Sermon May 25-26, 2024

Title: God’s love for you, in Christ!
Text: John 3:1-17

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17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The Medal of Honor was created in 1861, and it is awarded by the President of the United States, in the name of Congress at a ceremony attended by senior military personnel, members of Congress and other leaders.

It is, the highest honor for military valor and is awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty" by a member of the U.S. Armed Forces during combat against an enemy.

On Sept. 29, 2006 in an extraordinary act of courage, Michael Anthony Monsoor 25, petty officer of the U.S. Navy's Special Operations Command, shielded three of his U.S colleagues and three other Iraqi soldiers from the imminent blast by throwing himself onto the grenade. The resultant blast killed him.

President Bush praised Monsoor for his valor and selfless service to the nation at the ceremony. "Michael had two options," said the president, "save his life or those who were with him, but he chose to lay down his life for them."

On this Memorial Day weekend we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice laying down their life for their fellow man and for the freedom we so cherish and enjoy.

I am reminded of what John says in his Gospel in chapter 15 verse 13:

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

And on this Trinity Sunday (Weekend) we look to our one true God who has revealed himself as one divine essence, but also as three unique and coequal persons … Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And to this divine essence Jesus claimed Sonship, for the work He came to do and was to accomplish, in only what God could do in Christ by taking on human flesh and laying down His life for the sins of the world, paying the price that you and I could never pay and to this work and revelation Jesus claimed:

Before Abraham was, “I AM”!

The name of God that Jesus proclaimed as the great I Am brought anger and the claim of blasphemy from the Jewish leaders.

Mixed reactions to God and his word have been around since the serpent questioned, “Did God really say?” In our gospel lesson for today another questioning occurs.

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night …

In the grey and black of the night a leader - a man of the Pharisees – comes to see Jesus. It is as if in and through the blackness of sin he sees the light in the distance and in this person, Jesus saying:

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” V2

Nicodemus sees in the signs that Jesus has been doing, and probably his teaching as well - proclaiming; “Repentant for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” God’s work, and it is through this work that God had brought Nicodemus to this place this night to be with Jesus.

Jesus’ reply that “… unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God …” comes as a bit of a surprise to Nicodemus. In a similar sense the words of our Bible that proclaims, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” also brings for some a questioning which causes some to think:

“It’s just a fable, it can’t be real. No one really believes this is how things came into existence, do they?”

Even Nicodemus asks,

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Just as God and his creation brings many questions that we and others might wrestle with God’s word points us to the source of truth and understanding … his son, our Lord Jesus.

Genesis’s beginning and the Gospel of John’s beginning have one thing in common - and that is Jesus.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,

The heavens and the earth continue to inspire many to question and look into this blessed creation of God.

NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, landed on Mars 20 years ago in 2004 with a hoped for, 90-day mission. Spirit lasted 6 years and Opportunity 15 years before succumbing to the Martian surface and climate.

The Curiosity and Perseverance rovers continue to operate on Mars giving us a continuous and vivid picture of this close planetary neighbor.

The heavens God created we still explore looking for answers …

in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Jesus is connected in a real way to creation and to the answer.

“And God said,”

This word of God spoken in the beginning, and the word of God [Jesus] speaking to Nicodemus, is the same word of God proclaimed and heard by you now.

The word is not only connected to your hearing now, but it is also, as Jesus is making known to Nicodemus, connected to the washing away of sins in Holy Baptism.

Nicodemus asks Jesus,

“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

In reality though, even if this were possible it would do Nicodemus and you or me no good;

- for being born again in the natural way only brings forth one who is born in sin and brought forth in iniquity.

One needs rebirth as Jesus tells him … to be born again which is a new birth that is born from above, born anew, or born of the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Corinthian church about the need to see with new eyes born from the Spirit when he writes:

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14

You too needed to be spiritually born and this came for you and me in our Baptisms.

God’s word connected to simple water and his command and promise by the working of the Holy Spirit brings as Luther’s Small Catechism makes clear about the benefits baptism gives:

“It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.”

As Jesus declared, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And the Apostle Paul affirmed in 1 Corinthians 6 when he writes:

… that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Saying:
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Dear friends, we have been given the Spirit of our God and have been called you to faith so that, the Kingdom of God is yours.

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The fullness of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, continues to work!

As one washed in the waters of Holy Baptism you have been born from above and born anew by God, and that same God who, from the beginning spoke God’s creation into existence has breathed new life in you, and because of him eternity is yours.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen.

Sermon May 18-19, 2024

Title: The witness of the Spirit is yours!
Text: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

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13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Second Stanza of our opening hymn for today really speaks about the gift of the Holy Spirit.

