moment He would have to endure and the extreme suffering and pain that lay ahead of Him as He went about His Father’s business.  Still, Jesus walked His road to a tomb without fear or trepidation.  Furthermore, out of love for us, He lived His life on earth exactly as needed so that His dying would benefit us all.  Tonight, we consider that His final steps led to a tomb.

The text for this sermon is John chapter 11.  The bulk of that chapter tells the well-known story of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, who died and yet was raised to live again.  Perhaps you have struggled in the past to understand how Jesus reacted to the news that His friend was sick.  John reports,

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick.  He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  This Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the same Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair.  So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one you love is sick!”  When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not going to result in death, but it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed in the place where he was two more days.” (John 11:1-6)

Consider how callous that makes Jesus look.  The greatest miracle worker of all time knew His friend was sick but instead of going to heal the man, Jesus stayed away until He knew Lazarus was dead.  Certainly, Mary and Martha, the dead man’s sisters, wondered why Jesus had stayed away so long.  Their friends, too, likely whispered doubts as they wailed in mourning.  Likewise, how many of us haven’t wailed and wondered why our Savior didn’t save someone’s life when we prayed for healing?  Martha’s accusation when Jesus returned to Bethany might just as well have come out of our mouths when we are grieving the loss of a loved one: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21)

As is usually the case, Jesus gives us the answer.  When He decided it was time to return to Bethany where Mary and Martha lived, His disciples tried to convince Jesus to stay away because they feared the authorities who wanted to kill Jesus.  In reply, Jesus told them,

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”  Then the disciples said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”  Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought he was merely talking about ordinary sleep.  So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.  And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.  But let us go to him.”  Then Thomas (called the Twin) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too, so that we may die with him.” (John 11:11-16)

Why did Jesus delay?  Because just like us, His disciples, as well as Mary and Martha, needed to see that Jesus has power over death.  The disciples were afraid that Jesus’ enemies in Jerusalem would kill Him, and them too, if He returned to that city.  Mary and Martha thought they had lost their brother forever.  You and I, even though we know better, might tremble as we look into the jaws of death.  Therefore, without hesitation, Jesus’ final steps led to a tomb.

Martha needed to hear Jesus say, “Your brother will rise again.” (John 11:23)  And firmly trusting in the God of her fathers, Martha believed.  She said, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.” (John 11:24)  It is at that moment that Martha, the disciples, and all of us needed to hear and see the power and authority that God has placed in Jesus.  All authority in heaven and earth belongs to Jesus, (Mathew 28:18) but our weak and trembling faith needed to see what that means.  Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)  Again, Martha believed Jesus is the promised Savior.  At the same time, her flesh remained weak.

Martha then went to get Mary still grieving at the home they shared, and wouldn’t you know, Mary reacted the same way Martha had.  At the same time, we see Jesus’ compassion for those who follow Him. 

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.  He asked, “Where have you laid him?”  They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  Jesus wept. (John 11:32-35) 

Jesus came to the tomb that day because He cares about all those who trust in Him.  He cares about us when we grieve, when we lose someone we love, when we are hurting, and even when we falsely accuse Him of not being with us in our time of need.  Jesus’ love for sinners led to a tomb.

The faith of those gathered before Lazarus’s tomb was evident yet still very frail, just as ours so often is.  While the gathered crowd complained, “‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’  Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ‘Take away the stone,’ he said.” (John 11:37-39) 

Even Martha, still not yet fully understanding, said, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”  Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  So they took away the stone. (John 11:39-41) 

Who among us would react differently in that situation?  The Jews didn’t embalm the dead.  There was no refrigeration to slow the decay of the dead body.  This was not the dead of winter either.  Why would anyone want to open such a grave?  Yet, aren’t those doubts just a lack of faith in Jesus?

Sometimes, Christians are accused of having a faith without proof, but here we have all the proof anyone should need that Jesus can do as He said.  In front of a massive crowd of skeptical mourners, including several who had made it their mission to discredit and destroy Jesus, Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”  After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:41-43)

Imagine the reaction of those in the crowd.  Stunned silence?  Mocking laughter?  Skeptical fear that another miracle might actually occur?  A hopeful glance between two sisters?  Whatever the people thought, The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.” (John 11:44) 

Jesus stepped up to that tomb to restore joy to His faithful followers.  Jesus came to that tomb so the His disciples’ faith would be strengthened.  Jesus stood at that opened tomb so that we have sure confidence in St. Paul’s Spirit inspired victory shout, “Death is swallowed up in victory.  Death, where is your sting?  Grave, where is your victory?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

There is another reason Jesus’ final steps led to this tomb.  The crowd that day included enemies who wanted nothing more than to see Jesus fail.  They wanted to catch Him in some sin or fault that they could use against Him, yet they found nothing wrong in this perfect Man.  Thus, as Jesus performed the greatest miracle any of them had ever seen, their hearts grew harder in unbelief and fear, so as the news of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead spread far and wide like a wildfire, the leaders of the Jews became even more resolved to find a way to kill Jesus. 

