St. Matthew Lutheran Church

Second Sunday of Lent, 2024
 
Sermon Theme: Perhaps more than we grasp, “Christ died for the ungodly” is a profound reality.  
 
Text: Romans 5:1–11 
 
Other Lessons: Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16; Psalm 22:23–31; Mark 8:27–38  
 
Goal: That you are moved to a deeper appreciation of Christ’s reconciling death and therefore to a richer sense of peace and hope, even in the face of suffering. Rev. David L. Adler, Pastor Emeritus, Elkhart, Texas 

AT THE RIGHT TIME CHRIST DIED FOR “THE UNGODLY” 

That’s a magnificent statement, isn’t it? The devil, the world, and our sinful nature are all behind the sin of indifference toward Christ’s Passion, suffering, dying, and rising. But God’s Word is more powerful than those enemies, and in his Word today, God through Paul rouses us with a most rousing declaration of what that familiar yet magnificent truth means for us. Paul shows us that Perhaps More than We Grasp, “Christ Died for the Ungodly” Is a Profound Reality. That’s true, first of all, because we probably forget how much we needed Jesus to do this. “Christ died for the ungodly” is profound, first, because we don’t even want to understand how ungodly we were. In today’s Gospel, Jesus clearly taught his disciples that he must suffer, be rejected by the Jewish leaders, be killed, and after three days rise again. Peter’s response? He wanted nothing to do with such a mission and took Jesus aside to rebuke him. The very idea! Why would this be necessary?   Indeed, there’s a wholesale dismissing of sin in our culture. Already in the late 1970s, famed American psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book called Whatever Became of Sin? Good question. Maybe in the contemporary mind school shootings still make the list, but abortion, homosexuality, divorce, sex change—certainly not. Yet the divinely-inspired apostle Paul writes in our text, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Ungodly! Without God! Paul even says in verse 10, “enemies” of God! Opposed to God! Would kill God, wipe him off our slate, if we could. And don’t overlook the word “we.” We were still weak, ungodly, sinners, enemies. Maybe we’re right on all those major social issues—abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism. Still, surely more than we want to grasp, sin lurks in each of our hearts. We were conceived ungodly, and that wickedness continues in our sinful nature. God does know all of it. By nature, that was you. And you have to face it, because the sinful nature lingers still. Yet Christ died for you, Ungodly. Second, “Christ died for the ungodly” is profound because the death of the Christ for us is far beyond anything we can comprehend. Paul writes, “One will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (vv 7–8). All we are able to bring to the table is weakness, ungodliness, and sinfulness. Sin is a horribly messy business, and understanding that is crucial to seeing how profound is God’s dealing with us. And consider this: It was the Christ who died for us, the ungodly. The sinless Son of God. The one who is all-glorious needs nothing from anyone. Didn’t need you! But nevertheless made us—perfect—because he wanted to be with us and us with him. Who loved us from eternity. And then he’s the one we ignore, insult, try to hide from. What kind of reaction does that get from your boss, your friends, even from those people who love you? This expresses Christ’s substitutionary death for sinners. He carried all of your sin and the sin of all humankind in his body at the cross. He is your substitute—the innocent for the guilty. There he suffered in anguish and died in your place to satisfy God’s wrath for your sins. And that, together with his resurrection from the dead, not only insures victory over sin, Satan, and death, but forgiveness, life, and salvation also are now available through faith in him. Ponder that!  Third, “Christ died for the ungodly” is profound because it creates a new relationship that we don’t fully appreciate. Christ’s dying was all to reestablish that broken relationship. Because God does not want to condemn us, he calls and enables us to repent. The Holy Spirit leads us to have sorrow for our rebellion against the Lord of heaven and earth and to believe “that sin has been forgiven and grace has been obtained through Christ” (AC XII 3–6, Tappert, German). Justification and reconciliation are the means by which God brings us into fellowship with himself, with Jesus, and with the Spirit. Christ is present in our lives by his Word and Sacrament. He is present in his Word in all its forms. He is present in his Word in the Holy Scriptures—read, spoken, and expounded, here among us. He is present in his Word connected to the water of Holy Baptism, which brings us into the kingdom of God, creates faith, and, as for Abraham and Sarah in the Old Testament Reading, gives us a divine calling. He is present in his Word of Holy Absolution, which comforts us and releases us from despair. He is present in his Word, which make the elements of bread and wine the Sacrament of the Holy Supper, which nourishes us with his true body and his true blood given and shed for us. The crucified and risen Jesus is with us in every joy and sorrow, every gain and loss, every healing and illness, every triumph and temptation! Do we always fully appreciate this new relationship established when Christ died for the ungodly?                                                             

Finally, “Christ died for the ungodly” is profound because it enables us to rejoice in something we do understand all too well: sufferings.  “Hope” is the key word. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (vv 3–5).  Hope flows out of our dependence on God’s grace. And this hope sustains us in difficult times because its object is the glory of God, regardless of our circumstances. And it is real hope, not hype. It is certain because Christ died for the ungodly. He loves us that much. And since his death has reconciled us to God, reestablished that relationship of peace with God, it is certain that he will be with us even in these most difficult circumstances. This, then, is how and why we can rejoice in our sufferings! 