#913 O Holy Spirit, Enter In

Give to Your Word impressive power
That in our hearts from this good hour
As fire it may be glowing,
That in true Christian unity
We faithful witnesses may be
Your glory ever showing.
Hear us, cheer us
By Your teaching;
Let our preaching
And our labor
Praise You, Lord, and serve our neighbor.

Today we celebrate the sending of the Spirit which in the Book of Acts speaks of the Spirit coming as a mighty rushing wind and as tongues of fire, resting on the disciples and giving them utterance. This powerful speaking in other tongues gives the disciples the ability to be heard as Luke writes in the book of Acts:

“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” (Acts 2:7b-8)

And the diversity of those that hear is large.

9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:9-11)

The Spirit can certainly do marvelous things to reach all people! And that is what Jesus tells the disciples in the Gospel reading for today.

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

The Spirit of truth will point you to Jesus.

This light shining is to show the way to who is the way the truth and the life.

The Spirit of truth bears witness to you!

Saying:

Know this, I have seen the ones who masquerade as gods in this life. They are not he. Look to Jesus! Follow Jesus! Trust Jesus! Believe in Jesus!

Christ met unbelievers where they were. He realized what many Christians today still don't seem to understand. Cultivators have to get out in the field. According to one count, the gospels record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogues and 122 were out with the people in the mainstream of life.

J.K. Johnston, Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, p. 142.

God can use us all. God will use us all.

My friend Rob makes his living teaching guitar and banjo. He is very talented and those he teaches learn well. But his mission is to tell the world about Christ and through his gift of music he gets an opportunity to tell the world about Jesus and Christ himself says that it is to your advantage that he goes away:

But if I go, I will send him [the Spirit] to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
John 16:7b-11

Ugly truth or beautiful truth?

The ugly truth is that we are born sinful and unclean and are God's enemies and rightly deserve to be cast into Hell and separated from God for ever. But the beautiful truth is that God came to stand in your place and to suffer death for you so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you might know this and by faith trust all that Jesus did for you and receive the promise of an eternity in heaven with him.

Satan has been judged at the cross. He has been defeated and it is now through the working of the Spirit that Christ’s work is made known to the world so that sin might be repented of and people come to faith in Christ.

We know that we ourselves need repentance and forgiveness, so also those who will come to faith by the Spirit’s work through the word. God’s means of word and sacrament are found here in God’s house but the word is active and goes with each one of us as we in our vocations take Christ with us in our daily lives as father’s mothers, brothers, sisters, and workers and too.

The Spirit of truth bears witness to you!

As Jesus says:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
God’s Spirit leads you into all truth! John16:13-15

Christ and his work are who the Helper, the Holy Spirit points to and it defines what is His work and what He works to accomplish.

Jesus sends the Helper and by His work you are His!

We have peace to with God too because of the Holy Spirit. He brings us to life from our spiritual death and give us the faith that points and holds to Christ.

And as was confessed today in the Nicene Creed:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The Lord and giver of life,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
Who spoke through the prophets …

The Holy Spirit is God the sanctifier or the one who makes us Holy…

Jesus sends the Helper the Holy Spirit and by His work you are His!
To be comforted at times is good,

To be helped at times is also good,

But to be forgiven and to receive the gift of faith in Christ and His work - for you - is the work of the Holy Spirit who was sent to draw people not to himself but to Christ. This is truly Good News!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen.

Sermon May 11-12, 2024

Title: The King of Love My shepherd Is!

Text: John 17:11b-19

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Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:11b

Charles Spurgeon once wrote:

"To remain divided is sinful! Did not our Lord pray that they may be one, even as we are one"? (John 17:11b).

A chorus of ecumenical voices keep harping the unity tune. What they are saying is, "Christians of all doctrinal shades and beliefs must come together in one visible organization, regardless... Unite, unite!"

Such teaching is false, reckless and dangerous. Truth alone must determine our alignments. Truth comes before unity. Unity without truth is hazardous. Our Lord's prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Look at verse 17.

17 "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth."

Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the Gospel.

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Essence of Separation, quoted in The Berean Call, July, 1992, p. 4.

Jesus too desired unity around the truth and his will was in accord with the will of his Father.

Jesus says:

“… I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost …

The Lord’s desire is to keep and protect those whom he leaves behind as he Ascends back to the Father, this we celebrated this past Thursday at St, Stephens at the Ascension service.

His desire is that they (his disciples) may be one in unity with each other just as Jesus and the Father are one in unity … though distinct in person. Christ says that he has guarded them and that not one has been lost …

except for Judas - the one who went the way of destruction – so that the scriptures may be filled.

