6th Sunday of Easter

May 21-22, 2006
Text: Acts 10:34-48, 1 John 5:1-8, John 15:9-17
Vicar Michael Monterastelli


GOD’S COMMANDS ARE FULFILLED IN HIS SON,
GOD ALSO GIVES HIS LOVE TO HIS SON SO THAT JESUS LOVES US AND WE THEN LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

Dear fellow believers in Jesus, the Christ,

GOD’S COMMANDS ARE FULFILLED IN HIS SON,
GOD ALSO GIVES HIS LOVE TO HIS SON SO THAT JESUS LOVES US AND WE THEN LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Both John’s Gospel and his first Epistle for today seem to be riddled with the word “commandment”. Our Gospel text for today repeats two words several times — the words: love and command. “If you keep my commandments… This is my commandment… If you do what I command you… These things I command you…” “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” Abide in my love... Abide in my love... Abide in His love.

These commands of God include what we call The Ten Commandments. It also includes other divine words that Moses recorded: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Commandments can be given by earthly authority figures. Or they can come from God the Father Almighty. With Him as their source or origin, there is the force of heaven behind them. His words are not just puffs of air which accomplish nothing. His Word and His commands always accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sends it (Isaiah 55:11).

Ordinary commands seem burdensome. Because of sin, any command, especially a command from God may weigh us down. Ordinary commands from authority figures like mom, dad and teachers, employers and police officers obligate us to do things we may not do on our own. They take away our freedom to do what we want in every situation.

At times what we want is more toys and more candy. What we want is more time at recess, to get out of class early, and to be first in line. As we grow in age and responsibility, what we want is longer breaks, shorter work days, and more money. What we want is to drive as fast as our cars will carry us. What you want is what makes you feel happy. And what I want is what makes me feel happy. But what makes us feel happy may not be what makes God or anyone else truly happy. Oh sure, we do nice things for people but our sinful hearts motivate us to look for a return on our investment.

Ordinary commands from authority figures also take away my right to boast in my own authority. After someone tells me to do something, it’s kind of hard to boast and say: “Look what I did! Aren’t you glad I did that for you!?!” After someone tells you to do something, you don’t get all the credit for getting it done. We have to share the credit with whoever told us what to do. And sharing credit is not always so easy.

If ordinary commands can do all this to sinful men and women, God’s commands carry even more weight and have more force. He not only requires us to do things we would not do on our own, He requires us to have pure thoughts, hearts, and motivations behind all that we do. To these commands Jesus adds one more: “that you love one another as I have loved you.” And then, He doesn’t just get some of the credit for the good that we do, He gets all of it. Apart from Him you can do no-thing. “Hey! That’s not fair!” So cries that selfish old Adam and Eve in each of us. “You deserve some credit too.” So the world tells us. And so we’d like to believe. But,

GOD’S COMMANDS ARE FULFILLED IN HIS SON.
GOD ALSO GIVES HIS LOVE TO HIS SON SO THAT JESUS LOVES US AND WE THEN LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

You could choose to believe a fictitious claim that the history of a popular work of fiction, such as The Da Vinci Code, is somehow historically accurate. Or you could believe the truth: that a work of fiction, and its loose claim of historic truthfulness, is a work of a worldly imagination intended to sell more books.

But Jesus requires us to love each other just as He has loved us, freely! He truly and historically demonstrated His love for you when He freely obeyed His own commandment and laid down His life for His friends… and for His enemies (Romans 5:7-8) … without charging you a dime. That means that just as He suffered torture leading to death, so also do we anticipate suffering as we love one another. You see that’s what sin causes as it struggles against God. And that’s what we must endure as we walk in this world along the valley of the shadow of death.

But John reminds us that: “everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” To the man who has faith in God’s Son, His commands are not burdensome. How can this be you might ask?

Because Jesus, the Son of God, has endured the full weight of the burden we have collected. He has carried our burden to the cross for us, where He was crushed by all of our sin. What God commands of us, Jesus obeyed and then endured the punishment our disobedience deserves. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day (Acts 10:39-40). Thanks be to God for every single one of His commands and for His Son who obeys every single command for us. Each command God gives is another reason to thank Jesus for what He does. For some 90 years here at Luther Memorial Chapel:

GOD’S COMMANDS HAVE CONTINUED TO BE FULFILLED IN HIS SON. AND GOD KEEPS ON GIVING HIS LOVE TO HIS SON SO THAT
JESUS LOVES US AND WE THEN LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

As we recognize new members today, we see the abiding fruit that God grows through His Word and Sacraments. So, how do you know you believe all this? Well let’s listen to what Jesus tells us. “For all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Through God’s Word, you know what Jesus knows. You know what God the Father Almighty has done for you. He has spoken His Word into your ear. His Spirit works where His Word is proclaimed and faithfully taught. His Spirit has come to you and His Name is sealed to you in your Baptism. The holy body and precious blood of Jesus are put into your body each week for the forgiveness of your sins. How do you know you believe? Those are the ways. Faith is God’s gift to you. It all comes from Him. As Jesus said, “you did not choose me, but I chose you… (John 15:16).”

Behold the true and everlasting miracle! You are not the Messiah. Mankind is not it’s own Messiah. Evolutionary biologists and mystics cannot save you or mankind. The one and only Savior of the world is Jesus, He is the Messiah. And your Faith in Him is the victory that overcomes the world.

Through the Word of God, His Spirit continually brings Christ into your heart to transform it and give you a fruitful life as a branch that lives, that abides, in His love. The love of Jesus comes from His Father. Jesus is the vine who nourishes us with the Father’s love. The Father’s love through Jesus makes us alive and fruitful. And the fruit that He grows abides. It remains. It does not spoil. It endures. It never fades. These things Jesus has spoken to you, that His joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full — even in the midst of suffering.

Through the suffering of Jesus, the fullness of joy has come into the world. It came by water and blood. When he was born as men are born, water and blood poured from His mother’s womb. When His side was pierced by the spear, water and blood poured out. In Him, the joy of the world has come by water and blood. Jesus came speaking and bleeding and watering the whole earth.