Paul powerfully and perfectly exclaims: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18). To be ours for eternity because Christ died for you, for me, the ungodly.  
 
Amen. 

First Sunday In Lent 
February 18, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser

Text: Mark 1:9–15 Other Lessons: Genesis 22:1–18; Psalm 25:1–10; James 1:12–18

Goal: That you are equipped by the word of Jesus’ saving work, begun at his Baptism and temptation, to resist the devil, confidently saying, “Get behind me, Satan. I’m baptized!” Thoughts from CPR by W. Mart Thompson, Associate Professor, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

Sermon:

When you experience temptation, say, “Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!” The devil tempts us to set our mind on the things of man and not God. He tempts us to sin, to despair, to doubt God’s love and mercy. It’s a battle we face all the time from a hidden enemy. It’s why the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation. ”Get Behind Me, Satan! I’m Baptized!” is not a mere mantra. It is a confession of faith in the very work of Jesus, who defeated the devil. So how can we be so confident in saying this?

Mark, in his account of Jesus’ temptation, closely connects Jesus’ Baptism with his temptation. He writes that after his Baptism, the Spirit immediately hurled Jesus into the wilderness, where Satan tempted him for forty days. The word “immediately” connects these two events.

Here’s what happened: Jesus’ earthly ministry began as he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. It was a Baptism for sinners. That is important, as we’ll see. When Jesus came out of the water, an amazing cosmic event took place. Mark writes that Jesus saw the heavens “torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove” (v 10). As Jesus sees this, he hears God the Father say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (v 11).

The Father says this because Jesus has set in motion his messianic work to save sinners. He is baptized with the sinners’ Baptism. He has come to be joined to our sinful condition. This pleased the Father. The Holy Spirit is also intimately involved as he now descends upon Jesus, anointing him for his messianic mission.

Jesus’ Baptism, therefore, was a huge inaugural event. The Baptism of our Lord is a very significant part of God’s plan of salvation. Jesus insisted on being baptized with sinners, and the Father commends and the Holy Spirit anoints him for it. The fulfillment of the messianic covenant, made long ago by Jeremiah and other prophets, is now being fulfilled!

If Jesus’ Baptism was the announcement that the Messiah had come to fulfill the covenant God made to save sinners, then Jesus being hurled into the desert was a declaration of war against Satan and the forces of evil. Yes, God had come to take on and defeat the devil!

Once a declaration of war is issued, it is going to happen. You’re committed! In the United States, it takes a two-thirds vote of Congress to declare war against an enemy. In the battle against sin and evil, there’s unanimous consent of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—at the Baptism of Jesus. The evil enemy will be attacked. The Holy Spirit immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness to take on the devil. But it is a very strange battle plan. Mark’s account simply says that out in the wild Satan was tempting Jesus for forty days. Imagine what a spiritually immature Peter might have said. Perhaps something like, “Come on, God. Knock this guy out! Don’t put up with this. He’s no match for you!”

Yet Jesus suffers Satan’s temptations for forty days. Why did he do this? It’s God’s plan to save sinners. Jesus must suffer temptation with and for us. He does this for forty days. He’s the promised Messiah who took the place of Israel, which fell into sin and unbelief. Jesus never yielded. He never fell to temptation. He trusted that God would provide for him. The writer to the Hebrews says he was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15 NIV).

After the forty days, however, the devil didn’t stop. Luke writes that the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Lk 4:13). He would hide his attacks. He would come at Jesus as he did through Peter during his earthly ministry. As he did at the cross, when hecklers taunted, “Save yourself, and come down from the cross!” (Mk 15:30). All were still Satan’s attacks, his temptations to abandon the mission to save sinful humankind.

That final attack on Jesus was at the cross, where the war had its crucial battle. There, Jesus’ Baptism would reach its fulfillment (cf Mk 10:39). When Jesus says, “It is finished” and breathes his last (Jn 19:30), the battle is over; the war is won. He descends into hell, as Paul writes, to make “a public spectacle of [Satan and his evil angels], triumphing over them by the cross” (Col 2:15 NIV). After the triumphal procession in hell, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. His resurrection announced to the world God’s victory over sin, death, and, yes, the devil!

“Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!” is not a mere mantra. It’s a confession of faith that Jesus defeated the devil. A Christian can confidently say this because Baptism gives the promise of that victory to you. The Baptism of Jesus resulted in the defeat of Satan. Your Baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection promises that same for you (cf Rom 6:3–4).

This is why telling Satan to get lost, that you are baptized, is a good strategy. You need such a strategy because the devil, though defeated, is still on the prowl. When an enemy is defeated in war, the leaders of the defeated country are to meet with the victor to acknowledge defeat and ask for terms of peace. However, the devil remains the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44) and acts as if he isn’t defeated—even though God has declared it so. For now, God allows this. So Satan still goes about prowling and seeking whom he may devour with his temptations, accusations, and lies.

But when he tempts you to doubt that Jesus completely paid for all of your sin, say, “Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!”

When the devil tempts you to despair, thinking life is hopeless, when he tempts you to indulge your sinful nature, say, “Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!”

And, when you fall and he accuses you of guilt before God, say, “Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!”

Therefore, when you face any of these attacks, you can confidently say, “Get behind me, Satan! I’m baptized!”

Now, though, a time is coming when you’ll no longer need such a strategy. Jesus has promised to rend the heavens again and come down a second time. When that happens, the devil will no longer be on the prowl. He will be cast from the earth and “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:14).

Until that time, you and I do well, in the face of Satan’s temptations, to look to the promise of Jesus’ victory in our Baptism and say, “Get behind me, Satan! I am baptized!” Amen.

Ash Wednesday
February 14, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser

Text: John 18:1–11

Sermon:

This Lenten season, we will give close consideration to the Passion of our Lord Jesus from the Gospel of John. We will hear John 18–19, Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, Jesus facing Annas and Caiaphas, Jesus before Pilate, Jesus delivered, Jesus crucified, and Jesus’ death and burial. We’ll especially consider the divine majesty and glory of Jesus that’s hidden under his suffering and death. We pray that God the Holy Spirit would, by this meditation, imprint the image of Christ crucified in our minds and hearts and on our consciences.

Tonight, we are in the garden. The Passion begins and ends in gardens, different gardens. Tomorrow night Jesus will be brought to a garden on the other side of Jerusalem with a new tomb, but now Jesus and his disciples are in the Garden of Gethsemane, an olive grove on the west-facing slope of the Mount of Olives, just east of the city.

Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet. He has instituted the Supper and fed them his body and blood for the forgiveness of their sins. He prayed for the disciples and warned them of all the things about to happen. When all this is finished, the disciples leave the Upper Room and travel east out of Jerusalem, down through the Kidron Valley, and into the garden. Jesus asks the disciples to pray with him, but they sleep while his agony begins. “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will. Your will be done.” Three times he prays with sweat like great drops of blood. The Father’s answer is clear: there is no other way. Jesus will drink this cup of suffering, this cup of God’s anger over sin. The angels comfort him. He rises from prayer and goes to find the eleven disciples.

Judas, who had left earlier and had arranged the betrayal, now comes to the place with soldiers and officials from the Sanhedrin. He indicates to his band which man to arrest by greeting him with a kiss, and then Jesus addresses these soldiers. We’ll pay particular attention to this conversation.

It has often been noted that John gives us seven “I Am” statements from Jesus: “I am the bread of life” (6:35); “I am the light of the world” (8:12); “I am the door” (10:7); “I am the good shepherd” (10:11, 14); “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6); and “I am the true vine” (15:1). These are key to understanding the Gospel of John and to understanding who Jesus is and what he has come to do. Very importantly, they remind us of the conversation Moses had with the Lord in the burning bush: “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14). Jesus is the Lord, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.                                                                                What’s sometimes missed is the number of other times in John’s Gospel when Jesus says, “I am.” Not “I am something”—“I am the door” or “the way”—but simply “I am.” This gets hidden in our English versions, which will translate it, “I am he,” to make more sense. But this misses the significance. Jesus is claiming to be God. “Before Abraham was, I am” (8:58). “Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I Am” (13:19, author’s translation).

Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is about to say this again, twice. And two very different things happen. This is amazing.                                                                               The soldiers come to Jesus. “Whom do you seek?” Jesus asks. “Jesus of Nazareth,” they declare. Jesus says (ready for it?): “I Am” (vv 4–5, author’s translation).

