Sermon October 25-26, 2025 - Reformation

Title: The truth of the gospel is free!
Text: John 8:31-36

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34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Freedom is what we celebrate today!

The freedom of the Gospel message; and we continue together with the whole church of God around the world to proclaim that blessed truth to reach the lost and to strengthen the saved with this same blessed good news, that Martin Luther found in the word and what we celebrate today!

Jesus tells the believing Jews in our Gospel today who had been following Him that:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ.

One who is connected to God’s very words and who abides in them, is one who accepts and acts in accordance with the word of God. Though understandably in our sinful flesh and fallen condition.

In our Gospel reading for today Jesus tells the Jews and you and me as well:

32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

This freedom and liberty of the gospel is what Luther searched for and why he became a monk – thinking that being locked inside the walls of a monastery, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimages, and frequent confession and absolution would keep him away from sin and the power of the devil that plagued him.

Saying:

"If anyone could have gained heaven as a monk, then I would certainly have done so." He described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair.

Saying:

"I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul."

But later he found peace in the words of Romans 5:1 which reads:

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you felt closed in by the walls of sin?

Have you or have your loved ones fled or stayed away from the blessings and peace found only in Christ and his gifts given in word and sacrament?

Are you burdened by the Law and a slave to sin?

33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Martin Luther writes:

“Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend--it must transcend all comprehension.”

and continues:

Thus Abraham trusted himself to (God’s) knowledge, and cared not for his own, and thus he took the right road and came to his journey's end.

Behold, that end is the way of the cross.
You cannot find it yourself,
You must let (God) lead you as though you were a blind man.

It is not you, no man, (and) no living creature, but (Christ) Himself, who instructs you by word and Spirit in the way you should go.

Not the work which you choose,
Not the suffering you devise,

but the road which is contrary and against all that you choose or contrive or desire--that is the road you must take.

To that, (Christ) calls you and me saying you must be my disciple.”

― Martin Luther

The word saying in essence:

Hear me!
Listen to me!
Abide in me!
Follow me!
Be my disciple!

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The truth is we are all bound to sin and its cravings.

We desire to do the will of our sinful nature which is in opposition to God’s will and as a result you and I fall short daily.

The world says, “Deep down he is really a good person” - when the truth is: the deeper down we go the worse it gets.

The more you get to the core of who we are in our fallen human condition the more you see the sinfulness of man, broken and corrupted to the core, from the beginning by our first parents Adam and Eve.

But Jesus reminds His hearers:
To Listen to him! Saying:

35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The freedom for the sinner is found only in Jesus!
That was the joy that Luther found and what we celebrate in the Reformation.

In Christ, true freedom from sin is possible and true liberty for we who are bound with the chains of guilt and despair is broken.

Christ has set free those who could not free themselves by his own binding.

The binding of His flesh to the cross in your place
The shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of your sin
A death worthy of a criminal for you and I who are guilty, and the burial in a tomb - meant for another …

In Jesus’ case … Joseph of Arimathea, for it was his tomb where Jesus was laid.

But, that tomb, and that death … WAS meant for you and me!
Jesus took your place,
He took your cross,
He took your death,

And He took your tomb and He made them what you couldn't …
Life, freedom, liberty, salvation and forgiveness.

Salvation is all of God and not of man.
That is the message of the Reformation.

Luther restored the gospel truths about Christ and His merits that had been lost, once again shinning the light of the gospel on Christ’s work, for you!

Because Jesus came to live, suffer, die and rise again for you …
Because of Christ and His merits …
Because the Son has set you free … you are free indeed!

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with you now and forever.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon October 18-19, 2025

Title: Pray without ceasing
Text: Luke 18:1-8

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18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

If I asked the question: Is it easy to pray?

You might answer:

It’s easy to pray in the hour of need but hard in the hour of plenty.
It’s easy to pray in the hour of sickness but hard in the hour of health.
It’s easy to pray in the hour of distress but hard in the hour of peace.
It’s easy to pray in the hour of sadness but it is hard in the hour of joy.
It’s easy to pray in the hour of death but hard in the hour of life.