And as Christ prepares to leave his beloved disciples, he prays for them that the Father would keep them, in your name, in the name of the one true God, so that they would be guarded and not lost.

As Christ leaves the world, he knows that his own will remain in the world just as you and I also remain, and though in the world are not of the world.

We remain but also, we represent the work of God in us,

to abide in Jesus,

to remain in him,

to be his and to show forth his will against the power of the evil one, who looks only to steal, kill and destroy.

By his word of truth God is yours!

When I was in Germany some years ago, I couldn’t help thinking as we were driving to the airport in Berlin how much Germany has changed in the years since the Nazis and Hitler were defeated.

Initially, many Germans supported Hitler. Some saw that it was better for them to get along rather than to fight what was happening and some turned a blind eye to the truth of the atrocities around them.

We see that happening today as the evil of the October 7th attack against Jewish families in Israel by HAMAS is denied by many protestors that refuse to believe that it actually happened.

Even when churches were told to unite by Hitler many did, finding that things went easier for them than those who stayed true to the word and came under harsher persecution.

We all have families in the world and this too can pull us apart as we wrestle with the changes in society and civic life.

With marriage redefinition and gender identity questions abounding, the truth we’re told is tolerance, but in reality the breakdown of the family as it has been defined on Biblical principles and God’s word is the real goal.

Jesus says:

17 Sanctify them [or make them holy which also is to be set apart] in the truth; [he then tells us that] your word is truth.

Apart from God’s word we live in a world where God is re-made in man’s image and that is how the devil wants it.

He wants to turn what God has said upside down into that first deceptive question of his:

“Did God really say?” It gives us all, like Adam and Eve, a high view of self and a low view of sin which is simply, missing the mark and coming up short, on what God expects.

So, what do we do?

We lower the bar of truth or change it altogether.

Jesus’ desire for you and me … in the world … is that we stay true to the word and that by it – by the word - may also be sanctified or made holy [set apart] by it.

God’s Spirit does that by pointing you and me to Jesus!

As Jesus returns to the Father he leaves his disciples with a promise.

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Acts 1:8-9

Our first reading follows this as the disciples return to Jerusalem and the upper room where they were staying … where Jesus had appeared to them.

14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Unity around truth, that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

How do we know this? How can we know this?

… your word is truth.

God’s word … Jesus … is truth.

Like we discussed last week:

At Baptism we are marked as God’s own child, as one redeemed by Christ, as one who was crucified for you and me.

This Jesus upon his ascension gave the promise that we would not be left alone and that the comforter, [the Holy Spirit] who would come at Pentecost, would be with us to point us to the unity found only in Jesus the

word of God made flesh.

Dr. Scott Murray in his wonderful Memorial moment devotion reminds us of what happens when truth is compromised:

When the Word is lost everything is lost. Over the past twenty years, churches have begun to jettison the confession of faith in the Creeds of the church.

They are no longer recited as part of church services. When this trend began the clergy, who were so eager to get rid of the public confession of the faith by the faithful, were quick to reassure the skeptical that even though they no longer said the words that they certainly still affirmed the content of the Creeds. More recently the clergy who jettisoned the recitation of the Creed are now quite aggressively rejecting the content of the Creed, including its Christological [focus on Christ] content. Once we stop saying the words, it isn't very long until we stop believing the content of them.

Dr. Scott Murray: Unloving Love Wednesday of Easter 6 13 May 2015

The truth comes to us in the word of God and is made know through the work of the Spirit who points us to the truth of Christ’s word and work.

Luther reminds us in his Commentary on Galatians:

"In the issue of salvation, on the other hand, when fanatics teach lies and errors under the guise of truth and make an impression on many, there love must not be exercised and error must not be approved. For what is lost here is not merely a good deed done for someone who is ungrateful, but the Word, faith, Christ, and eternal life, etc. are lost. Therefore, if you deny God in one article of faith, you have denied Him in all; for God is not divided into many articles, but He is everything in each article and He is one in all the articles of the faith."

Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 5.9

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Christ has made you his own and will keep you by his Spirit connected to him and his truth. This is his promise.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen.

Sermon May 4-5, 2024

Title: Baptized into Your Name Most Holy!
Text: 1 John 5:1-8

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4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Stanza 1

Baptized into your name most holy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I claim a place, though weak and lowly,
Among your saints, your chosen host,
Buried with Christ and dead to sin.
Your Spirit now shall live within.