With that word, Jesus reveals the truth of who he is, and he demonstrates the power of his divine majesty. That word knocks them over. At that word, all the soldiers “drew back and fell to the ground” (v 6). It’s like they’re hit by a tornado: lanterns drop, swords and spears fly, men falling all over one another in a cloud of dust. This is a miracle, a wonder, a sign. One little word, and they are like bowling pins.

But they are not destroyed. They stand up, dust themselves off, pick up their spears. A little dazed, they look at Jesus, who again asks, “Whom do you seek?” Perhaps they’re a little more tentative this time. They look at each other; no one wants to say it. They grit their teeth and grasp their swords and plant their feet: “Jesus of Nazareth” (v 7). And Jesus says it again, “I told you, I Am” (v 8, author’s translation).

And nothing happens. No one falls over. No one teeters. The first “I Am” sent them flying. The second “I Am” doesn’t move them at all.

The first “I Am” shows that Jesus is God in the flesh. The second “I Am” shows that Jesus is not using his power to protect and serve himself. The first “I Am” demonstrates that Jesus could avoid the cross. The second “I Am” shows that he won’t, that he is willingly and quietly led like a sheep to be slaughtered. The first “I Am” is a miracle of God’s power. The second “I Am” is the miracle of God’s weakness, and this is the greater miracle . . . and the greater wonder . . . and the greater gift.

The Creator of the universe, the One who spoke, and the sun and moon and stars jumped to their place, is here in the garden. The One who spoke and all that existed came to be is about to be arrested. This One speaks, and the band of soldiers is repelled and knocked over, and he is safe. This is no surprise. But then, this One speaks again, and nothing happens. The soldiers are still standing. They approach Jesus. Nothing happens. They touch him. Nothing happens.

 They grab him and bind him. Nothing happens. They lead him away to Annas, to Caiaphas. They strike him in the face, spit on him, pull out his beard, strip him, whip him, drag him to Golgotha. Nothing happens. They crucify him, and there is no resistance, no fighting back, no knocking them over with a word. It is all weakness and suffering. And this is all for you.                                            

Behold this miracle of weakness! Behold this wonder of humility! Behold the suffering of God for sinners, for you! This, after all, is why Jesus came, why God took up our flesh and blood, so that there’s a back to whip and a brow to crown and hands and feet for the nails and blood to spill, to carry our sin and sorrow, and be the King of our salvation. Jesus Shows His Love for Us in the I Am That Doesn’t Knock the Soldiers Over. So, dear saints, whom do you seek tonight? Jesus of Nazareth, we ask, are you the Savior? He says to you, “I Am.”

Jesus, are you a friend of sinners? “I Am.”

Jesus, are you our light and hope? “I Am.”

Jesus, are you for me? “I Am.”

In that promise, we stand. Amen.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 11, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser

Text: Exodus 34:29–35 Other Lessons: 2 Kings 2:1–12 (alternate); Psalm 50:1–6; 2 Corinthians 3:12–13 (14–18); 4:1–6; Mark 9:2–9

Sermon Theme: Jesus lights up our lives.

Goal: That you are assured that Christ’s light will prevail over darkness in your lives. Rev. Robert A. Dargatz, Sermon.

Jesus is “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12)! In him we see both God and ourselves as we really are, for the Lord Jesus is both the light and the truth (Jn 14:6). Today, Transfiguration Sunday, we see this illustrated in a most dramatic way! We see in shining glory how

Jesus Lights Up Our Lives.

Light and truth tend to go together, as do the opposing concepts of darkness, deceit, and peril. All of us are aware of the problem of darkness. Most of us have stumbled in the dark and have a healthy and proper fear of the darkness—especially in unfamiliar situations and environments where danger can be anticipated. Scripture speaks of spiritual light and darkness and warns us: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4).

Ironically, we can also be blinded by light. Television commercials try to sell us special visors and glasses that filter out the blinding glare that renders our sight useless in averting danger. The appointed Old Testament Reading for this Transfiguration Day deals with both of these conditions on the opposite sides of the spectrum—blinding and giving vision. Our text takes place almost a millennium-and-a-half before Jesus’ transfiguration. Was he lighting up the lives of God’s people already way back then?

God is omnipresent, that is, present everywhere. David affirms this in Psalm 139. Today’s Old Testament Reading recounts how Moses was given the privilege to come into the special presence of God and how it caused his face to radiate with a special bright light as a result of that encounter. Moses has been up on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments—for a second time, by the way, since earlier he shattered the two tablets of stone when he saw Israel shattering the commandments themselves by worshiping the golden calf. Moses has been face to face with God, and now, for the children of Israel, even this reflection of God’s glory on Moses’ face was more than they could look at with steadfastness. It might be likened to driving with the intense light of the rising or setting sun in one’s eyes.