Prayer is not a switch we turn on in need and forget about at other times.
Prayer, is that talk with God which we need every single moment of our lives.

Jesus tells us this parable of the widow and the judge.

2 … “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

The parable is so simple. Yet the truth is profound. Jesus tells of a judge in a city who did not trust in God or did not even regard man.

He was a man who only cared for himself and not for the people.
He was a selfish man. He wanted to do his work the easiest way possible.

Jesus, also tells of another person in the city.

3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to this judge saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

She was a poor widow.
She had no one to defend her and her husband was dead.
She seemingly had no family or loved ones that cared.

If she was like the other widows of her day, she would have depended on others for her support. Now, this widow had a problem, someone had placed a suit against her. She needed someone to defend her against the accuser.

She went to the judge for help.
And she pleads with him, defend me against my accuser.
The judge looked at her, she was poor she had nothing to offer him.
What would be the use of doing it? So, he refused the widow.

However, she would not take no for an answer.

She continually pleaded with him and it bothered him.
He did not want to be bothered with her, yet she continually did.
He finally, had enough and agreed to help her.

It was not because of love and concern for the woman.
It was only because he thought more of himself and did not want to be bothered by her.

He truly did not regard the God who had given him out of love the power to help this widow.

He truly did not regard the widow whom he should have loved as himself yet, he helped her because of her continual pleading.

Jesus then applies this for his hearers and you and me saying:

6 … “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you; he will give justice to them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

The parable is so simple yet the truth is profound!

Notice the comparison that Christ is presenting to us.
The judge does not fear God or honor man.
The widow needs help and just keeps coming.

The widow in the parable is the Sinner.

That is, you and me, and she had nothing to offer to this unrighteous judge that would convince him to help her, but by her pleading, or prayers.

So too we sinners, before our God have nothing to offer him that should make him want to answer us and our prayers - we are sinners who have constantly disobeyed him and fallen short.

That should not make him want to hear us if we only pray in the hour of need or trouble or sickness or distress, instead of talking to him constantly, he could say to us:

“You think I am only good enough for you in the hour of need?
God away and don’t bother me!”

But he doesn’t do that; Why?

Because he is different than the unrighteous judge of the parable.

He is a God of love and mercy.
He is a God, who looks with compassion on all those who call on him.
He does not regard us according to our sins, but according to our faith in his son our Lord, Jesus Christ!
He says, call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and you shall glorify me.
He is the God who says to us even as sinners,

Keep on asking and it'll be given until you.
Keep knocking, and it'll be opened to you.

For he who asks will receive, and he who seeks will find, and to him who knocks the door will be opened unto him.

He's a God to defend us speedily as we pray.

Our wonderful God, whom we approach in the hour of need is such a marvelous God who reveals his concern for us that even while we were sinners, he died for you and me.

And just like the little children know we know too; Having made us his in the waters of Holy Baptism, he keeps us as his children through the hearing of his word and receiving his gifts.

He compels us to call on him:

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …

He wants us to be dependent on him.
He wants us to call on him constantly.
He wants us, to be in constant prayer.
He wants to bring us closer to him!

So as dear children we need to come to our dear father often.

We need to pray as if each moment is our last.

If we only pray in the hour of need or distress or sickness or trouble, then we are only using God like medicine, that we run to in a time of need.

But he's a God who continually wants to be,

Our father - today tomorrow, and forever.

He wants us to realize that we need him every moment of our lives for we do not know when the last day will come.

Jesus says it so clearly:
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Faith is the gift! Our hope in him is his work in us!

So, as his dear children, call on him at all times,

Not only in bad times, but in good times as well.
Not only in times of sickness, but in times of health.
Not only in the hour of sin, but also in the hour of forgiveness.
Not only in youth but also in old age.
Not only in life but in death.

God calls us to pray continually and not to be weary because he wants us as his child, to ask without ceasing, and to be found full of faith so that we may know he hears and will answer us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Concordia Pulpit Rev. Ralph F. Fischer 1976 Modified

Sermon October 11-12, 2025

Title: The word of God, lives! 

Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

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3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Two men had an argument. To settle the matter, they went to a judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge nodded in approval and said, "That's right, that's right."