Our epistle in 1 John begins:

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,

For you and I and all who have been born a new, this work of God began when we were baptized. We were marked by Christ as his own, having been born again and adopted into his family - and having our sins washed away in the waters of Holy Baptism - we joy in God’s work and our new life as God’s child.

The work of God began for many of us as infants. God’s work was certainly greater than our ability to speak this truth as babies for ears to hear at our baptism - and so as we’ve grown up and have been taught what this work of God is – we continue to proclaim this truth and live as God’s adopted children to his glory.

Stanza 2

My loving Father, here you take me
To be henceforth your child and heir.
My faithful Savior, here you make me
The fruit of all your sorrows share.
O Holy Spirit, comfort me
When threat'ning clouds around I see.

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Our first reading in Act relates this truth:

44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
This gift also comes by means of another gift – the Lord’s working in Baptism.

Through the means of grace we have received the Holy Spirit, and have overcome the world, conquering sin, death and the power of the devil through this baptismal washing uniting water with the word and Spirit and creating faith in we who were once dead to God.

God has united us to himself in a special way and we confess with our mouths this truth that Jesus is Lord, and that believing that God has raised him from the dead - we are saved - have been saved - and will continue to be saved!

Salvation is God’s promise and is delivered through his means.

The word of terror that the devil brings – that you aren’t good enough - has been defeated at the cross and Jesus has declared his victory for you, even to the gates of hell that sin, death and the devil have been defeated and overcome by our Lord and we who confess this faith receive all that Jesus won for us in this most blessed gift.

This is most certainly true.

Stanza 3

My faithful God, you fail me never;
Your promise surely will endure.
Oh, cast me not away forever
If words and deeds become impure.
Have mercy when I come defiled;
Forgive, lift up, restore your child.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

For you and I who have been brought to faith the keeping of the Law has been completed in Christ, and so as we stay connected to the true vine that is Jesus, and feed on his word, we are seen by the Father in perfect righteousness because Jesus has kept the Law perfectly on our behalf and we, in Christ, reflect that perfection.

In the world we reflect the brokenness of sin and continue to do so.

As a little boy I was too young to even remember this incident. But my mother told it to me relating her shock and embarrassment.

I was probably 2 years old and with my mother at a store. While she was shopping a lady, she knew came over to talk with my mom and while they were visiting, she looked at me and asked, “What is your name little boy?” To which I quickly replied, “Damn it, Russell!”

My mom was mortified. I had obviously heard that a lot from her because I didn’t know my name apart from that phrase.

What we reflect in the world has consequences.

Now, not to have my mom take all the blame for bad judgment while teaching her child.

When my daughter Amy was 2 years old, Monica and I were taking her and our dog for a walk. As we walked near the Nature Center in our sub, I saw a squirrel. Knowing that our dog Tawney, would get excited and want to chase the squirrel, I pulled the dog to a stop and had Monica and Amy stop to distract the dog until the squirrel was out of sight. While we waited, Amy looked up and said, “Damn squirrel.”

I lived my mom’s grief.

I too had let the word of sin taint my life.

But, the word of sin and the world has been overcome in Christ!

Stanza 4

All that I am and love most dearly -
Receive it all, O Lord, from me.
Let me confess my faith sincerely
And help me your own child to be!
Let nothing that I am or own
Serve any will but yours alone.

5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Belief, is God’s work!

The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

That is how the Apostle Paul comforts his first readers of this epistle. And for we who many years later hear his same voice proclaimed through the Gospel promise by the Holy Spirit believe and have the same gift of comfort and peace now and always through the assurance of simple water and word connected, received, and revealed.

What a blessed comfort!

Martin Luther writes in his Lecturing on the First Epistle of St. John:

Thus the water cannot be proclaimed without the blood. Nor is the blood of Christ given without the water of Baptism. Besides, the blood and the water do not come to us except at the insistence of the Holy Spirit, who is in the Word. Therefore, those three cannot be separated, but the three do one thing …

For these three constantly accompany one another, and through the word a daily immersion and a perpetual baptism takes place, a perpetual shedding of the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, a continual cleansing of sins.

AE 30 pg 316 Lutheran Study Bible pg. 2180

We as God’s children and all God’s children who have been baptized have and receive God’s forgiveness and have salvation in his name.

We all fall short, sure – but the blood of Christ paid the price that overcame sin death and the devil and has opened the gates of heaven for we who believe. The waters of Holy Baptism, united with the word of God, washes away our sin and by the Holy Spirit we believe and have the assurance of God’s forgiveness now and into eternity.

The devil will continue to damn us. But God in Christ has rescued us from damnation to eternity.

Baptized into Your Name Most Holy! Remember that daily!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen.