Sermon December 10, 2025 Advent Midweek 2

Title: The Only Son from Heaven!
Text: Isaiah 35:10

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10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


In 1545, one year before his death, Martin Luther supervised the final hymnal published in his lifetime – titled Holy Songs. That hymnal had only 120 hymn texts, about twenty percent of the number of hymns we have available in our present hymnal.

Twenty-one years earlier, in 1524, Luther supervised the very first Lutheran hymnal, called the eight-song book which is a collection of eight hymns, four of which were Luther texts.

In twenty-one years, Lutheran’s went from eight hymns available to sing to 120 hymns.

Why such a big change? Luther and his friends emphasized hymn singing.

Why was such a strong emphasis placed on hymn singing?

Listen to what Luther wrote in the preface to Holy Songs, the last hymnal he supervised. Commenting on Psalm 96:1,

“O Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord all the earth,”

Luther writes:

“For God has cheered our hearts and minds through his dear son, whom he gave for us to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. He who believes this earnestly cannot be quiet about it. But he must gladly and willingly sing and speak about it so that others also may come and hear it.”

Because he who believes the gospel, is now led to gladly sing and speak about the gospel, demand for hymns increased.

Remember, when the Reformation began, few German hymns existed for Germans to sing. So, by preaching the gospel, Luther created demand for hymns, and by God’s grace, supply met demand. God raised up more people besides Luther to write new hymns. God raised up a hymn writer named Elizabeth Cruciger.

Born in 1500, Elizabeth had been a nun. She belonged to a convent in Pomerania (an area between Germany and Poland), along the southern part of the Baltic Sea.

Luther’s teaching started to spread, thanks to Luther’s friend John Brugenhagen and by the Holy Spirit’s work, Elizabeth heard and believed the gospel he preached and as a result she resolved to escape from the nunnery.

In 1520, she fled to Wittenberg and found refuge in the Brugenhagen home. Disowned by her parents for converting to Lutheranism, in 1524 she married a theology student named Casper. She and Casper became close friends of Martin and Katherine Luther, and could often be found around the Luther dinner table.

Because of their friendship a conversation took place around the time of the publication of the first 8 song hymnal.

The Luther’s were dining along with the Crucigers, talking about church life and the need for more German hymns. When 24-year-old Elizabeth announced that she has written a hymn. Luther asks to see the text and she showed him, and even gave him the German folk tune she wanted used when singing the text.

Well, Luther was thrilled with the hymn! But the first collection has just been published so he puts her hymn in the second edition, which was a collection of 26 hymns.

Elizabeth was one of five hymn writers who contributed to the hymnal along with Luther who wrote about 70% of the hymns. Yet, Elizabeth’s text … was included in the collection.

She was the first female Lutheran hymn writer and found her own hymn placed next to Luther’s.

Her hymn The Only Son from Heaven, is hymn #402 in Lutheran Service book, and it is common for hymnal editors to place this hymn in the Epiphany section. However, it has been found in hymnals included in the Advent section.

Since we are looking at seasonal hymns written in Luther’s lifetime – which can be a challenge in itself – and since there are few hymns to begin with, much less Advent, The Only Son from Heaven is an Advent hymn for our use today!

As we reflect on this hymn, we want to ask the question, “What does this hymn teach us about Jesus?

First, the hymn clearly teaches who Jesus is. He is the Father’s only son, the son whom ancient prophets foretold, the son who, in the fullness of time, was born of a virgin.

Second, the hymn teaches us what Jesus came to earth to do: to vanquish grim death for us and to open heaven before us. The gospel message is reinforced when we gather together to sing this hymn.

Singing of Jesus leads to a response:

Hearing the gospel, and believing the gospel, results in action.

Stanzas 1 and 2 teach us the gospel. They teach us about Jesus.

Stanza 3 is our response to the message.

It is a prayer.

Hearing about the only son who brings us life again prompts us to want to know and love him more. And so, we ask God to do something, to “awaken our spirit” so that we can indeed know and love him more.

We ask God to “awaken our spirit” so that we by faith in this Only Son can stand unshaken, despite the moving world of temptations and afflictions and changes and chances.