So Moses put on a covering or veil to shield the people from the brightness . . . and also so that their appreciation of the God-given authority with which he spoke would not falter when the glow on his face would lose some of its luster over time, until it was “recharged” by another intimate meeting with God. In this and the other encounters mentioned beforehand, God is hidden and revealed at one and the same time. The light shines, but God must veil his glory so that the people not be blinded.

No human can look at God in the fullness of his glory. Thus God uses what Luther called “masks” to shield sin-ridden humans from his unapproachable light. They give us glimpses of what we can understand about God but hide that which is too profound for us to take in.

The Old Testament constantly points forward to the fulfillment of God’s great plan of salvation in the promised Messiah. While the picture of God’s plan of salvation is most clearly seen in its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus, God’s gracious and redemptive work is already there to behold in the Old Testament sacrifices and prophecies of God’s spokesmen. Salvation has always been the work of our gracious God and fulfilled only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moses wrote that God would not abandon his created people to be taken over by Satan and his evil angels, but that he would raise up a “seed of woman” (cf Gen 3:15) to overcome Satan (identified in Rev 12:9). That “seed of woman” was none other than our Lord Jesus, born of the virgin Mary.

So while it often seems that the Old Testament covenant was primarily a promise that God would grant his people blessings as a nation in this life if they lived under his Lordship, that covenant was actually already shining brightly the light of God’s eternal grace and love in Christ. Old Testament believers already had faith that God would raise them from the dead (Heb 11:17–19). Job, who belonged to the time of the patriarchs, beautifully expressed that faith that God would raise him from the dead when he declared familiar words, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25–27).

Of course, the reason this Old Testament Reading was chosen for Transfiguration Day is that Moses makes an appearance with Jesus in today’s Gospel. And here, in Jesus and his transfiguration, the light of God’s grace and love was shining even more brightly than it had through Moses.

Jesus knew what awaited him as he made his way to Jerusalem for the final time. He knew that it would jolt the disciples whom he had prepared for three years to broadcast the Gospel throughout the world. So he gave three of those disciples—Peter, James, and John—a revelation of himself that was unforgettable and spectacular. There, on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’ appearance was suddenly altered—bright, shining white, “as no one on earth could bleach them,” Mark says (Mk 9:3). And standing with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. How the three disciples came to recognize Moses and Elijah is not explained in the biblical account, but to have such spiritual hall of famers support Jesus’ claim to be the one and only prophesied Messiah cannot be dismissed as anything less than stupendous. The glorious light that emanated from Jesus’ body and even his attire was absolutely remarkable.

People often struggle with what Luther called the “Theology of the Cross.” We naturally would prefer a painless “Theology of Glory.” Although Jesus explicitly told his disciples about the betrayal, persecution, and death that awaited him in Jerusalem, the disciples did not process that until after his resurrection. The three undoubtably told the rest of their colleagues about the transfiguration of Jesus they had witnessed, and in God’s perfect time they departed from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the known world—and turned it upside down.

Sometimes our light burns brightest to those around us when we encounter and endure hardship and challenges. But certainly the light of God’s grace and love will shine brightest of all when Jesus inaugurates his eternal kingdom.

The Fith Sunday After the Epiphany
February 4, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser

Text: 1 Corinthians 9:16–27 Other Lessons: Isaiah 40:21–31; Psalm 147:1–11; Mark 1:29–39

Sermon Theme: You are free in Jesus.

Goal: That you would be set free from the slavery of an identity outside of Christ. Based on a sermon from CPR by Rev. Benjamin O. Maton, Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Charlottesville, Virginia

Folks of a certain age may be familiar with a 1985 movie called The Breakfast Club. The whole movie takes place in one day, specifically, March 24, 1984, when five students from Shermer High School have to report at 7:00 a.m.—hence Breakfast Club—on a Saturday for all-day detention. A voice-over at the beginning describes the five as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” That’s what makes the movie so good—that these five students are so different. If it weren’t for detention, the quintet would never be in the same room, let alone speak to one another. What makes the movie so profound—profound enough to serve as a sermon illustration!—is that they not only talk but also joke, argue, laugh, cry, and become great friends. So, question: Why did that not happen before?

If you’ve been to high school (and in one sense I’m not sure we ever truly get out), you know the answer. Because when your identity, your who-you-are, is a brain or an athlete or a basket case or a princess or a criminal, you hang out with the brains or the athletes or the basket cases or the princesses or the criminals—because if you don’t, if you fail to live up to the expectations of those groups, those tribes, those cliques, then you risk getting the boot, having no identity at all, and eating your cafeteria Tater Tots all by yourself. So what happened with the Breakfast Club? Well, they got a new identity, specifically one as detainees, a new common identity that trumped all those others and freed them, in this case, to be friends. Freed just the way Paul was, and we are . . . kind of.