“Many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.  But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.  So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.  They asked, ‘What are we going to do, because this man is doing many miraculous signs?  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’  But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all.  You do not even consider that it is better for us that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’  He did not say this on his own, but, as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for that nation, but also in order to gather into one the scattered children of God.  So from that day on they plotted to kill him.” (John 11:45-53)

His final steps led to a tomb.  First, they led to the tomb where Lazarus was laid, so that you and I and all of Jesus’ followers could see His power over death.  For the whole world to see and be without excuse, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  Ultimately, though, this was also God’s plan to move those who didn’t believe in Jesus to carry out their hateful, wicked plot to get Jesus nailed to a cross and buried in another tomb, in the foolish wish to separate themselves from the One Man God sent to save all.  Yet, it was all part of God’s plan to have Jesus die for your sins and mine at the exact time and place He had planned and prophesied, so that we could be made right with God, so that we could have sure evidence that God’s Word is true, and so that we could be welcome in God’s presence on the last day when He will surely raise all people from the dead and take those who believe in Him to live with Him forever in heaven.

Now, I don’t know how long God will allow me to live in this world.  I really don’t want to know; it would be too much for me to handle one way or another.  But I give thanks to God that I know this—that Jesus died for my sins, that in His sacrifice as the Lamb of God, Jesus paid for all my guilt, and that He offers us His true, holy, flesh and blood for us to eat and drink to share in the reconciliation with God that Jesus has won, and that by raising Lazarus from the dead, and even more by rising Himself from the grave, Jesus has given us living proof that He will also raise you and me for life everlasting.

Dear friends, Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that the words He spoke at the beginning of His ministry will be forever true:

“Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.  He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life.  Amen, Amen, I tell you: A time is coming and is here now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will live.” (John 5:24-25) 

You who believe in Jesus will be raised from your tomb to live forever with Him in heaven.  Amen.

The Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.

See the glory of God in peace.

 

Sermon for Transfiguration, February 19, 2023

Grace to you and peace from Him who is, who was, and who is coming.  Amen.

Exodus 24:9-18  ⁹Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.  ¹⁰They saw the God of Israel.  Under his feet they saw what looked like a pavement of sapphire as clear as the sky.  ¹¹The Lord did not lay his hand on the dignitaries of the people of Israel.  They gazed at God, and they ate and drank.  ¹²The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain.  Wait there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, so that you can teach them.”  ¹³Moses set out with his assistant Joshua and went up onto the mountain of God.  ¹⁴He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you.  Look, here are Aaron and Hur.  They will be with you.  Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”  ¹⁵Moses went up onto the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.  ¹⁶The Glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered the mountain for six days.  On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud.  ¹⁷The appearance of the Glory of the Lord looked like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.  ¹⁸Moses entered into the middle of the cloud and climbed up the mountain.  Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (EHV)

See the glory of God in peace.

Dear beloved of the Lord,

            It was a foreshadowing, a foretaste, a hint of what was to come, when mankind will have perfect peace with God, and we will dwell with Him without fear.  Therefore, in this text, and forever going forward, See the glory of God in peace.

This is now at least the second time Moses had been called up the mountain to meet with the Lord.  Previously, God had spoken His laws to Moses to relay to the people, and the people had solemnly promised, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 24:3)  With their promise, God established a covenant with Israel to lead them and to give them the land He had centuries earlier promised to give to Abraham’s descendants.  As long as Israel would remain faithful to Him, God would be with them and protect them in the land He had promised to Abraham.

God invited these seventy-four men to partake of a meal confirming His covenant with Israel.  At that time, they saw the glory of God, yet they had nothing to fear, for “The Lord did not lay his hand on the dignitaries of the people of Israel.”  In our times, when seemingly everyone has lost all fear of God, that might seem unimportant.  Yet, to see God means that something special is happening.  Later in this book, Moses requests to see God, to which the Lord answered, “I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord in your presence.”…[But] He said, “You cannot see my face, for no human may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:19-20) 

To be able to see God in His glory, He must make us clean of all sin and count us as holy.  Here, God had given His commands to the people, and they had responded with faith.  Therefore, in that faith, God counted them forgiven, and welcomed them to celebrate His covenant with them.  Those men were amazed at the glorious sight.  Much like described in the Revelation many centuries later, heaven is beyond human description in glory, with God being the light of that glory. 