We ask God to use each glimpse of heaven to sustain us in faith until we enter that open heaven that Jesus has prepared for us, where we will reap the fullness of eternal life.

Commenting on Elizabeth one pastor describes her this way:

“Here was the soon forgotten wife and mother, who had been rescued from the nunnery of false belief and superstition, [here she was] writing of how her heart had been awakened to know and love her savior and Lord.

Now she was able to stand in that saving gospel with faith unshaken…

https://wwwcuchichago.edu/globalassets/documents/center-for-church-music/devotions/hymns-of-the-daydevotion-epiphany-2.pdf

While 500 years old, The Only Son from Heaven, is a relatively new hymn for us. The hymn wasn’t included in the older 1941 hymnal. It was included and reintroduced to the synod in the 1982 hymnal, -one here at Peace that we never adopted - appearing with Elizabeth’s first three stanzas and a newly fourth stanza, of Trinitarian praise.

These four stanzas were retained for our current hymnal, now eighteen years old.

And so, we sing it mindful of a young woman who lived during the first few years of the reformation, a woman to whom God gave the gift of faith in Christ, and the gift of confessing that faith through hymn writing.

We sing the hymn mindful that we poor sinners still plead for God to awaken our hearts, to use any glimpse of heaven, whether it’s the Lord’s Supper, absolution, or Holy Baptism.

We sing the hymn pleading for God to awaken our hearts not just to know and love him more but to sustain us with the hope of everlasting life as we travel to the eternal Promised Land.

We ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen

Sermon December 6-7, 2025 - 2nd Sunday in Advent

Title: Rejoice, the Savior comes!
Text: Romans 15:4-13

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8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”

10 And again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

Author, G.K. Chesterton writes:

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery; it is only when everything is hopeless - that hope is strength.

G.K. Chesterton, Signs of the Times, April 1993, p. 6. [edited]

And so it is in the story of self-made multi-millionaire Eugene Lang, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem [in 1981].

Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 61 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school [he was told]? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Hispanic children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.

"Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you."

At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student,

"I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling."

Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school and college and to good and high paying jobs.

Parade Magazine.

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Hope is strength – as has been said - when everything is hopeless.
In the former days Paul speaks of hope in the one to come.

The Old Testament reading in Isaiah points to this – this shoot from the stump of Jesse – a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Isaiah goes on to say:

2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

Jesus himself made this known in his hometown of Nazareth. As recounted in Luke Chapter 4 when he says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty [or to free] those who are oppressed,

Luke 4:18

With righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

Christmas can be a dark time for many. Hope in the holidays nonexistent.

It may be from a resent loss of a loved one or the remembrance of loved ones no longer around.

I was online this past weekend and, on my YouTube, page saw the link to my ordination video some 13 years ago. I clicked on the beginning of the service and the processional hymn “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” began.

As I watched I was taken by the faces of those no longer with us I saw …

Orville and Joan Kitzman near the isle,
Hilda Klein near the organ,
Donna Kyle, my friend from my former business sitting near the back of the church
My own dad Al Tkac, sitting up front
And Pastor Merrell who ordained me, along with many brother pastors.

Much has changed.

There of course were many more faces and I didn’t watch too much of the service … I felt a sense of sadness, and loss as we all do.

Brokenness in the family too can bring a sense of hopelessness for many.

We see on TV joyful faces on the Hallmark Channel movies around the Christmas tree, or at the family meal and know our lives are somewhat different than that – maybe not even happy or joyful at all.

Paul, in our epistle today, deals with trial and hope too. Trial – in that he was writing from prison, not a good place to be but, also a time for
hope.

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

Wonderful good news!

God is truthful and his promises are fulfilled as he would have so. Both to those who were given the promise, through the patriarchs and also we who are a far off might to have that hope.

Those early Christians that Paul is writing to new that they were in the midst of trial, both as Jew and Gentile, Christian and Roman, faithful and faithless, and aware of false teachers and the pressures to return to their old ways – back to Judaism and keeping the law, or back to the sinful brokenness of darkness that Paul touched in our lesson last week.