He came not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. Because of them you abide in His love.

He is the one appointed by God to be Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). And the Judge has chosen you (John 15:16). The Judge has made His ruling. Despite your faltering footsteps, you are His friends (John 15:15). The victory that overcomes the world is the Faith He has given you (1 John 5:4). Because of His love, his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). These things He speaks to you that His joy may be in you and your joy may be full (John 15:11).

IN +JESUS’ NAME. AMEN.

5th Sunday of Easter

May 14, 2006
Text: Acts 8:28-40, John 15:3-5

ABIDING IN CHRIST – GO ON YOUR WAY REJOICING!

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…” (I John 1:1, 2)

Beloved, by this test we know that the Spirit of God was also riding in the chariot with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. “There was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.”

What a royal deal life had dealt him! Or, what a raw deal life had dealt him! What do you think? Consider the thoughts of superiority that would have tempted him. He was after all a man of education and means and high office.

The name “Ethiopia” is from a Greek word meaning “sun-burned faces”. The region referred to by the word “Ethiopia at that time meant the land south of Egypt, including the region of present day Sudan. It was also called Cush or Nubia and was considered the end of the world by some of the classical writers. Sudan is the region of the present day refugee crisis of Darfur. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced in just three years, since Sudan’s Islamic government began an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Your brothers and sisters in Christ in the Sudan are systematically persecuted and constantly under the threat of death from violence or starvation. Permission to build churches is routinely denied. Apostasy, converting from Islam to Christianity is legally punishable by death. God help us to wake up to such suffering of fellow believers throughout the world! God help us to comprehend the wondrous freedom we have yet today for weekly worship, for giving our first priority gifts for the spread of the Gospel, for loving our neighbor in Christ. We may not have this same freedom a decade from now, but still today we do. Apart from Christ we can do nothing of eternal significance. But in Christ, we bear much fruit.

As there is bleak poverty today for so many in the Sudan so also in the time of our text! Many in that region then called “Ethiopia” scratched out just enough to keep alive, to keep from starving. But not the man in our text! He dressed in fine clothes. He rode from city to city in a government vehicle. He ate fine food. He was literate and well refined. He had freedom to come and go, even to Jerusalem to worship. In comparison with the poor multitudes of his day, what a royal deal, he had! Who wouldn’t desire what he enjoyed?

Or, what a raw deal! What do you think? He was, after all, a eunuch. Candace was the title for the queen in Ethiopia, like Pharaoh was the title for the ruler in Egypt. Oriental rulers often employed eunuchs in high positions. When this criterion was utilized, the servants were given no choice in the bodily mutilation forced upon them. Yes, this man had someone else’s fortune to manage. Yes, he traveled in style. But he would never have the riches of his own children to love. His position of power and prestige was actually pitied by many of much lower status. He was a dry tree. He would never be a fruitful branch with a family of his own. In comparison with the simple blessings of family and daily bread, what a raw deal he had! Who wouldn’t feel sorry for this poor rich man?

What do you think of this man reading aloud in his chariot; royal profiteer to be envied or un-lucky slave to be pitied? This question applies to our station in life too, for the temptations are the same. We are tempted to think of ourselves as superior to others because of intelligence or education or possessions or the power we exercise. Such haughty thinking is evil. It makes us a dry tree strangled with pride. It chokes out the bearing of fruit in Christ Jesus.

On the other hand we may be tempted to think of ourselves as inferior to others. Because of what has been cut off from us in this life we may consider our life second-rate. Instead of deep contentment for what God has given us our hearts can be filled with dripping complaint for what we feel we’re missing. Disappointment and drudgery in the days and duties of life can leave us feeling deprived, even depressed. It can make us a dry tree, choked with self-pity. What do you think?

No enough of your thoughts and enough of my thoughts. Hear again God’s thoughts which are higher than ours! “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

See how God cares about this one! The Holy Spirit sent Philip to enlighten this one Ethiopian concerning the Christ-centered focus of the Old Testament. Because of bodily mutilation, he could not be a full proselyte to Israel (Deut. 23:1). He could only be a proselyte of the gate, limited to the outer courts. But, he did have access to the Greek version of the prophet Isaiah. A few chapters after the one he was reading aloud in our text the prophet speaks of foreigners who hold fast to God’s covenant (Is. 56). Their sacrifices will be accepted on God’s altar for His house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. More pointedly God also speaks there of eunuchs. “Let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’”

What an amazing promise to this one who would never have sons and daughters to carry on his name. “I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” Any astute reader of Isaiah would know that it all depended on the suffering servant described in the words that fell on Philips ears. “Like a sheep he was led to slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. You know the surrounding verses that the eunuch would also have read – “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…” “All we like sheep have gone astray…and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Dear Christians, the Ethiopian treasurer asked the right question! Who is this wonderful person? He knew Isaiah didn’t fit the bill, nor did any group of human beings, such as Israel. Who is this suffering servant led like a sheep to the slaughter for our transgressions? Who is this loving man who gives gifts to the childless that are better than sons and daughters? Who is this promised one who gives an everlasting name that will never be cut off?

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian would have already heard some reports of Jesus. He was traveling from Jerusalem which was in an uproar over Jesus. Stephen had just been stoned and Christians fled for their lives (Acts 7). A man named Saul had not yet been converted (Acts 9) and was hunting down Christians to put them to death. The eunuch would have known something about Jesus and it wouldn’t have been good. But, He did not yet know Jesus.

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. What Philip did when he opened his mouth is what your pastor should do when he opens his mouth; he told him the good news about Jesus. It is what a father and a mother should do in daily prayer with their children, tell them the good news about Jesus. No matter what Scripture is the starting point, the ending point is the good news about Jesus. The Son of God has come into our flesh! He is the center of Scripture! He is the fulfillment of all God’s promises! He is the Good Shepherd. He is the vine apart from which you and I are dry trees, fruitless branches.