Notice the contrast at the end, however.  To the people below, “The appearance of the Glory of the Lord looked like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.”  This is the contrast between the law and the gospel.  The law of God terrifies.  That is one of its main purposes, to show us our need for a Savior and how impossible it is for us to be perfectly holy without God’s intervention.  The Gospel, on the other hand, is pure grace.  It tells of how God takes away the sins of the world so that we can be counted holy in God’s eyes.

Martin Luther followed this example when he wrote the Small Catechism.  He first began by teaching and explaining the Ten Commandments God gave to show us what holiness looks like.  Then, when those commands have fully convicted us of our depravity and need for a Redeeming Savior, Luther follows with the Apostle’s Creed which summarizes God’s work on earth through His only begotten Son, Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again to win forgiveness and salvation for even the worst of sinners.

In His mercy and grace, God made a covenant with Israel, so that if they would follow His laws, they would be blessed here on earth and eternally.  As that covenant is sealed with this meal, Moses is invited up the mountain for further instruction.  It is now after the law has been given verbally that God would deliver His commandments on stone tablets God Himself had engraved.  As we read on in the book, we also see God give detailed instructions for how Israel was to worship Him.  The sum of that ceremonial law would point to the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, His own dearly beloved Son, in a blood sacrifice for the sins of all people.  The temple to be built would also emphasize how the separation from God, mankind now feels, would ultimately be ended by sacrifice.  Not our sacrifices, but that of Jesus on a cross.

As Moses went up to meet with the Lord, the rest of the men would resume their service to God by leading the people and guiding them through the days.  For forty days and forty nights, Moses met with God on that holy hill while the glory of the Lord settled over the mountain giving the people that awe-inspiring view.  As I said, all of this is a foreshadowing.  This number forty is repeated throughout Scripture at various times and places.  While we know nothing of how Moses might survive that long without sustenance, we know that Jesus spent forty days and nights in the wilderness without food or drink while being tempted by the devil.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday when the glory of the Lord again shines in our worship.  Though we don’t see it physically, we see God’s glory through the report of Jesus’ disciples.  Again, the Lord of Glory, our precious Savior, met with Moses and Elijah on the mountain.  Peter, James, and John were eyewitnesses of that short visit.  They were overwhelmed with the glory and holiness.  You and I can only trust that what they saw is what we will see when we enter the presence of our Savior in heaven.  Thus, by faith in Jesus, we too See the glory of God in peace.

Still, like those Israelite leaders, we also receive a taste of the sacrifice made to make us pleasing and holy to God.  No, we don’t have to butcher lambs and bulls, and the pastor doesn’t have to sprinkle the blood of those animals over the congregation as Moses was instructed to do before this mountain meeting.  Rather, Jesus, the One true Lamb of God, sprinkled His blood over the world by taking our sins as His own and allowing Himself, the only Man who is truly holy in and of Himself, to be whipped, beaten, falsely accused, and finally nailed to a cross to suffer and die for the world.

Then, as foreshadowed that day on the ancient mountain, Jesus invites us to partake of the blood and body of that precious Lamb in a communion and covenant of peace with God that will not end.  In the Lord’s Supper, forgiveness is given to us, and we are again counted holy before God. 

Think of how Israel so often sinned against God in the years after they celebrated with the Lord that day.  Is there really any reason to believe that we are more faithful and less sinners than they?  The law forces us to admit that we are just as guilty as any other person.  We like St. Paul, that great missionary for the Lord, have to admit, “Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh.  The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out.  So I fail to do the good I want to do.  Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing.” (Romans 7:18-19)

In shame for our guilt, we often find it hard to confess that we are guilty of sinning against God as well as our neighbor.  However, it is in that confession faithfully admitted that Jesus opens His arms and welcomes us to partake of His body and blood in the Supper.  Jesus’ knew our condition back then, and He knows our struggles still today.  But, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  The one who believes in him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17-18)

Those men on the mountain were given a foretaste of a much greater covenant God has made with us, not to give us a piece of land here on earth, but to grant us forgiveness, righteousness, holiness, peace with God, and a new home in the Promised Land of His glorious heaven.  As we come to feast with Jesus in His Supper, we remember His promise, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

When Peter, James, and John went up the mountain on the day Jesus was transfigured before them, they didn’t know what to expect, and the sight of His true glory overwhelmed them.  That would be the same for us in this present world.  However, a day is coming when you and I and all faithful Christian believers will stand at peace in God’s presence as did Moses and Elijah.  For, just as Jesus was raised from the dead glorified and never to die again, so God has promised that we too will be raised, and we too will be glorified, so that we too will be with the Lord God of all in glory everlasting. 