But just as the students in the 6th grade classroom were ready to turn off the old man about to address them - hope sprang forth from Eugene Lang’s words.

Something that they couldn’t have hoped for was now theirs!
So too Paul reminds his readers and us what had been written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”

10 And again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples extol [to praise highly and to glorify] him.”
12 And again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.”

Where is your hope placed?

For some it is in the hope that can fade away.

Is your hope in a happily ever after or a fairy tale?
Because, we all know that life doesn’t promise you or me that.
We are in this world though promised tribulation and we can all attest to that reality, can’t we?
Is it a broken promise, or a lost job, a failed marriage or a life of hope that has turned sadly to illness and doubt?

God though does promise a gift, a savior and a means to know him. He has come as a child to redeem that which was lost and he sends the Comforter – the Holy Spirit - to make this known for you.

This knowledge, comfort and hope is found where you might expect it to be … in God’s word. The scriptures that God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul and others to write is here for you in the words of Holy Scripture. But it too is sung in the wonderful hymns based on those writings.

It is proclaimed here for you to hear in readings and sermons based on these sacred texts and all by the working of the Holy Spirit is made to you who have been brought to faith in the root of Jesse which springs forth in our lives, understanding and faith.

Advent is hope because Advent points to Christ and in him when everything seems hopeless … he is our strength.

So the hope of Christ is yours in the blessed promise that the savior that comes has redeemed you and will be with you now and forever.

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

Sermon December 3, 2025 Advent Midweek 1

Title: Savior of the Nations, Come!
Text: Isaiah 25:9, Matthew 21:11

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9 It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.

Having recently celebrated the Reformation, the restoration of the gospel, and beginning of the Lutheran church on Reformation Sunday, it seemed to me a good time to celebrate Advent - in light of the new freedom of the gospel enjoyed through the lens of the hymns that that our church sung early in its life.

Savior of the Nation’s Come is the theme for our Advent midweek series this year. Over the next few midweek services, we will look at a few of the seasonal hymns that followed shortly after the reformation of the church, either written by Martin Luther, or brought into the church during Luther’s life time, and other important times in the life of our own church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Before we begin, I believe that it is good to remember why we, as Lutherans, sing hymns. Here is what Martin Luther once wrote in 1524:

“That singing hymns is good and acceptable to God is, I think, known to every Christian; for everyone is aware not only of the example of the prophets and kings in the Old Testament who praised God with song and sound, with poetry and psaltery, but also of the common and ancient custom of the Christian church to sing Psalms.

St Paul himself exhorted the Colossians to sing spiritual songs and Psalms heartily unto the Lord, so that God’s word and Christian doctrine might be instilled and implanted in many ways.

Therefore I, too, in order to make a start and to give an incentive to those who can do better, have with the help of others compiled several hymns, so that the holy Gospel which now by the grace of God has risen anew may be noised and spread abroad.”

Martin Luther 1524 (LW 53:315-316)

According to Luther, we sing hymns for two reasons:

First, to instill and implant God’s word and Christian doctrine, and second to spread abroad the gospel.
In other words, Luther viewed hymns as a way to teach the faith and to spread the word about Jesus.

In short, Luther’s purpose in writing hymns and editing hymnals was to “promote and popularize the Gospel.” And so, he wrote in 1545 near the end of his life, that Christians sang of Christ - “so that others, too, may come and hear.”

Christopher Boyd Brown, singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2005, pg 9-10

Christopher Boyd Brown in Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation, writes:

Because of these doctrinal and evangelistic focuses, it’s been observed that “when Luther and his successors placed German hymns in the hands and on the lips of the laity, they did so in the conviction that the people were brought into contact with the word of God, which was to be spread and applied not only through sermons preached by pastors, but through the hymns sung by the laity …

Through the hymns, God’s Word was applied to instruct, comfort and encourage, in the streets, in the churches and in the homes, both for those who could read and for those who could not … the Lutheran hymns conveyed doctrine (which is teaching) in a way intended to be not only understood by the people but also actively applied to them, to impart not only information but comfort.”