Imagine a pre-Damascus-road Paul as a student at “Shermer High School” (a metaphor for a world in which we’re enslaved to one identity or another). What’s his group/tribe/clique? A Jew? A Pharisee? Top of his class? Zealous enforcer? (See Phil 3:4–6; 2 Cor 11:22–29.)

Before Jesus met him on the way to Damascus, these are what Saul just was, what drove his every action and interaction, and without which there was no Saul.   Imagine yourself at “Shermer High School.” What’s your group/tribe/clique? Perhaps try some diagnostic questions to help identify the tribe from which you get your “who am I?” Whose approval do you need or crave?

Whose disapproval would crush you?     Whom would you most like to see fail (and there are some!)? If you’re exhausted right now, is it because you feel you can’t keep up? And, if so, with whom are you trying to keep up? Why do you live where you live? It is hard to see and admit (confess!) how we get enslaved to the expectations of the brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, criminals, and so on—but we do! Often those who most deny it are most enslaved.

Since I am free from all . . . (v 19).           “Since” may be a better rendering than “though.” At the very least, “though” should include a “since.” What happened to Paul so that he could recognize his earlier life as Jew/top-notch-Pharisee/enforcer to be slavery to the group/tribe/expectations? Jesus! Jesus happened to him. Jesus transformed Saul! Jesus showed up and gave him a new identity! The risen Jesus gave him a sure identity, surer than death! The gracious Jesus gave him an identity he didn’t have to prove/earn/virtue signal again and again! The forgiving Jesus gave him an identity he can’t mess up! (My-Everyday-Struggle with-Sin) Is-Annihilated by Him) MESSIAH Priceless treasure Jesus gave him an identity that made all the other stuff pulling his strings and that he’d thought was so important look like a pile of rubbish (Phil 3:8).

Just like you! All the same is true of you! Who are you? A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal? No—at least not first, and definitely not only! Your name tag reads Baptized Child of God! Eternally beloved! Fully forgiven! Then, March 26, 1984, for Paul—and you.

While in detention at Shermer High, each of the five was supposed to be writing a thousand-word essay answering the question: “Who do you think you are?”        While they don’t get around to writing until the end—actually “the brain” writes one essay on behalf of all five—the point is that by 4:00 p.m., March 24, the detainees were not who they thought they were at 7:00 a.m.

A question that goes left unanswered in the movie is what happened on Monday, March 26, when the brain, athlete, basket case, princess, and criminal went back to Shermer High. Did the common identity forged on March 24 stand, or do they go back to the “slavery” of the cliques? By the time Paul wrote his well-over-a-thousand-word essay to the Corinthians, he knew very well who he was and to what he was or wasn’t beholden.

Paul doesn’t have to live up to the Corinthians’ expectations for him (as one of the strong ones). The now-believing-in-Jesus Paul has a new identity. In Jesus, Paul is free. Since he is free from all the enslaving identities/expectations, he is free to, well, do what comes naturally to the new identity! Gripped and captivated by the gracious call of Jesus, secure in an identity that cannot be taken away, he does what he cannot help but do: namely, preaching the Gospel by which enslaved sinners are set free. With no one left to impress, Paul is free to “become all things to all people” (v 22).

So now it’s your March 26, 1984. You Are Free in Jesus.        What are you—Child of God—now free to do? Your calling is probably different from Paul’s, but your identity is the same. You’re possessed by Jesus. You are a member of the Body of Christ. If you can stand the hokeyness, welcome to the Jesus Club! So, Child of God, what are you now free to do? A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Whoever you are, you’ve been transformed by Jesus. He’s marked you as his own. There’s no one to impress. Just people to love. Amen.

The Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
January 28, 2024
Pastor Tim Weiser

Text: Deuteronomy 18:15–20 
Other Lessons: Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1–13; Mark 1:21–28

Sermon Theme: The Lord our God has raised up a prophet like Moses to whom we shall listen 

Goal: That you believe in your hearts that Jesus is the final prophet to be raised up—on the cross and from the grave—for forgiveness of sins, that you recognize the danger of so many other prophets you might hear, and that you then have confidence that God speaks to you as a gentle, loving Father in Christ. From CPR 2015 by Rev. Timothy P. Halboth, Sermon: To whom should we listen? 

These days it seems everybody’s putting something in our ear—politicians, pastors, teachers, bosses or foremen or team leaders. Half of it we don’t believe, and the other half, well, we’re a little wary. Chances are we ought to be. Problem is, most people are just telling us what they think we ought to hear.

In our text today, Moses, the man God has used for the last forty years to pass along his words to the people of Israel, is about to leave, to die. So, the frightening question is to whom should they listen now? Would the Word of God that’s been so faithfully passed on to Moses and then by Moses still be passed along faithfully to future generations, even ours? To whom should we listen? 

In our text, God gives us his answer. Christians, take heart! The Lord Our God Has Raised Up a Prophet like Moses to Whom We Shall Listen. 

As with Moses, we must listen to this Prophet. As Moses warned, there are plenty of false prophets to whom we might listen. Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, where the inhabitants promised anything but a faithful word from the Lord (vv 9–14a). Fortune-telling, divination, consulting the dead—these were all ways of seeking a word from the gods to get advantage in life. And all of these God says are an abomination—right up there with child sacrifice. Among us, it could also be fortune tellers or horoscopes ( one newspaper I remember had the horoscopes on the church page) or Ouija boards or seances. But it could also be some pretty slick false prophets: televangelists or pastors down the street who proclaim such false teachings as giving your heart to Jesus, accepting Jesus into your heart, prosperity gospel—believe and you’ll prosper. 

No doubt many of these are sincere; they mean to pass on faithfully what they think God wants us to hear. But sincere or frauds, either way, words not from the Lord are false and dangerous. We must only listen to a prophet like Moses—a prophet who speaks God’s Word (vv 14, 20). Things like fortune-telling and Ouija boards are actually inviting the devil to speak to us.                                                                                          

And what about those other false teachings? Do we really want to give Jesus our heart, which is at times cold and uncaring? Scripture is clear that it is Christ who has first chosen us; we didn’t ask him into our hearts (Jn 15:16). And as to those promises of prosperity, what about people who believe but struggle to pay the mortgage, miss loved ones overseas, struggle to feed their families?

Jesus is the Prophet who, like Moses, speaks God’s Word, for his every word is God’s (v 15). Moses had Jesus clearly in view—even though he wouldn’t come for another 1,400 years. Jesus’ earthly ministry demonstrated that he was the very Son of God. This morning’s Holy Gospel is evidence of that. The people were amazed that Jesus, in word and deed, showed such authority. And the demon knew exactly who he was: “the Holy One of God” (Mk 1:24). Jesus is God! —so when he speaks, it’s always the Word of the Lord. And, yes, we must listen to him (vv 18–19). 

At the Baptism of Jesus, just three weeks ago, God announced that all are to listen to him. The reason we must listen to Jesus is that he is the way of salvation, Jesus has the Word of truth. Everything he says, we can count on: “I love you with all my pure, sinless heart.” Jesus has the words of eternal life: “I have chosen you to be mine for eternity.” Jesus has the Word of faith: “I am with you, caring for you, even those times that don’t seem prosperous at all.”                                                              

No other prophet but Jesus was raised up to free an entire world from sin, to proclaim eternal life to all believers. So, we must listen to this Prophet, Jesus, who speaks the Word of the Lord to us, but can we? Yes, As with Moses, we can listen to this prophet. The fact is, we could not listen to the Word of the Lord any other way. 

Forty years before our text, God had come down on Mount Sinai (Mount Horeb) to speak to Israel, and how had that gone (v 16)? The lightning, the earthquake was too frightening. The Israelites were right (v 17). Sinful people cannot speak with God face-to-face and live. Because we’re sinful, we couldn’t bear to hear the Word of the Lord that way. That’s why God became a prophet like Moses—truly one of our brothers (v 18). Israel asked for God to speak to them through someone they could receive.

Jesus is God, certainly enough, but he’s also truly one of us, our brother. Jesus veiled his divine glory and majesty in humble flesh, like Moses’, like ours. He spoke to us gently, lovingly, in a way we could hear. But the gentle voice was possible only because of the loud cries of agony as this Prophet like Moses was raised up on a cross. That action took away those sins against which God’s voice must be terrifying. That sacrifice reconciled God to us so that now we can stand before him face-to-face. To this Prophet, then, we can liste     

Jesus’ words from the cross “It is finished!” are the words we most want to hear. God raising Jesus up from the dead is his word to us that we are forgiven. And his Word we still hear today. Where? Here!  When words like Moses’ in our text are read. When the Absolution is pronounced. When Jesus says, through me, that at this altar you are receiving his very body and blood. This is what you hear when the Word of God is proclaimed to you—Jesus, the final Prophet who was raised up by his heavenly Father. Amen.