In the Revelation, we are shown a foretaste of heaven, where “There will no longer be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city.  His servants will worship him.  They will see his face.  His name will be on their foreheads.  There will no longer be any night or any need for lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will shine on them.  And they will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:3-5)  There, justified by faith and sanctified by the blood and sacrifice of God’s precious Lamb, we, as His glorified children, will for all eternity See the glory of God in peace.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Live in the righteousness God accepts.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 6, February 12, 2023

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Amen.

Matthew 5:21-37  ²¹You have heard that it was said to people long ago, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.”  ²²But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, “Raca,” will have to answer to the Sanhedrin.  But whoever says, “You fool!” will be in danger of hell fire.  ²³So if you are about to offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar and go.  First be reconciled to your brother.  Then come and offer your gift.  ²⁵If someone accuses you, reach an agreement with him quickly, while you are with him on the way.  Otherwise your accuser may bring you to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison.  ²⁶Amen I tell you: You will never get out until you have paid the last penny.  ²⁷You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery,” ²⁸but I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  ²⁹If your right eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  ³⁰If your right hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  ³¹It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.”  ³²But I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes her to be regarded as an adulteress.  And whoever marries the divorced woman is regarded as an adulterer.  ³³Again you have heard that it was said to people long ago, “Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.”  ³⁴But I tell you, do not swear at all: not by heaven, because it is God’s throne; ³⁵and not by earth, because it is his footstool; and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King.  ³⁶And do not swear by your own head, since you cannot make one hair white or black.  ³⁷Instead, let your statement be, “Yes, yes,” or “No, no.”  Whatever goes beyond these is from the Evil One. (EHV)

Live in the righteousness God accepts.

Dear friends in Christ,

            It’s hard to keep up these days.  How is anyone supposed to know what is right or wrong when the standards of society are constantly changing?  How is a child going to know how to behave when his parents tell him one thing and his school or friends advocate for something completely different?  Yesterday’s pronouns are unacceptable for many today.  Yesterday’s norms are thought hopelessly outdated.  Today’s societal demands will soon be just as wrong, that is the one constant.  When a sinful world tries to make itself happy, it succeeds only in frustrating itself, so it tries again and again to find a way to feel good, but hopelessness keeps it constantly looking for something to give it meaning.

In many ways, this has been going on since the beginning.  Mankind has always been searching for a way to ensure happiness and prosperity.  The ancients developed all kinds of deities and religions to try to appease the gods and keep life good.  Finally, out of all those ancient tribes, God chose Israel to be His special people for whom He would provide prosperity, peace, and eternal life.  So that they might have peace in their lives while they waited for His salvation to come into the world, God gave them commands to rule their social life, behavior, and worship. 

With everything laid out before them, life and obedience should have been easy.  Yet, that wasn’t the case.  For them too, the sinful nature got in the way.  Instead of simply trusting God’s instructions, promises, commands, and His plans for the future, the people wanted something else, so they turned to other gods, more rules, and more ways to try to keep God at bay. 

As you read the Old Testament, you soon see the trouble Israel experienced simply from not trusting God to do what He promised.  Eventually, the teachers of Israel came up with multitude regulations that they thought would make them righteous before God, though those man-made rules didn’t have God’s authority behind them.  The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day were considered the best of the best at obeying the laws.  Yet, Jesus observed about them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they are doctrines.’” (Matthew 15:7-9)

Much of our world is caught in a similar dilemma.  Yet, no matter how hard one tries to please the opinions of the world, and even no matter how hard we try to obey the commandments God Himself has given, our actions are always falling short of the righteousness we need to enter heaven.  That is precisely what Jesus was trying to get across to the people in His audience.  This text is Jesus’ explanation of His statement immediately preceding, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and experts in the law, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

The people Jesus pointed to were considered the best of the best in their day.  Yet, those people were the shining example of obeying the detail of the laws while completely ignoring the heart of it.  In our day, it might be a married man telling his friend, “I can look at all the pretty girls and the naked ones on the internet, and as long as I don’t touch, I am okay.”  Well, maybe his wife won’t know, but God knows what is in the heart.

It's no different than the gossip who puts on a smiling face when she meets her neighbor then tells another neighbor whatever dirt she has heard whether true or not, which is, likewise, no different than listening to the hundreds and thousands of slanderous accusations thrown about in our world from every side of every debate and every politician.

This text talks about divorce, and certainly there is way too much of that in our world, yet, it is no better to take and discard sexual partners right and left before marriage.  God intended the sexual relationship to be between one man and one woman for life.

Now, I hate to break it to you, but there is no person on earth or in this room who is innocent in the examples Jesus used here.  All of us have lusted about someone or something.  All of us have played loosely with the truth somewhere along the way.  All of us have had anger that wasn’t just or righteous, and I would bet all of us have disparaged someone else at some point in our lives.  Therefore, if we want to have a hope of heaven, we need to Live in the righteousness God accepts.

Years ago, I met a man who claimed to be a youth pastor at a large congregation of another denomination, and he asked me what the ELS stood for.  I explained that we are a Synod of Christians who believe God’s word means exactly what it says and we try to follow it.  His reply shook me to the core; he said that couldn’t possibly be true, because I hadn’t plucked out my eyes or cut off my hands.  Now, I wasn’t shaken because of my guilt.  I was shook because that man was teaching young people, and he knew nothing about the gospel or God’s Word in general. 

The scribes and Pharisees believed that they were righteous because of their works.  Many people in our times fall into the same trap.  However, God’s justice demands perfect righteousness to enter into His presence.  After rescuing Israel from their slavery in Egypt, God declared to them, “You therefore shall be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45)  Any slight flaw in thought, word, action, belief, or even feeling—as Jesus is showing in this section of His sermon—leads to condemnation in hell.  We need a better righteousness than we ourselves can live.  We need Jesus.  We need to believe and trust in Jesus alone for forgiveness and salvation.  We need to Live in the righteousness God accepts.

The whole Bible centers on this point.  Your salvation and eternal life hinge on this point.  Only Jesus has lived in such a way that God could declare from heaven, “This is my Son, whom I love.  I am well pleased with him.” (Matthew 3:17)  Jesus is the only human ever to live about whom the Holy Spirit could have the writer declare, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of the divine nature.” (Hebrews 1:3)  By His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus restored the image of God in Man that Adam and Eve had lost.  Even as a Child, Jesus had a perfect relationship with His parents and the Lord God.  Luke reports, “He was always obedient to them.…[And] Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.” (Luke 2:51-52)

There is no other Man like Jesus.  Perfectly holy, perfectly obedient to His Father’s will, and perfectly righteous before God and men, Jesus is acceptable to His Father in heaven—so loved and cherished by the Almighty that God has declared, “You are my Son.  Today I have begotten you.  Ask me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8)  Furthermore, the psalmist writes, “Nevertheless, you make him suffer need, apart from God for a while, but you crown him with glory and honor.  You make him the ruler over the works of your hands.  You put everything under his feet:…O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:5, 6 & 9)

To Live in the righteousness God accepts means to live in Jesus, because “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  Our broken nature truly desires to earn peace with God, but apart from Jesus, we are completely unable to do anything that would please God.  Many people are ashamed of that fact.  However, that too is the sinful nature taking control.  Therefore, to Live in the righteousness God accepts means to be humble before God, confessing all our sins and iniquities, while trusting wholeheartedly in God’s promise that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Dear friends, on the last day when you and I and everyone else will stand before the Judge of the world, there is only one things we can plead, “Jesus crucified for me.”  Though without sin, Jesus bore our guilt on the cross.  In an exchange so great it cannot be fathomed, God took our sins and counted them to His Son, but He took the perfect righteousness Jesus lived and possessed, and He credits it to our accounts, so that He can welcome us into Paradise as His dear, holy children He always wanted us to be.

This morning, we are invited again, to come to the altar of our Lord Jesus and receive His true body and blood to restore the forgiveness of sins that grants us this perfect righteousness.  Come and partake of Jesus’ body and blood that He offered to God, the Lamb without blemish or fault, that took away our sins and brings to us the medicine of immortality.  Live in the righteousness God accepts.  Amen.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless in the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all time, now, and to all eternity.  Amen.

Live as people chosen to receive mercy.

 

Sermon for Epiphany 5, February 5, 2023

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

1 Peter 2:9-12  ⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  ¹⁰At one time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.  At one time you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy. ¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and temporary residents in the world, to abstain from the desires of the sinful flesh, which war against your soul.  ¹²Live an honorable life among the Gentiles so that even though they slander you as evildoers, when they observe your noble deeds, they may glorify God on the day he visits us. (EHV)

Live as people chosen to receive mercy.