Brown 14-15

Knowing that Luther wrote hymns to teach about Jesus and to comfort Christians, we look tonight at hymn 332, Savior of the Nations Come.

You may have seen after the hymn on the bottom of the bulletin’s page, that this hymn didn’t originate with Luther.

Using the original Latin, Luther translated it into German. With the exception of stanza 5 which Luther did write; it was – not Luther – but a lawyer who wrote the entire hymn. A lawyer would come to be know as St. Ambrose.

Ambrose lived in the Fourth Century, a long time ago. He lived in the northern Italian town of Milan.

Not long after Ambrose moved to Milan, the bishop of Milan died. Since the bishop had favored false teachers, the Roman Church was concerned about who the next bishop should be. While a great crowd was debating what should be done, someone shouted out that Ambrose should be bishop.

At the time, Ambrose was a layman, not a priest. He wasn’t even baptized! But in December of 374, Ambrose was elected bishop of Milan. He was consecrated bishop just one week after he was baptized which is certainly not the normal practice of selecting bishops!

Ambrose oversaw a church that battled false teaching, the teaching that Jesus was not fully God and not coequal to the father, the same teaching that his predecessor seemed to favor. By God’s grace, Ambrose faithfully confessed the truth. Jesus is true God and true man!

Because Ambrose was interested in teaching the laity Christian doctrine, he combined his love of music and theology to write hymns that proclaimed Christian truths.

Savior of the Nations Come is one of the hymns Ambrose wrote to combat bad teaching. The hymn teaches the truth that Jesus is God, “God of God yet fully man.”

Now, about 1200 years later, Luther, like Ambrose, also wanted to teach the people Christian doctrine.

He wanted to teach his people the truth.

Luther, aware of Ambrose’s Latin hymn, translated it into German, so that the German people could sing it.

Luther probably translated this hymn and reconstructed its tune for Advent 1523, just six years after nailing the 95 theses to the castle church door. Several individuals also have then translated Luther’s German hymn into English so that we too can sing it today.

(see Peter Reske, The Hymns of Martin Luther CPH 2016)

When we sing Savior of the Nations Come, we should ask ourselves,

“What does this hymn teach us about Jesus?”

First it teaches us that Jesus is true God, that he is Divine.

This first teaching shouldn’t surprise us, given Ambrose’s context and bold confession of Jesus’ divinity. And so, we sing,

“Not by human flesh and blood, By the Spirit of our God was the Word of God made flesh – Woman’s offspring pure and fresh.”

Word of God is a divine title found in the beginning of John’s gospel in Chapter 1.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Stanzas 3 and 4 also confess Jesus’ divinity:

“Here a maid was found with child, yet remained a virgin mild. In her womb this truth was shown: God was there upon his throne.”

Mary’s womb was the divine and holy throne on God.

Her womb was God’s throne because life begins at conception, and by the Holy Spirit conceiving, the uncreated, infinite, and eternal God became flesh and truly dwelled inside Mary.

The second truth that the hymn teaches us about Jesus is that Jesus is King.

And so, we sing of thrones and halls.

Again, stanza 3, we sing of Mary’s womb serving as the throne of God.

To describe the incarnation, stanza 4: tells us that the Lord steps forth

“from his pure and kingly hall.”

With stanza 5, Luther writes, that we sing of Jesus leaving his source, the Father, but then eventually returning, at his Ascension, to “His throne and crown.”

In stanza 8, we sing of Jesus as our King.

He descended from Kings and is a King in his own right,

a King whose throne will last forever,
a king whose kingdom will never end,
a King who reigns with no golden throne and wears no diamond encrusted crown,
a King whose kingdom is not one of boundaries and custom agents, but is, instead:
a kingdom of human hearts where he rules and reigns by the Gospel and the Sacraments.

The third and final teaching we sing of when we sing Savior of the Nations, Come, is the comforting message that Jesus has won the victory over sin and death, and that he won this victory for all nations.

Stanza 6

“For you are the Father’s Son who in flesh the victory won”

The victory is that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary redeemed us, lost and condemned people, purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.