On hearing this, the defendant jumped up and said, "Wait a second, judge, you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." So, the judge told the defendant to state his case. And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge said, "That's right, that's right."

When the clerk of court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge, they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and said, "That's right, that's right."

Roger von Oech, Ph.D., A Whack on the Side of the Head, Warner Books, 1983, p. 23.

Truth is Truth! "That's right, that's right."

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

In a recent poll, light is shed on the paradox of religion vs. morality, or God’s truth vs. our actions and how we live.

In the poll, 81% of the American people agree that:

"An individual should arrive at his or her own religious belief independent of any church or synagogue."

Believing that truth is determined apart from God’s word and teaching.

81%!

This interesting thought is key and can help maybe us understand the paradox that many - who claim to be Christians - are arriving at faith on their own terms, and these terms that make no demands … on behavior … or Christian values.

Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 98.

The apostle Paul tells Timothy and us:

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Truth - when it is God’s word - is Truth!

At times life and society tell us what truth is to be believed – whether marriage is between a man and a woman, or whether we can celebrate this gift from God in any way we choose. Whether even,

27… God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply Gen. 1:27-28a

These words were just proclaimed at the wedding of Bonnie and Dan Trylch.

Today even gender is no longer a physical determination of male and female but a psychological determination as many see fit - and society in its many forms and in many ways, has bought into that truth.

How someone sees themselves, or feels about themselves, becomes the determining truth or reality.

An interesting video that I saw on line has a white man of about 30 years of age and around 5’-8” in height on a college campus asking students what they would say if he told them that he is 6’-4” tall.

Most smile a bit and say: “Well who am I to disagree with your truth. If you see yourself as 6’-4” than I guess you are 6’-4”."

When he pushed it further and asked how they might react to him being 6’-4” and Chinese they smile and roll their eyes and say: “If that is your reality then who am I to argue against you?”

Finally, when he claimed to be a 6”-4” Chine woman, one student said: “Oh come on!”

You see, if you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then truth is determined by the reality of the individual. If we believe that the child in the womb is just a bunch of cells, then removing them is no different than removing a tumor that is benign or cancerous.

If you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then there are many paths to the Father as some claim, and Jesus is not the savior of the world and the only way to the father that he claimed to be.

If you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then you might be a pretty good person, from your perspective, and not dead in trespass and sin as Paul writes - the truth of our condition in Ephesians 2.

If you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then everlasting life is given to all, apart from faith in Christ, and the death of Jesus Christ was unnecessary and accomplished nothing.

If you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then the rich man from our lesson a few weeks ago was not in torment in hell, and he could have easily gone from death to life eternal just by changing his truth and reality.

If you don’t believe and trust God’s word: Then Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead and you are still dead in trespass and sin.

But truth is truth … when it is God’s word …

That is what Paul keeps telling young Pastor Timothy:

Preach the Word!

4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

As Christians we have the truth and we know this by God’s gift of faith alone.

Jesus prays for his disciples in his high priestly prayer of John 17 when he prays to the Father:

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world,

Dear friends we’re here for the duration.

but that you keep them from the evil one [from sin, death and the power of the devil]. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them [or keep them holy and set apart from the world] in the truth;

Your word is truth!

We are kept in the truth, as we gather together to hear the truth of God’s word, as we receive the gift of forgiveness of sins in our Lord’s word and sacraments and then we go forth joyfully with that same word of comfort and peace to seek those who remain dead in trespass and sin.

For St. Timothy and for you and me, the road remains the same as Paul reminds him:

3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths

or lies of the evil one as the time now shows.

5 As for you, as it was for Timothy, always be sober-minded,

Clear headed and knowing that the truth of the word, is truth

endure suffering,

that is the reality for all who believe
do the work of an evangelist,

preach the word and comfort those in need the truth you have been comforted with …

fulfill your ministry.

That is the work dear friends!

Truth is Truth! "That's right, that's right."

We have been blessed by faith in God’s truth, may we all by that same faith, be steadfast in receiving God word always as truth now and always.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon October 4-5, 2025

Title: Repentance and forgiveness are yours!

Text: Luke 17:1-10

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3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”