When the traveling sermon had ended, the eunuch said, “See here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Telling someone the good news about Jesus includes telling them about the washing of rebirth that comes in holy baptism. For this man, so deeply instructed in the Old Testament, for this man who had worshiped amid God’s sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple, for this man who was only missing the key of the Messiah’s identity, nothing now prevented his baptism.
The Holy Spirit opened Philip’s mouth to proclaim Christ. Jesus was the lamb led to slaughter. Jesus came in the flesh from God. The spirit of the antichrist denies this and offers dozens of spiritual substitutes. But this man was set free from the pagan idols of Ethiopia. As Philip proclaimed Christ, the Holy Spirit opened the Ethiopian’s heart to receive Christ. In that desert place they found a bit of water. There Philip baptized him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He was given an everlasting name which would not be cut off. He was given a name better than that of sons and daughters. He could no longer say, “Behold I am a dry tree”.

And the eunuch…went on his way rejoicing. That which earthly treasures and status could never give him, he received with water and an everlasting name. He went on his way rejoicing. While sons and daughters were denied him, he was given a name better than that of sons and daughters. He went on his way rejoicing. He was no longer a dry tree, but a fruitful branch abiding in Christ. He went on his way rejoicing.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. They are from the world and the world listens to them. In other words, they are attractive and respected. They can be exciting and captivating. They can delight your senses and make your heart sing, at least for a while. But they will always run dry in the end.

This is so because they operate with the spirit of the antichrist, that is, many things and anything “instead of” Christ. Instead of Christ in the flesh, how about academic snobbery or sexual pleasure or material comfort or leisurely distraction? Instead of Christ in the flesh, how about something more spiritual, like angels or crystals or meditation? Instead of Christ in the flesh how about something more practical, like human kindness and common sense and good works. Why not any of the popular philosophies instead of this troublesome Christ who says, “apart from me you can do nothing”?

Reflecting on the mystery of the cross of Christ, Dr. Martin Luther warned against the reality of such antichrists. He said, “there is no other way to heaven than taking up the cross of Christ.” He continued, “On account of this we must beware that the active life with its good works, and the contemplative life with its speculations, do not lead us astray. Both are most attractive and yield peace of mind, but for that very reason they hide real dangers, unless they are tempered by the cross and disturbed by adversaries. The cross is the surest path of all. Blessed is the man who understands this truth.” Dear Christians, the Ethiopian eunuch understood this truth and went on his way rejoicing. He couldn’t follow his dreams. He couldn’t change his station. As his duties carried him along, he didn’t always have peace of mind. But He did have peace with God. That’s why He went on His way rejoicing.

You also have peace with God. Jesus says to you in this very hour, “Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” Already you are clean! Despite sins of self-importance or self-pity, you are clean! Such is what the love of God in Christ makes you! The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. He has come in the flesh to make you clean. Abiding in His love you may have confidence for the Day of Judgment.

No matter how dried up you feel, in Christ you bear much fruit. No matter how alive and fruitful you feel, apart from Christ you can do nothing. When indifference threatens to smother your soul, remember that you are clean in Christ. When dark thoughts of despair weigh you down find your rest here, for you are clean in Christ. When weariness tempts you to stop testing the spirits, remember that you are clean only in Christ. Remember the Ethiopian’s question, “How can I understand unless someone guides me?” There are countless spiritual guides today offering to guide you to inner peace, personal fulfillment and spiritual insight. They speak from the world and the world listens to them. But He who is in you is greater that he who is in the world.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…

History tells us that the eunuch’s home region confessed the Christian faith from the 4th to the 6th centuries. In the 7th century it was conquered by the Muslims. Tradition tells us that the Ethiopian eunuch baptized the Queen of Ethiopia and that future generations of Ethiopians were told of Christ through his witness. We don’t know for sure if that is true. We do know for sure that he continued on his way rejoicing! God so bless you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

4th Sunday of Easter

May 7-8, 2006
Text: Acts 4:1-12, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18, Psalm 23
Vicar Michael Monterastelli

In the Name of the Father and of the a Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Dear fellow sheep who are guarded by the Good Shepherd,

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

No matter where you come from, it is quite humbling maybe even insulting to hear that you are like sheep. Sheep are not strong, fast or smart. They are easily hunted by wolves. They are under constant threat of attack and often too dim-witted to notice. And if that wasn’t enough, sheep are prone to wander away from the shepherd and his flock, where they get themselves into life threatening situations and die alone if isolated from the shepherd’s care. They follow dead-end trails, drink from polluted puddles, get lost in dark crevices, they sometimes lie down and are unable to stand themselves up again.

Who knows how these poor, dumb and easily misled creatures can survive the wolfish dangers of this fallen world.

God does. He provides shepherds to be their guardians. It is their duty to gather, guide, protect, and to feed and water the whole flock every single day and every single night. Sometimes the shepherd was a member of the family who owned the sheep. Sometimes the family would hire a stranger to at least guide and feed the sheep.

A hireling would not always protect the sheep. Rather than risk his own life to save the flock from the threat of wolves, thieves and robbers, a hireling would run away to save himself. He does not care for the entire flock as much as he cares for himself.

Jesus is no hireling! He calls Himself not just a shepherd, but the Good Shepherd. When the wolves came, He did not abandon His sheep, even though His sheep abandoned Him. He let the wolves have their way with Him. He let them bite. He let them chew. He laid down His life and took it up again. Alleluia! He is Risen! He has authority to do this. He has this charge from His Father.

Like real sheep, you are prone to wander off, where you get yourself into life threatening situations, where you can die an eternal death if isolated from your Shepherd’s care.

Much too often we follow dead-end trails, drink from polluted puddles, get lost in dark crevices. Like sheep we may lose our footing, unable to stand ourselves up, and (unless the shepherd comes along) we would perish forever.

We follow dead-end trails when we search for meaning or set priorities where Christ is not the source of meaning or the center of our priorities. If we focus on things God does not call good, we follow a path to nothing but evil. If we follow temptations to live apart from the presence of Jesus, we follow a dead-end trail that will end in despair. If we try to focus on the emptiness or the “nothing” of eastern philosophy and religion, as if nothing is important or desirable, then we give up that which God would have us desire more than anything in all creation. Such philosophies are dead-end trails. If we focus on the false criticisms of God’s revelation of Himself through the record of Scripture, then we put ourselves above God. If we think we can be God’s judge and criticize how He does things, we are following a dead-end trail.