He purchased and won us by his “heroic course”: His life, holy and precious blood, and his innocent suffering and death, and a life restored in the resurrection.

Savior of the Nations, Come, is a wonderful hymn that teaches us that Jesus is God and King and that he gives us victory over sin and death.

In this way, the hymn helps us understand Christian doctrine (teaching) and also gives us the blessed Gospel comfort.

It’s for these reasons that we Christians continue to sing this wonderful hymn today.

So may we all find comfort in these gospel truths of this blessed hymn as so many others have over the centuries by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

During this Advent may we have our eyes focused on the Savior of the Nations, Come!

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

Amen

Sermon November 29-30, 2025 - Advent 1

Title: Are you ready?
Text: Matt 24:36-44

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36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Friday afternoon at 2 PM, What are you doing?

Imagine someone came to you exactly at that time and said,

“Stop what you're doing now!”
And you would say, “But I'm not done with this yet.”
The person would say, “Stop now!”
And you would say, “But it's only 2 o'clock. I have several hours to go after this afternoon.”
“Stop now!” says the figure and you would put down what you were doing and walk with the person and say,
“Will I be able to finish this later?”
“No!” comes the reply.
“You mean I won't be able to pick up where I left off?”
“But where are you taking me?”
“Is it a long way off?”
“But I had such great plans for the weekend.”
“Come along,” is the reply.
“Can I go just for a minute?”
“Just one little minute? “
“No,” come on.

I think you know who the person is, was, or could have been.

Our text for today recounts, some of our Lord's words. Towards the end of his ministry, he speaks of the end of the world and the need to be ready for it even as in the days of Noah.

When the normal course of life was going on and the flood suddenly came, so it'll be business as usual as our lives today.

When the trumpet sounds and all earthly life as we know it suddenly ceases to exist.

If we had known the hour, Christ says - we would have been ready.

But you don't know on what day your Lord's coming. He tells us, so we are to watch, to be ready, for the son of man is coming at an hour that you and I don't expect.

Let's consider this sobering thought this morning.
How can we be ready for Christ’s coming?

The Lord will come when it's business as usual. Waking, sleeping, working or play.

38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

None of the virgins in the chapter of Matthew following this were on the watch for the bridegroom, but some of them were prepared for his coming.

You can’t always be looking heavenward for the personal appearance of our Lord, but it is possible for you to be prepared and ready for his coming right now.

Are you prepared?
Is your soul ready for the coming of the son of man and when he appears?
What will the verdict of your life be?

Imagine 2 o'clock last Friday has come and gone. And you are now in the presence of God. What might be said about you 2 days after your passing?

The old line I’ve heard comes to mind,

“If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
What will others say about you, or me?

Are you ready?

40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

A Christian pastor is always to preach as a dying man to dying people.

Today you and I are baptized and redeemed Christians, and we're living in the grace, mercy, love, and care of God; for we are his children now, and not on the brink of falling into hell.

Nevertheless, our Lord’s sober words apply to us as they did to the people in Noah's day and our own day.

How then do we live with a proper spirit of preparation?
Always ready for his coming.
First, we should live in the present tense, each day for itself.
For most of us it is a fairly level road, but it could change dramatically tomorrow.
What will you do?
It may be a totally unexpected illness.
It may be calamity in your home or your life.

It may be loneliness or despair. The likes of which you have never experienced before in your life.
You may meet death itself.
Sickness, loneliness, desperation and the like are all inevitable.

What will you do? How will you get ready?

I submit your best preparation is to give attention to today. Trust in the very Lord who said these words of our text to you for every passing moment of your life.

That means most of you in life.

Prepare for the changes which will surely come, but to which you cannot foresee, and need not fear so you can see the little blessings of your life today.

Prepare for the big emergencies tomorrow. And the ordinary road you travel right now.

Luther said that if God told him there'd be a judgment day tomorrow, he would plant an apple tree today. That's the way to live in the present.

The son will rise only if our Lord lets it. But that being granted, when we are living in the Lord, and we can say that this day will never come again. Let's enjoy it. Let's live in it to its fullest

We see our life and preparation as being one. Not filled with fear in Christ’s coming but with hope for the scriptures say perfect love casts out fear.

The Christian does not live in anxiety for he knows his redemption is assured through Christ's work. And he lives in hope.

And the hope he lives in is the confidence and certainty of life in the Lord. And with this certainty, the Christian has an attitude towards life-and-death.

Quite unlike others around him.

Knowing we are going to die. We can live with a certain zeal and zest. Because we shall not pass this way again and we can approach life's daily task with a fantastic kind of satisfaction.

We live as those who must die but who know Christ will take care of us?

That is his promise!

The word and the devil wants you to cling to this broken life of sin and forsake your true home, but God in Christ has called you to faith to believe the Good News that your eternal home has been prepared in Christ and that you have that hope and peace.

Are you ready? This Advent season and always in Christ Jesus the answer is, “Yes, and Amen!”

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

Amen

Concordia pulpit 1978 Donald Deffner modified

Sermon November 22-23, 2025

Title: Thanksgiving is found in Christ’s forgiveness!
Text: Luke 23:27-43

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32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Martin Luther once gave a brief, simple, but expressive eulogy upon a pastor at Zwickau in 1522 named Nicholas Haussmann.

He said, "What we preach, he lived," - Martin Luther.

It is also fitting with end of the church year, that the end of sin and death also be proclaimed and heard in Christ’s cross of triumph.

For what we preach, Christ lived and died for!

The story of the cross is one of pain and suffering but also hope. As Jesus was led away following His trial towards his impending death,
32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

Luke 23:32-33

The cross of Christ is either death or life depending upon your perspective.

Take the two criminals for instance:

One rebukes Jesus saying:

“Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

The perspective of the first sees not the wages of sin and the death that sin brings. His call to Jesus is to save, not from the once and for all death that we all must endure, but his call is to save me from this temporal death now, that will at some point in the near future, for him, need to be paid again and in full.

No one will escape death in this life because sin has made sure of that. So, for thief number one, the cross of Jesus is a failure and of no great value for him because it leads only to death for Christ and Him.

Thief number two sees the cross of Christ through eyes of hope when he says:

“Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

Here he recognizes that the condemnation is right and just when he says:

41 for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

The mirror of the Law, written on his heart, has shown him that his deeds are indeed the result of sin and that he is being rightly condemned but in Christ he finds hope when he repents saying:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Today too, the cross reflects either death or hope for you and for all broken by sin in this corrupted world as well. The perspective of the cross from our sinful nature can only see the death that sin brings and a hopeless future bound to death like the bonds and ropes that bind all flesh to the wood of their own cross … void of hope.

Timothy George writes in “Giving Thanks in Hitler’s Reich” of the life and death of German pastor, Paul Schneider, who preached the Sunday before Thanksgiving 1937 a sermon on Psalm 145:15-21, which says:

15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The LORD preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

He began by acknowledging how (inconsistent or incompatible) it might seem to be giving thanks “in this year of our church’s hardship.”

Yet this is precisely what the psalmist calls us to do—to give thanks for the material blessings of harvest and home and also for the generous gifts of God in Word, sacrament, and worship.

Yet God’s Word does not come cheap, Schneider said:

“Confessing Jesus will carry a price. For his sake we will come into much distress and danger, much shame and persecution; Happy the man who does not turn aside from these consequences.”

He was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp and on July 18, 1939 and put to death for his proclamation of the word of the gospel.

But while there, this Preacher of Buchenwald as he was known, “Wholly and without fear … bore witness of his Christian faith. He called the devil by his name: murderer, adulterer, unrighteous, monster and throughout this witness … he presented the grace of Christ together with a call to repentance.”

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/11/giving-thanks-in-hitlers-reich/timothy-george
And just like thief number two who cried:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

True thanksgiving is only found in Christ’s forgiveness!

43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Paradise is not found in worldly wealth or in a place far away from trials and persecution.

But it is found in the bloody cross of the God/man himself, Jesus Christ, who willingly bore the sins of thief one and thief two on His cross placed between them.