Dear elect by the mercy of God,

            Imagine being chosen, yet rejected, loved but hated, possessing power but required to serve, alive but dying, free but under others’ control.  In some small way, we might feel like this at times.  Those we should be closest to may turn against us.  Dear friends and close family love us, but there is always someone just aching to threaten and abuse us for seemingly no reason.  We are alive, but we know we are on a path that leads ultimately to death and decay.  The higher up we go in our jobs the more we have to answer to others’ supervision and authority.

Really, though, the person I described in that first sentence is Jesus.  God chose Jesus to be our Rescuer from sin and death, but God’s own chosen people rejected the very One God chose to save them.  God declared His love for His only begotten Son, but many still hated Jesus while He walked this earth, and even more despise and reject Him today.  Jesus is the King of all creation to whom “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given,” (Matthew 28:18) but He reminds us that “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)  Being true God, the Son of God could not die, yet He gave His life into the grave so that we might live and never die.

As you listen to the news and watch tragic events around the world, it is easy to despair of ever having true freedom, peace, or safety.  Wars and rumors of war remain a constant threat.  Evil often seems out of control.  Death is an ever present trouble.  Hatred is fomented and inflamed all around.  Christians, especially, seem to be in the devil’s crosshairs again.  In this letter, St. Peter encourages us not to be afraid or worried, or ashamed, but to Live as people chosen to receive mercy.

This morning, I would like to jump ahead to the later verses of our text and discuss, first, how we should live.  After we review Peter’s advice for that, we will review the reason why.  Peter wrote, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and temporary residents in the world, to abstain from the desires of the sinful flesh, which war against your soul.”  First of all, understand that this world is no longer our true home.  Earth is a place we inhabit until God calls us back to our real home in heaven.  Like ambassadors for the federal government, we serve, here on earth, in the stead of our Lord.  We walk this planet not for our own pleasure, nor to somehow gain riches meriting our return home.  Rather, we each are placed in our positions to serve our Lord by helping our fellow sojourners traverse through this foreign land.

Like an ambassador to another country, we are subject to that country’s laws.  Furthermore, how we live reflects on the One we serve, who is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master.  Peter recognizes that if we seek after the pleasures of the flesh, we are merely serving the devil from whose control Jesus gave His life on a cross to free us.  The temptations of the flesh are always with us, because we are sinful by nature since our first parents fell into sin.  Yet, we do not want our old nature to be our master anymore than we want Satan to be back in power, for if that is the road we take, it leads only to hell and eternal suffering.

We have a second mission as ambassadors for Jesus; Peter explained, “Live an honorable life among the Gentiles so that even though they slander you as evildoers, when they observe your noble deeds, they may glorify God on the day he visits us.”  Being foreigners in this world, we will often be at odds with the general population, or at least, be seen as incredibly odd if we walk with Jesus.  The holiness of our Savior seems unnatural to sinners caught in the devil’s snares. 

Consider what life would be like, though, if we lived only to serve ourselves.  We would be selfish, greedy, eager to take what belongs to others, and eager to use others to satisfy our personal whims.  That would be nothing like Jesus who lived solely to serve His Father’s will, so that He might redeem and save us.

Furthermore, as we live to honor our Lord, that noble effort will become visible to those around us, who in the end will recognize that how we live is beneficial to all.  Being obedient to God’s laws and to the commands of our Savior brings good things to light in this sin darkened world.  The light of our Savior then reflects off of us so that others may see and believe.  Therefore, we Live as people chosen to receive mercy.

Back in the days of the first Christians, the pagans grew more and more impressed that Christian men loved and honored their wives, that they loved their children, spent time with them, and valued them as gifts from God.  Cherishing and serving one’s family was recognized as good for society as a whole.  Faithfulness to king and country even in the face of persecution by the same soon came to show that Christians were a breed apart from the ordinary citizen.  Therefore, even the pagans began to recognize that God had changed Christians into better people, and God was praised.

Now that we have seen a bit of the what we should do, the question is why we should live to honor our God?  The answer is that we know what God has done for us, so that we are no longer subject to sin, death, the devil, and eternal condemnation.  Peter wrote, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, the people who are God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  You were chosen—chosen by God to be saved, chosen by God to be washed clean of all sin and guilt, chosen to receive His love and faithfulness, His protection, His name, and a home in His heaven where we will dwell forever in peace and joy.

God chose to call you His own people, not His slaves but members of His family who will inherit all things with Jesus who gave His life, His willing, holy service, and His sacrificial suffering and death that paid for your guilt.  Through faith in Christ Jesus, granted to you by the work of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament, God made you His own dear sons, “And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to shout, “Abba, Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son.  And if you are a son, then you are also an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:6-7)  We inherit the wealth Jesus accumulated before dying for us.  By faith, we receive His righteousness, holiness, innocence, and blessedness.  We receive recognition from God that our record of wrongs and rebellions has been wiped clean by Jesus.  We receive permanent peace, purity, and a place in God’s mansions above.

Through faith, God has made us a “royal priesthood.”  We are no longer slaves or beggars, but God has made us members of His royal house, and He has opened His ears to hear our prayers for ourselves and for those around us.  We intercede for a sinful world as our prayers to God are lifted up. 

Believers in Jesus are “a holy nation,” a people set apart to God as pure ones for Jesus’ sake.  God set us apart from this troubled world, so that we can sing His praises and tell the world about the Savior who rescued us from darkness and death. 

Like Old Testament Jonah, we can march out into this pagan world proclaiming repentance before a just but merciful God.  Like John the Baptist, we can point friend and enemy alike to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  God doesn’t give us this command so that we may earn a place in His kingdom, but having installed us as His chosen friends, He invites us to share the Good News of all that Jesus has done for us and for the world, so that many more lost souls might be saved from this darkness to live forever with Him.

Dear friends, this morning I feel like I am hurrying to tell you this all.  However, we have the Good News of a Savior who came into this broken, sin-damaged world to rescue us from its darkness.  Like prisoners stuck in the bowels of a deep, dark dungeon, we once had no light, no hope, no tomorrow.  Because of sin, we were all lost and condemned creatures subject to God’s wrath.  Jesus changed that forever.

Purely out of His fatherly divine goodness and mercy, God chose to send His Son, Jesus, to live a perfectly holy life on our behalf, a life that is credited to all who believe in Jesus.  Having won forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life for all through the sacrifice of His dear Son on a cross, God chose you out of the wretched refuse of mankind to hear this Good News and believe it.  God picked you personally out of all humanity to be in a place where the Word is preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered, so that you might be given new life and a new hope in Jesus.

By God’s grace, all our sins were counted against Jesus, and He paid the ultimate price to set us free from punishment and disgrace.  By God’s grace, the Word of peace was proclaimed in our hearing.  By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit used that Gospel to bring life to souls that once were dead in sin, and He used that Good News to show us what Jesus has done to bring us life, peace, and salvation. 

Now, because our hearts were awakened to the love of God, we too have a strong desire to love God and our neighbor.  That good desire moves and motivates us to pray for our neighbor, to share Good News with whomever and wherever we can.  It moves us to remember that God loves our neighbors just as He has loved us.  It moves us to rejoice that we have the opportunity to Live as people chosen to receive mercy.  Amen.

The God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you.  To him be the glory and the power forever and ever.  Amen.

Funeral sermon for Aubrey Rose Popowski

 

Funeral sermon for Aubrey Rose Popowski, 2-4-2023

O Lord, we are gathered in sorrow, yet not as those who have no hope.  We thank You for the gift of this child now fallen asleep.  But most of all, we thank You for making salvation and eternal life ours through faith in Jesus Christ.  Comfort and help those who here mourn and give us always to have complete trust and sure hope in Jesus.  We ask this all in Christ’s holy name.  Amen.

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

Dear friends in Christ,

            At times of great sorrow such as this, it is very common to have more questions than answers, and to desire more explanation from God than He, in His divine wisdom, has provided in His Word.  When we find ourselves in such a predicament, it is vitally important that we seek His guidance and find our confidence, not in what we wish, but in what God has surely given in His Word, for His Word is life. (John 6:68)

Some of the most common questions when a baby dies is “Why?”  Why did God allow this?  Why do we have to suffer so much pain?  What did this baby or these parents do wrong?  The answer is no one did anything wrong.  The child didn’t cause its afflicted body, nor did the parents.  What Scripture does tell us is that the curse of sin on the world is the root cause of all death.  It is because of that curse of sin that we all will die.  Some will die at what seems like a very old age, perhaps after even a hundred years.  Others die very young.  Which is better?  Death is never good, nor is it what God intended for any of His dear children, which is why God chose to send His beloved Son to take the death every person deserves for sin, so that we might be given eternal life through faith in Him.  Still, physical death comes to all people, because the curse put on the world for man’s sin affects all people. (Romans 5)

Now, as you heard a few moments ago, while God has given the Sacraments for our use in bringing people to saving faith, He does not limit Himself in bringing little children to believe.  Therefore, when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me,” He meant that with all His heart.  Jesus put His whole life, body and soul, into gaining forgiveness and salvation for all people—little children included—because “God our Savior,…wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

It is in Jesus that we find salvation and peace.  We can’t always understand how God can work through His Word, but He promises “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) 

Now, some may question how Aubrey may have heard God’s call to faith, but we know for a fact that babies hear in the womb, and that our Almighty God can make believers out of little children just as easily as He can any adult and often more easily, for as Jesus said, “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)  Melissa and Lucas, you read and confessed God’s word out loud at home, and while still in the womb you brought little Aubrey to church where the Word and salvation of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, where the Holy Spirit had opportunity to bring saving faith to that little broken child.

Of course, doubts may come nagging at us.  How can we know whether Aubrey believed and is saved?  Just like with older people, that determination is up to Jesus, not to us.  But we rely on what our God has told us.  The Bible promises, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)  Again Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)  The Bible assures us that saving faith is never a personal decision or something we do to come to God.  Rather, St. Paul tells us, “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5)  Just as God gave you faith in Jesus as your Savior, so He could work the same gift of grace in little Aubrey Rose.

From God’s Word, we also know that Aubrey was not a mistake, but rather a gift to you and to God’s kingdom.  That may seem hard for you to believe right now in your pain, but the Word says, “You created my inner organs.  You wove me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your works are wonderful, and my soul knows that very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14) 

Melissa and Lucas, God gave you the gift of a daughter to love, and He gave you hopeful expectations for her future.  Though right now that seems like a very short-term gift, your love for her will continue, and your hopes for her future remain appropriate, for our God’s main purpose is to bring us home into His everlasting mansions where there is no more sorrow, illness, pain, or death.  Whether young or old, we each must go through death because as St. Paul wrote, “This perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  But once this perishable body has put on imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then what is written will be fulfilled: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” (1 Corinthians 15:53-54)  No matter how badly broken Aubrey’s little body was in this world, in that God-given victory over death, we can trust that there is a future for Aubrey in heaven and, by faith in Jesus, for you to be with her again, not with brokenness, sadness, and pain, but in a life whole, perfect, and filled with unending joy.

How do we know God cares for Aubrey?  When Jesus was teaching us not to worry, He told us about His Father’s care, saying: “Look at the birds of the air.  They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:26)  Every sparrow, chicken, or pheasant that finds a kernel of grain, weed seed, or bug finds the food God has delivered to feed that life.  God knows our every need, and He provides for us in this world with the goal of bringing us home to Himself in glory.  God knows each of us so well, He has numbered the hairs of our heads.  Nothing, and no one, escapes God’s attention and care, so we know He cares for Aubrey, and Jesus cares for all of you just as well.  In fact, Jesus invites us in every sorrow, trouble, difficulty, or pain, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) 

We have God’s invitation to bring every need, sorrow, temptation, loss, or pain to Him for help.  Jesus is our High Priest, our go-between with our heavenly Father.  Now, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.  So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)  

When His friend, Lazarus, was dead in a tomb for four days, “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)  Jesus wept even though He knew He was going to raise Lazarus immediately, so Jesus wasn’t worried about death’s power.  Rather, Jesus wept because He felt the pain His dear friends, Mary and Martha, were feeling at the loss of their brother.  Through faith, you too have a connection with Jesus.  He knows how you hurt.  He loves you enough to die for you, which He did on a cross to pay for all of your sins, doubts, and weaknesses.  He loves you enough to hear your anguished cries, to hold and comfort you in your sorrow, and to give you the strength to heal as He carries you on.

Dear friends, at times like this, we are always full of questions, and doubts may creep into our minds.  Our God and Savior promises us, “Certainly my plans are not your plans, and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.  Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than your plans.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)  We can’t say with certainty why God allowed this sorrow and pain to enter your lives, but we do know that we have a loving God who gave His Son to be our rescuer from sin and death, the true God-Man who suffered the same sorrows and pain we go through yet remained without sin so that He could be our Savior. 

Jesus promised His people, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proves that His promises are true and that He is the same God who promised through Isaiah, “I will never forget you.  Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.  Your walls are never out of my sight.  Your children are hurrying back.” (Isaiah 49:15-17)  The nail holes in Jesus’ hands, still visible after His resurrection from the dead, are visible signs that Jesus lived, died, and rose for you, so that in the end you too will be raised alive from the grave to join Him in His eternal home.  He did the same for Aubrey Rose.  Trust in God’s Son, Jesus, who gave His all to give you forgiveness of sins and the sure and certain hope of life everlasting in heaven.  All glory to His name.  Amen.

Now to him, who is able, according to the power that is at work within us, to do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!  Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)