The Third Sunday After the Epiphany
January 21, 2024

Pastor Tim Weiser
Text: Jonah 3:1–5, 10
Sermon Theme: What is your Nineveh?

Goal: That you will be assured that no matter where you go and no matter the circumstances, the Lord will act for you and through you.

Basis for this sermon was obtained from Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Daniel L. Gard. The outline of the story of Jonah shows us a very reluctant prophet. He did not choose to be called to that vocation. He was a weak and sinful man, very much like the rest of us, and when his call came, he wanted desperately to avoid it.

So, let me ask you: In your vocation, are there things you need to do because Scripture tells you? I ask myself, and now also you: Have you avoided that Christian duty? This is the Epiphany season, and it’s all about the Light that is Christ shining on us and on every place like Nineveh. Let’s consider this:

WHAT IS YOUR NINEVEH?

Nineveh is a frightening place to go. Assyria’s kings gained and held the throne by threats, destruction, and oppression. Preaching in this corrupt and evil capital of international terrorism, as Jonah knew, would not exactly be a vacation.

Yet it is into this corrupt culture that Jonah was to go and proclaim the destruction of the city. The message Jonah had to proclaim would not be a popular one: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (v 4). His life was in true peril, and he could no longer run away. Yet our Lord will work his purpose even in Nineveh.

Jonah preached the Lord’s message, not his own. The people of Nineveh “believed God” and “called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least” (v 5). The fasting and sackcloth would be futile and meaningless without repentance. 

Our Lord is merciful and does not desire the death of a sinner. We humans can easily write off those who seem to us the epitome of evil humanity. Surely there can be no salvation for people such as these! So, in our own self-righteousness, we turn away from those we consider to be unredeemable.

But God does not! The miracle of divine grace is more powerful than the worst of human sin. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do” (v 10).

Jonah was a prophet, but he was a very faulty human being too. He had been given a second chance to go to Nineveh after he ran from the first call. He himself had been forgiven and restored. The Lord would work through his preaching to bring Nineveh to repentance. But when he saw that the Lord had relented, he was exceedingly displeased (4:1). How quickly Jonah forgot the forgiveness the Lord had extended to him after he tried to run away to Tarshish!

So, the Lord asked, “Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city?” (4:11). The grace of our Lord is sufficient for all “Ninevehs.” Wherever human sin is strongest, the grace of God is stronger. Our world is filled with places that can be called modern Ninevehs. 

The ancient Assyrians were truly a frightening empire, and Nineveh was the center of it. Yet that same desperate evil has permeated all of human history. From Cain who murdered his brother Abel to this moment, from Assyria to Rome to modern nations, human hate and violence have brought a divine sentence of wrath and condemnation on all. Make no mistake about it—though God is the world’s Creator, he is also our Judge. And that judgment is pure and perfect justice. 

The Lord sent Jonah into the midst of ancient Nineveh to bring them to repentance. And he sends his people today into the darkest and most rebellious places. But everything would change that day when the Father would send his own Son into our world. He came and, from the moment of his miraculous conception, confounded every sin and evil of the ancient Assyrians and of every place and time, including our own. 

He, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would be the great and final prophet whose sacrifice and proclaimed Word would redeem our fallen and hurting world. This prophet, the Christ, would defeat sin, death, and hell by dying and rising. He continues to bind the power of Satan every time a sinful human being is baptized and every time the redeemed gather for his blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Lord’s mercy is yours. You see, God’s judgment is also perfect as to its mercy. What changed eternity for Assyria, for Jonah, for Israel, and for you came not through destruction but, instead, through the punishment for all sin, inflicted not on the sinner but once and for all upon the sinless Sacrificial Lamb.

No, wrath was directed not upon this broken human race but upon the Christ whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sin. 

Human sin must be met with divine justice. But the love of Jesus Christ compelled him to offer himself as the bearer of all of humanity’s sin. The center point of all history is found on that hill called Calvary and in the message that came from an empty tomb: “Christ is risen!” This is the heart of all things, the redemption of every empire and every race and every language of this created world. 

There are places to which you and I might not want to go and times we would rather not speak the precious Gospel. No matter what your vocation might be, the Lord will lead you through a world with many places as rebellious and broken as that ancient city of Nineveh. But nothing can take you from God’s hand. He who created you and redeemed you in Jesus Christ has not only visited you but embraced you in the water of your Baptism and in the blessed meal of his Supper.

Children of God, never fear the world or satanic powers, no matter where your vocation might take you. All of sin, death, and hell have been bound by the incarnate Word of God. And it is he who is the Savior for all people, of every time and nation. He is yours, and your life is found in his resurrection, and nothing can take that away from you. Jesus lives, and you, too, shall live! Amen.