And though one thief judged Jesus and his death as a failure, and proof that the filthy rags of his own righteousness were the same rags and covering that Jesus wore for all, the second thief saw through repentant eyes the one true hope and victory over sin, death and the power of the devil that Jesus is.

Dear friends, hope in Christ is not only a thing of the past.

It is not only a hope for those who witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus but it is the true and certain hope for you and for me too.

39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Acts 2:39

We live in the hope of the cross but also in the hope of the resurrection and of Christ’s future return in glory.

As our epistle for today comforts us:

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

As you gather together to celebrate the Lord’s blessing of family and friends this Thanksgiving, joy in the eternal thanksgiving of Christ redeeming grace!

He will gather his church on the day of His return, raising the dead in Christ first, and joining the physical body of his saints, incorruptible, forever, and forgiven in the blessed name of Jesus.

A truly happy and Blessed Thanksgiving indeed!

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

Amen

Sermon November 15-16, 2025

Title: The blessing and hope that is Jesus!
Text: Luke 21:5-28

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25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Abraham Lincoln wrote in proclamation for “A National Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer.” On March 30, 1863:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power. … But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

― Abraham Lincoln

5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Redemption requires destruction. Before something can be rebuilt it must first be destroyed. To make new again requires demolition.

As Jesus and his disciples walked through the temple, some of His disciples remarked in admiration on the Temple itself, on its various buildings, porticoes, halls, and chambers, and especially did they mention the beautiful stones, the huge marble monoliths, which formed the Corinthian columns, and the gifts that were consecrated to the Lord, the many articles of adornment which were so noticeable throughout the Temple.

P.E. Kretzmann popular commentary on the Bible Pg. 378

Jesus then tells them of the things to come:

8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.

Jesus warns His disciples that it is easy to be deceived into following false, messiahs and false gods.

The easiest false god to follow is self, and one’s own wisdom and reason.

To know the true God is to know His word and to follow His teachings only.

Jesus warns of wars, trials and persecutions when He says:

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

The coming end will not be a time of joy, and for God’s children there will be a time of persecution.

… they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

To speak the gospel to those who persecute you, Jesus says, is a time for witness. It is a time to proclaim the gospel. It is a time to stand for truth.

He will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict and promises that you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and that some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated, he says.

Jesus then tells them of the surrounding of Jerusalem by armies and the destruction that will come:
21 “… let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it,

22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

This will not be a good time:

For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.

24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Trial and persecution are coming. You see it, read about and know it firsthand.

To be a Christian means you will be an offense to many, as Christ was an offense and continues to be.

Today the persecution is not from a fringe group in society but from the government itself and those who control it.

Only a short while ago we remember Churches closed, pastors were fined and even imprisoned, and followers stayed home and stayed safe as we were commanded – we might call it a protective hiding.

Many saw it as for our own good or the good of another.
We did too … at first, here and at other churches.
Can greater persecution come to your country, your church and even your home too?

We already see the beginnings of it. Sin affects us all. The sin of others can and will affect you and me. How might we react if what seems good by others is pushed upon the church as well?

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

Apart from faith no one can come to God or call on him as a loving Father.

The cross of Christ is and will continue to be an offence.

By faith we know that in Christ, salvation is an objective fact and that the humanistic and rational thought of the day that says that all ways lead to the heaven or that no way leads to heaven - is false and must be denied.

The Blessed Hope for the Christian is in the one outside ourselves who came down from heaven Jesus Christ our Lord.

You do not need to ascend to God because he humbled himself and came down for you and he will return as he has promised

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

But then:

27 they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The fear of persecution is met with the joy of redemption.

The joy of eternal life found only in Christ. This is the joy that these believers knew awaited them and that they were not abandoned … but rescued in Christ.

In His death they too would find life … and find it abundantly.

The truth of trials is real but so is the rescue by Christ for all who believe.

Officiating at so many dear members funerals have brought this reality home literally for me. Here was death, close and personal, but so to the eternal hope that Christ gives to you and to me.

That in Him we all who believe will spend eternity together.

It is a comfort when you morn and it is a joy that will take away the tears of sadness because Christ has wiped them away and replaced them with the tears of joy in the resurrection;

in reunion in heaven one day; in a forever not covered in sin and death, and the devil will no longer have the power to accuse and condemn because he and death will be cast down to the pit of hell forever.

So, friends, let us hold to this wonderful verse from St. Titus 2:13

13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Titus 2:13 NIV

Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus!

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

Sermon November 8-9, 2025

Title: Raised and seated with Christ!
Text: Luke 20:27-40

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37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

In 1972, Laszlo Toth, a 33-year-old distraught Hungarian, walked into St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome with a hammer hidden under a raincoat over his arm. He climbed over a railing and began to smash the Pieta, a beautiful sculpture by Michelangelo of Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding the crucified Christ at the Vatican.

While the damage was great, shocking and heartbreaking to those who witnessed the attack the officials made every effort to as humanly possible restore the treasure.

The fall into sin brought separation between God and His creation.

You have been severely damaged, so much so that you are brought into this life dead in trespass and sin. So, what did God do, throw away his perfect creation and begin again?
No!

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

The Gospel reading for today tells a story of Jesus’ meeting with a group of Jewish leaders. If you remember from the lessons over the last two months about Jesus and His dealing with the Pharisees, Chief Priests and scribes.

Now, the group, the Sadducees, denied the resurrection and they also denied the existence of angles and didn’t accept the authority of any books of the Old Testament except the first 5 books, which were also called the books of Moses.

So, they came to Jesus with a question:

28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Well, there are a few clear truths here:

Seven husbands will surely bring about the death of any woman!

But, the Sadducees real objective was to put Jesus on the spot with this creative story as a means to dispel the truth and teaching of the resurrection.

But Jesus, as has been seen throughout these discussions with the Pharisees, Chief Priests, Scribes and now the Sadducees … has an answer for their trickery.

34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

Now this didn’t sit well with my wife when she first this verse.

“You mean I have to put up with him in this life for all these years and he’s not bound to our marriage in heaven?”

Well, Jesus then gives the Sadducees a bit of Moses from the book of Genesis in answer to their question:

27 So 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 and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen 1:27-28

God gave marriage for procreation (for children), to fill the earth … to be fruitful and multiply and Jesus continues his thought when He says:

36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are (all) sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

So rightly Jesus tells them that at the resurrection all who are God’s children will be in Heaven and will not be marrying or being fruitful and multiplying because all who are to be there will be there because of God’s choosing.

Now, their argument is not about marriage but about the resurrection.

So, the contention from Jesus hits them right between the eyes.

37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord … the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

Those even in our midst also deny God and his power and work.

How can an infant who is baptized believe?
How can Christ ascend to the right hand of God and still present in the sacrament?
How can God take on flesh and blood and be both divine and human?
How can God who is eternal die on a cross?
How, as the Sadducees ask, can the dead rise?

If you think of it this way; There’s life—the life we live right now, day by day.

Then we die, and there’s life after death—when the souls of those who believe in Jesus go to be with him, while their bodies are left behind.

Then there’s “life after life after death.” That’s the Last Day resurrection of the body when your body is reunited with your soul.

That’s what Jesus was talking about: The resurrection of the body. There’s still more to come. Life after death, communion with God will have a final day resurrection of the body.

The Sadducees said, “There’s no more.” Jesus said, “There is.”

Concordia pulpit illustration Vol. 23 pt 4 – Rev. Glenn A. Nielsen PhD. (Note: The phrase “life after life after death” comes from an interview with N. T. Wright conducted by Preaching Today at the 2008 National Pastors Conference.)

And the more that God gives … is not a fallen world filled with sickness and death and marriage - or divorce and remarriage - even seven husbands for goodness sake.

But a forever eternity with Him, as we who are the bride of Christ are set free from all that this broken and all that is corrupted in this sin filled life.

You dear friends are made new forever by the atoning blood of Christ!
Like the beautiful sculpture that had been damaged and broken in pieces in this life, breaking and corrupting its beauty … you too have been and will be fully restored to your created beauty, free from sin and death and the power of the devil by the one who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light raising you forever to be with him, Jesus Christ our Lord!

And 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