The path which your Lord would have you follow is narrow but it is good, right, and salutary. It leads to a sure and certain joy which this world cannot give you. It leads to the eternal presence of God’s own loving Son. He cares for you so much He has followed you down and faced the ultimate dangers of your chosen path for you.

He follows you so He can bring you back with Him to the safety of His saving presence among His flock. And He does.

By the Spirit of God who does everything-He-does through His Word, He has drawn you here today and enabled you to be here to continue hearing His Word.

He has brought you into His most holy presence to give you what you need most. He gives you Himself. And with Him, and Him alone, there is eternal life. By forgiving your sins He is guiding your feet on the path to eternal life. This crimson path leads from the cross to you today.

Along the way He provides food to eat and fresh water to drink. In the Divine Service, in Bible study and reading He feeds and waters you, His beloved sheep, to make you strong for the journey and to fill you with life. But foolish sheep that we are, we too often search after the unhealthy food or drink. We drink from the polluted puddle called the pursuit of happiness. We pursue happiness in the world as if the pagans of the world know more about God than He is telling His Church. Some people, maybe someone in your own family, maybe even you pursue happiness at the bottom of liquor bottles, wine glasses, beer cans, or pill bottles. We may watch too much TV. We may listen to music which glorifies selfish pleasure or dark despair. We may search endlessly for happiness from the next great life changing acquisition.

A car, a house. A dream vacation or the latest fashions. For sheep who are sick with sin, polluted puddles seem attractive and satisfying.

The truth of God reminds us there is no chemical strong enough to make your suffering end. There is no product perfect enough to fill the emptiness inside you. And without Christ in the middle of your life, you are empty.

There is no philosophy wise enough to remove the suffering caused by the world’s sin. But there is, standing here in the midst of you now, the Good Shepherd. Repent. As you hear the words of His voice, Repent! With His own words He says: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” This is how you know that He deeply loves you.

Along the path that leads through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus provides the lamp to light the way. He is the light. He is the way. He is the door through whom we enter the sheepfold. He is the Shepherd who leads us. His is the blood that washes our robes and make them whiter than wool. He is all in all. But sometimes our priorities get muddled. We get distracted. We get scattered like sheep without a shepherd. We end up in pretty dark places.

We may find ourselves in the dark crevice of worry; worried about our own welfare and about final exams and projects at school, at the office, or at home. We find ourselves wallowing in the dark crevice of self-pity, overwhelmed with worldly concerns. We travel so far down these dark crevasses there seems to be no way out. Despair grows, hope is lost, and we become care-less and empty.

But Your Lord is anything but empty. He is full. And He fills you with what He is. He came from heaven to earth so that He may carry you through the dark crevice of death, back to the Father. He comes, even now, so that you may have life and have it to the full.

Dear Christians, it’s no coincidence that God uses the image of a shepherd. He is the Good Shepherd. We are a flock of sheep ready to stray and scatter. But He continually gathers us back together. Sheep cannot shepherd themselves. They need a shepherd who will search them out, bring them back to the fold, look after them, bring them to safe waters from which to drink (deeply!), and protect them from wolves. In Jesus, the Lord gives you everything you will ever need. His rod and staff, comfort you. They keep you from straying and protect you from worldly wolves. He makes you lie down and rest in green pastures. He restores your soul. He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies.

He anoints your head with oil, and fills your cup to overflowing. His goodness and mercy follow you every day of your life. You will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.

Now the peace that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

3rd Sunday of Easter

April 30, 2006
Seminarian Jon Olsen

He is risen. He is risen indeed, alleluia!

I.

You have all heard that ‘seeing is believing’. Many of us don’t believe something unless we can experience it or see it personally. Like when a friend tells us something unbelievable. As when a favorite sports team comes back to win a game in the final seconds after having been down by three touchdowns at the two minute mark; we simply have to see the replays for ourselves.
In our text this morning, Jesus teaches just this, seeing and believing. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. (Luke 24:38-45)

II.

A first grade class was listening to the teacher who was attempting to explain evolution to the children.The teacher asked, “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?”

“Yes,” replied Tommy quizzically.
“Tommy, do you see the grass outside?”, asked the teacher.
“Of course,” said Tommy.
“Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky,” said the teacher a bit more directly than before.
OK. Said Tommy with a huff. (He returned a few minutes later) “Yes, I saw the sky,” Tommy answered. Right upon the heals of Tommy’s answer the teacher asked him, “Did you see God?”
“No,” replied Tommy with scrunched up eyes.
“That's my point,” blasted the teacher, “We can't see God because he doesn't exist.”

Returning to the text; what about Jesus’ trying to get people to look at His hands and His feet? Why did he want them to look at the wounds? Was the reason so that by looking and seeing with their eyes that some would believe in what Christ did for them on the cross?

Jesus also performed many other visible miracles that people saw with their eyes. Whether it was Jesus turning water into wine, healing people, driving out spirits, cleansing a leper, raising people from the dead, walking on water, feeding 5000 people, healing blind people, reattaching an ear, producing an abundance of fish; nearly all of the miracles Jesus performed were seen by people. They were first hand witnesses to each miraculous event.

For us living 1,973 years after Christ showed His wounds, how do we see Jesus? If there is no Jesus to look upon physically how do we know, how do we believe with no real proof?
The people that did not believe in Christ were the same ones who were so adamant in their unbelief that they, …denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to them, and they killed the Author of life… (Acts 3:14-15)

There He was, the Author of life, God Himself, right in front of their faces, and they murdered Him.

There is another kind of author, the Father of lies and the author of sin… This author of lies was present at little Tommy’s bedside, who is now no longer little but is 80 years old and dying.
Speaking to Tommy the Devil said, “Giving up your reason is not only foolish, but I repeat it, it is childish.”

Tommy replied, “It is not childish, it is childlike. I am happy that I am a child of God.”
The Devil was bothered by such a quick reply and sought to get Tommy to doubt the Word of God. “None of this is important if you don’t have true faith. True faith depends upon many important circumstances having to do with yourself:

Do you have the correct attitude toward your faith?
Did you have the right feeling of responsibility toward your faith?
Now do you know that your faith is not a mere knowing about God, a mere historical faith?
If you can answer these questions, then I can help you...”

Breathing a bit more heavily, Tommy replied, “It would be wrong of me to worry about the nature of my faith. All my hope rests upon God, my Father.
Becoming more exasperated with each of Tommy’s answers the Devil replied, “What then has God done for you, as far as your faith is concerned?” Here the Devil thought he had Tommy for sure.

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him…” The Devil tried to interrupt but was unable to do so until Tommy had finished Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed.

The Devil thought to himself, ‘If I could only make him look away from God, and look to himself and his faith instead’. So the Devil asked Tommy, “You ought to investigate your attitude, since this is really the matter of the issue. Maybe God has done what you say, but you must do your share and keep your attitude in order.”

Tommy breathed deeply and exhaled as he replied, “As I already, so many times, have said, it was the work of the Holy Ghost that I believe in Christ Jesus, my Lord.”
Growing more and more frustrated the Devil tried to get Tommy to doubt that he had done enough.

“Are you sure that you are doing right in forgetting yourself like this? It is your imagination that tells you that you have given yourself up completely in the grace of God. Perhaps you have given yourself up completely to your own imagination.”

Tommy replied a bit quieter and slower this time,
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
The person who looked upon himself and his wound died; the one who looked upon the serpent of brass lived. It is the same way with me,

IF I LOOK UNTO MYSELF AND A SELF-CREATED FAITH, I WILL BE LOST. WHEN FAITH INSTEAD LOOKS UNTO CHRIST ALONE, I WILL BE SAVED

The Devil stormed out of the room and said under his breath, “As Christ overcame me by the power of the Word, so this dying Christian has now overcome me. I cannot make him mine.” Tommy died a blessed death.

V

Tommy didn’t just look at Jesus as a moral example or cheerleader. Tommy saw Jesus as One Who died for him, shed His blood for him, on the cross, for the forgiveness of sins. Tommy saw a sacrificial Jesus, giving Tommy life, by his death and resurrection. When Tommy saw Jesus wounds he didn’t see only a miracle of resurrection, Tommy saw life and salvation in the bloody wounds of Christ.

Tommy also saw a Jesus who came to Him throughout His life. A Jesus who came to him and gave to him as a baby the gift of faith in Baptism, something that Tommy would cling to throughout his life. Tommy had faithful pastors who taught him about the creation of the world, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. All of these teachings and Sacraments Tommy clung to throughout his life, for in them was certainty. Tommy saw his way through a long life only in the reality of the promises God; the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

There are times when we too are guilty as we go through life without looking at Jesus. Sometimes we look to Jesus for a law here or a principle of living there. We want a Jesus who will give us some kind of moral guidance to straighten out our lives. But this is not the Jesus Who hung on a cross for us. It is not the Jesus who was raised from the dead for us a few weeks ago. The Jesus promised in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms is the one Who died for our sins. He is the same One who comes to be in our midst.

Sure, it is easy to think about Him and maybe even look at Him during Lent and Holy Week. What about coming to see Jesus during that long Pentecost season? After all, it is the same Jesus isn’t it? Or how about looking upon Christ just after the church service when we scream at the kids to settle down in the back seat of the car on the way home. What about looking to Jesus when we start the workweek. Looking to Jesus for the strength to forgive the annoying co-worker who Christ also died for.

Tommy’s life was not easy. For Tommy’s life included the early death of his only son. Tommy’s wife also died twenty years before him. Tommy, according to the world’s standards, had a lot to complain about. He could have rejected God. God never left Tommy and by the grace of God Tommy did not leave God. Even when on occasion Tommy doubted, there Tommy was in church in the sixth row on the aisle. Tommy believed that he could see Jesus in the places the Word of God told Tommy to look for Jesus.

So it is true that when Jesus tells the world to look at His wounds He is telling them to look upon Him with their eyes.

…Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Listen to your confession in the words of the Nicene Creed each Sunday concerning the visible and invisible. We confess that we believe in both the things we see and the things that are unseen.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
It is with the eyes of faith, the new eyes of faith given in our Baptisms that we too can look upon Jesus and sing with Simeon:

Lord, now you let Your servant go in peace; Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which You have prepared in the sight of every people: A light to reveal You to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

2nd Sunday of Easter

April 23, 2006
Text: John 20: 19‑31

DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS, NOT THE RISEN CHRIST!
Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting

Dear friends in Christ; we all have our doubts! We have big doubts and little doubts, doubts of others and doubts of ourselves, and most seriously doubts of God's promises. Ever since our first parents doubted God's voice, the human heart has trusted in that which it should doubt and doubted that in which it should trust. We live in an age that idolizes trust in feelings and glorifies doubt in God's Word. For goodness sake, our school children are taught the fairy tale that they evolved by chance as if it were science. Some skepticism is very healthy. Thank God for those who doubt this nonsense! But doubt is not healthy when it comes to God's sure promises. Then, we continually need the encouragement we sang to one another in the Introit, "Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered."

Remember how the people of Noah's day trusted in eating and drinking and doubted there was any value in a big boat? Their trust turned out to be all wet in the face of the judgment God uttered. Remember how Pharaoh and his forces trusted in their weapons and their chariots? They doubted that God who had killed their firstborn could stop their potent army. Their trust also turned out to be all wet when God uttered His judgment at the Red Sea. Remember how, after that mighty rescue, the people of Israel doubted their entrance into the Promised Land? Remember how they murmured and complained and doubted God's care of them in the wilderness?

We all have our doubts. Christian faith is conscious and aware of doubt and takes it to Christ for help. With the man whose son needed healing faith prays, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief" (Mk. 9:24). And Christ does help. Sometimes it is said "doubt your doubts, not your faith". But that is not quite right. Our trust is in the risen Christ, not in our faith. The better encouragement is this, DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS, NOT THE RISEN CHRIST!

We all have our doubts. The actions of Thomas encourage us to examine those doubts, especially concerning God and His promises in Christ. Thomas had been a loyal disciple of Jesus right up to the Garden of Gethsemane. A short while before Holy Week, Jesus prepared to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. His disciples spoke strongly against such a journey reminding Jesus that the Jews wanted to stone Him. But when Jesus persisted, Thomas alone said, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Thomas, you see, was no half‑hearted observer. He loved his Master with deep commitment.

Despite the fears he voiced, Thomas did not die with Jesus by stoning on the day that Jesus raised Lazarus. But he and the other disciples experienced greater fear that they would die with Jesus on the day that He was led away to be crucified. On that day, Thomas uttered no bold statement, "let us go and die with Him". Rather on that day, it was everyone for him self. All along the disciples had misunderstood and objected to Jesus' prediction of His crucifixion. Their all‑embracing doubt that anything good could come from the cross was evidenced in their desertion of Him. Jesus went forward alone to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for the sins of the world.

But just as Jesus had promised, the third day followed. On the first day of the week the body of Jesus was no longer entombed. Pilate's seal could not stop Him! The large stone could not contain Him! Death could not hold Him! God in the flesh was afoot again on this troubled earth. Beautiful light came to us who walk in darkness from a most peculiar place, from inside a garden tomb.

The disciples (minus Judas and Thomas) were huddled inside, behind doors locked tight. They were themselves entombed with fear and doubt and without question guilt for their desertion of the Lord. They were finished. They were done for. Praise the Lord, they were on empty! Such true emptying is not something man can do with his own meditation or devices. Such true emptying is done only when God leads us to see our sin against the Father and His beloved Son. Praise God, they were on empty!

Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." This is the very same Jesus who hung dead on the cross. He had the marks to prove it. Isaiah had prophesied it, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed" (Is. 53:5). The peace that His bloody wounds and damning punishment had won, the risen Christ now freely gave to the disciples. What wondrous light for those who walk in darkness! No wonder the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."

The peace He gave to them, they were to give to others. Holy Absolution was to be spoken by the apostles Jesus sent out and by those they sent out. The office of the ministry was to be wholly focused on sin and its forgiveness. That wondrous peace had certainly been conveyed to Thomas. He was clearly told by the ten that the risen Christ had come to them. In the week that intervened, it would have been impossible for Thomas not to hear repeatedly the amazing absolution spoken by the risen Christ. What else would have captivated their thinking and their speaking in that week?

But Thomas said, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." Even though Jesus had promised He would rise from the dead, even though eye‑witnesses had told Thomas they had seen the risen Christ, even though the risen Christ had come speaking the beautiful peace of His forgiveness, Thomas wasn't satisfied. We all have doubts, and Thomas threw down conditions that Jesus must meet for his doubts to be relieved.

The wonder is that the risen Christ acted to remove his doubts and through Thomas to remove our doubts. These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The wonder is that eight days later, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

Beloved, this is the key in your own battle with the doubts that beset you. Christ is your Lord and your God. The crucified Man is God. It was God in the flesh who bled for you on Calvary. It was a sacrifice of infinite value that washed away your sins. Dear Christian, your sins are not equal to His blood. Who do you think you are, God? Your doubts and your fears and your guilt are not on a par with His forgiveness. Who do you think you are, God? "My Lord and my God", said Thomas. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed", said Jesus.

Risen from the grave He came into the locked doors of your heart and baptized you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Risen from the tomb He comes into your midst today to free you from your doubts concerning Him. He no longer says put your finger here but He does say, "Take and eat, take and drink for the forgiveness of sins." He does not visibly display His wounds to you. He gives you the fruit of those wounds to eat and to drink. Beloved, DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS, NOT YOUR RISEN LORD.

When the risen Christ says, "Peace be with you" it's more than a pious wish or possible hope. His words give what they say. Peace is now Christ's gift to you. He earned it! He can do with it as He pleases! Nothing pleases Him more than to give it to you. "Peace be with you". There is no higher worship in the Gospel than the desire of your heart to receive His forgiveness, to receive His peace. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered.

Dear Christians, we all have our doubts! On our own our hearts will always be tempted to doubt that which we should trust and to trust that which we should doubt. We can't change that! By nature, until we breathe our last, we will be tempted to doubt God's Word. By nature, until we breathe our last we will be tempted to trust the words of the powerful or the pretty or the philosophical or the poetical or the political. By nature, until we breathe our last we will be tempted to trust the feelings of our own heart or the limited understanding of our own mind. There are countless voices clamoring for your trust, offering you peace that others are missing, prescribing methods to attain a richer life, promising confidence and the removal of your doubts.

But there is only one who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. There is only one who is your advocate with the Father. There is only one in whose name you have life. There is only one who gives you peace with God that surpasses human understanding. Feelings of peace can sometimes be very deceptive. Both an active life with its good works and the contemplative life with its speculations can yield some peace of mind. For this reason they hide real dangers unless tempered by the cross of Christ and are disturbed by adversaries. You will never perfectly feel the perfect peace that Christ gives you with the Father until you are empty of earthly life itself.

There is a bit of Thomas in each of us. "Unless I see something more or something different, I will not believe". Unless my loneliness is relieved or my health is restored or my dreams are met or my troubles are solved, I will not believe. The cure for our doubts is the same. Today as the risen Christ stands in your midst and feeds you with His body and blood He utters this judgment. "Peace be with you". And it is! Beloved, DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS, NOT THE RISEN CHRIST! AMEN.

Easter

The Resurrection of Our Lord ‑ April 16, 2006
Text: Mark 16:1‑8

WHO WILL ROLL THE STONE AWAY?

Your right hand, O LORD, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O LORD, shattered the enemy. This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Dear Christians, the resurrection of the Crucified One is God's act, not man's. It is independent of human planning. It is unbound by man's opinion. God did not consult you in raising Christ! God did not confer with me in carrying out the event we rejoice in today. In both the sacrifice of Good Friday and the marvel of Easter morning, God acted contrary to human wisdom and beyond mortal logic. CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

But no one thought He could or would rise from the dead. Not even the loyal women who loved Him believed His promise that He would rise on the third day. We like to pick on doubting Thomas, but these three women were also among the many doubters. When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early, on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"

The women were the last ones to leave Jesus' corpse on His death day. Now, on the first day of the week, our Sunday, they were on their way to the grave, the same road we all travel. They had hoped He was different. He had cared for the wreck of a woman, Mary Magdalene. He made her live again when she was all washed up. He had lightened the darkness and made these women precious with His love. He had walked with breathtaking freedom amid the demonic and earthly powers that push us around. He was constrained by no chains of pride or greed or style. He looked all of His accusers and detractors in the eye and was a minion to no one. But now, except for the manner of death, His end seemed the same as for all of us! Crucified, dead and buried!

On that early Sunday morning the women were on their way to the grave, the same road all of us are on. The numbed disciples were hidden away behind locked doors, their hopes shattered. But these women also walked along in hopeless unbelief. In love, they intended to anoint a decaying, and stinking corpse. But as they traveled the two miles from Bethany to the garden tomb they were tossing a question back and forth. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

Practically speaking, it was an excellent question that only St. Mark records. Rock‑hewn graves were for the wealthy. Closure stones were quite large. To bar grave robbers, there was generally a large groove cut for the stone to rest in. From a slight incline the heavy stone was rolled down over the mouth of the tomb, resting firmly in the channel cut for it. By design, it was much easier to close than to open. Practically speaking it was a very good question. Who will roll away the stone?

But, it was in fact a question which God had already answered! And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back ‑ it was very large. The dead man that the women came to honor was not to be honored as a dead man! He was living again just as He promised! The stone was rolled away not to let Him out, but to let others in to witness the empty tomb. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.

Fellow‑redeemed, the early morning light of this day shows that Jesus' cross changed everything for us sinners. The glorious resurrection of Christ means that God accepted the sacrifice of His son as our substitute under the law, carrying our sin. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

As Isaiah prophesied, He swallowed up death forever. He swallowed it up by first being swallowed up by death like Jonah was swallowed by the great fish. Like the fish vomited Jonah out again, so the grave had to release Jesus. It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2:24).

Is it not a wondrous paradox? The women were worried about being locked out of a chamber of death ‑ Who will roll away the stone? Clearly they had no hope of the resurrection. There concern was to un‑wrap a dead body and rub aromatic ointment onto it before enfolding it in linen cloth. If their plans had been realized Jesus' cared for body would have remained in that garden tomb, sealed over again with the large stone.

But when they entered that chamber of death they heard a message of life. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one. He has risen; he is not here. Like there were heavenly preachers at Jesus' birth over the fields of Bethlehem, so the angels of Easter morning also bring a message of peace. Do not be alarmed, the women were told, JesusYthe crucified oneYhas risen.

Dear Christians, see how the description of His shame has become His crown of glory? The heavenly messenger describes Jesus of Nazareth as the crucified one. You see, it is not the resurrection of Christ that saved us. Jesus did not earn forgiveness of sins for us at His open tomb. The resurrection is rather His glorious, "I told you so"! The finished work of salvation that God gives us is in Christ's death. The bloodied, brutalized Jesus meant exactly what He said when He cried out from the tree of the cross, "It is finished!" "I told you so" is one of the unmistakable deductions of Easter morning. The simple fact of the morning of the third day is this, "He is risen". The crucified one is risen!

He may not have looked like God in Gethsemane. The right hand of God may not have looked like He was shattering the enemy when He hung stripped and beaten and mocked on the cross. But appearances are so often deceiving. The great deed of God is now done and cannot be undone. He was sacrificed once for all, the just for the unjust. As surely as Adam once set a fatal deathward cadence for mankind, so surely has Christ reversed that cadence with music that surges upward to eternal life! He is risen! The crucified one is risen!
This message is our life! Jesus is our life! Flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones He is risen! That's why St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one timeYlast of allYhe appeared to meYunworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

It will always be true that men trust their own brains more than they trust God. Such was the case in the church at Corinth. Brilliant and witty opponents of the Gospel were intoxicated with their own ideas. Puffed up with knowledge and concerned for the growth of the church, they were willing to sacrifice the bodily resurrection of the dead to placate Greek sensibilities. Paul confronts them with a rock hard fact. The law required two or three witnesses. Paul points to dozens of witnesses, even five hundred at one time. Then Paul points to himself. The risen Christ has appeared to us all, He said. And think of the change that meant for Paul the Pharisee.

As the former persecutor of the church he hounded Christians to death. He hated the Gospel of a crucified Messiah. He did all within his considerable power to stamp it out. Let no one ever say to you that there is a person who is unreachable by the Gospel. Perhaps it is someone who has renounced the faith. Perhaps it is someone living in materialistic greed or immorality. Perhaps it is someone puffed up with knowledge that is really ignorance who finds pleasure in demeaning the faith.

Beloved it was solely by God's grace that methodical, murderous, Paul was turned from whole‑hearted opposition to preaching the Gospel. It was solely by God's grace that He then delivered as of first importance that Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Yes, like the women in the early morning hours, we are also walking toward the grave. Yes, we must still face the question of a burial place for ourselves and our loved ones. Yes, the fear of death is a reality, or at least it should be, for death itself is unnatural: a penalty, a curse because of sin. But no, death does not have the last word. Death has been swallowed up in victory (I Cor. 15:54). O death where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Who will roll away the stone on our graves? He will, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sounding of the trumpet.

Who can roll away the stone on our fear of death? He can! He tasted death for us and He has swallowed it up forever!

Who can roll away the stone of worry that ties us up in knots and wearies our hearts and minds? Who can roll away those heavy stones that tempt us to despair? He can. He invites, "come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."

Who can roll away the stone on empty, misdirected lives? Who can roll away the stone of thankless bitter wobbling from one disappointment to another? He can! Jesus' mission was to bring life to this world of dying sinners. From the winter of despair He transfers us to the spring of hope. He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Baptized at His command in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit your future is full of hope and promise.

Who can roll away the stone of doubt about God's love for you and His complete forgiveness of all your sins? You know the bad choices of the past, and the tempting deceits of the present. The risen Christ can roll away those doubts! That's why He comes into your midst today. That's why He comes into the midst of His gathered people each week to feed you and to forgive you. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well‑aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. The feast He prepares for you is so rich that with the bread he gives you to eat His very body sacrificed on the cross. The wine He gives you to drink is so well refined that with it He gives you to drink His very blood shed on the cross.

Beloved, you are so precious to Him! To deny His resurrection is simply to be out of touch with reality. This world is passing away. We all are walking toward the grave. But He has swallowed up death forever. We do not live for a dead man! We do not give our gifts to a dead man! We do not pray to a dead man! He once was dead, but now He lives! There is no stone that He cannot roll away!

Today let the beauty of that first Easter morning sink down deep. It was early, just after sunrise! Entering a chamber of death the women were greeted with a message of life, He is risen, He is not here. The message for you today is just a bit different, He is risen, He is here, in your midst. "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save usYlet us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." To Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God be honor and glory now and forever, AMEN.

Good Friday

Friday of the Passion - April 14, 2006
Text: Hosea 6:1–6; Revelation 3:14–22; Mark 15:21-32

THE LETTER TO LAODICEA & THE PASSION

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

Dear Christians,

Today as we gather to remember what our Lord has given for us, we do so through our Lord’s 7th letter to the churches in Asia Minor recorded for us in the Revelation. It speaks of our Lord as the faithful and true witness (or martyr) and as the beginning (or source) of the creation of God. It speaks of our sin of being lukewarm in living our faith and of the blindness and nakedness resulting from our sin.

At the end of the day, the Lord your God is a faith dealer. He doesn’t accept cash, check or American Express. He deals only in the currency of faith. With faith you receive everything you need from Him; gold refined by fire; special clothes to cover your nakedness and shame; and salve to heal the blindness in your eyes.

The city of Laodicea was known for its healing waters. People would come to Laodicea to soothe their blind eyes and deaf ears in its healing waters. Its citizens grew rich from all the visitors and commerce their healing waters attracted. Life in Laodicea was good.

Citizens could kick-back relax and not concern themselves with God’s Word or anything like that. They needed none of the Lord’s Supper, no weekly Bible study, no daily Bible reading to help them sleep at night. And as they neglected God’s presence proclaimed among His people, they began to forget how and why the beginning of God’s creation met His end.

And so we remind you, especially today, how and why Jesus created this Friday and made it Good. Jesus was stretched out on a Roman cross; His arms pinned-back by metal spikes; eyes burning and blinded by bloody sweat and tears. It was the 3rd hour when they crucified Him. As He languished there, the heat of His body became lukewarm. Blood drained from the wounds in His body and flowed over the place of His death, the place of the Skull — called Golgotha.

Like the members of the church in Laodicea, Jesus quite literally became lukewarm. His Father spit Him out of His mouth into the eternal flames of the waterless pit. Hanging in full view for all to see, the beginning, that is, the source of God’s creation became wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. The faithful and true witness was made sin for us.

In the midst of all this suffering, Jesus Christ is the great Amen; the faithful and true martyr. He is the source of all creation. Through Him, everything was created. And without Him, nothing was made that is made.

It was the 3rd hour when they crucified Him. The Father’s beloved Son, in whom He is well-pleased, was held captive to the cross by nothing other than His love for you. No one could stand to drink this cup of wrath, except Him. It had to be poured out. So He poured it on Himself. Only one of us has ever been capable of this miraculous feat. This is God’s own Son whom He loves. Listen to Him. Do what He tells you. He has been reproved and disciplined for your transgressions.

It was the 3rd hour when they crucified Him. Like gold refined by fire, so was the Passion of our Lord burning in His life-giving body. He was consumed with zeal for His Father’s house.

Even though He is the only one of us who had no need to repent, He took the whipping and scourging our sin deserves. Infinitely more than that, He bore the full fire of God’s wrath. From this torture He did not save Himself. But by this torture, torture unto death and damnation, He saves you.
By His stripes we are healed. By His spectacle we are caused to see better than ever. Better than any salve in Laodicea could heal our eyes. By Baptism into His sacrificial death you are given the eyes of faith.

Those in Laodicea where comfortable in their own clothing. They did not know they were spiritually naked. The one whose shameless body was stripped of His garments has given His life to fashion special clothes to cover your nakedness and shame forever. They are the white garments of His righteousness.

It was the 3rd hour when they crucified Him. And when the 6th hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the 9th hour. And at the 9th hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

Dear Christians, you know why He was forsaken! You have been given eyes to see!

In +Jesus’ Name. Amen

Maundy Thursday

Holy Thursday– April 13, 2006
Text: Mark 14:12-16

BETRAYED TO DEATH, CHRIST GIVES YOU LIFE FROM HIS CUP

In the Name of Jesus, Amen. Dear Christians, you must learn to expect pointed attacks against the Gospel when Holy Week comes each year (and for that matter when Christmas comes too). Critics of Scripture certainly did nothing to disappoint such expectations this year. From the fancifully fabricated Da Vinci Code to the heralded Gospel of Judas, there is no shortage of contemporary mouthpieces for the one who masquerades as an angel of light.

But the Gospel of Judas is no gospel at all. This Gnostic manuscript championed by the National Geographic Society is the current darling of the media and of academic unbelief. Written decades after the books of the New Testament, it is just like hundreds of other false writings of that time claiming to be Scripture. It is nothing new! It is the same tired old religious wisdom of man offering a different gospel which is no gospel at all. It is described by the major news magazines as an ancient Christian text, the most important religious archaeological find in 60 years. But it is not a Christian text! It is heretical! And its message is not new! Its announcement of a secret higher knowledge of God is old stuff. This message was consistently rejected as heresy by the Spirit-led early church. It will also be rejected wherever the Holy Spirit is active today.

The major contention of the Gospel of Judas is that Judas was the most-favored disciple. It goes on to say that Jesus ordered Judas to betray Him and it was only to Judas that Jesus privately told the “mysteries of the kingdom”. Beloved, these are lies from the father of lies! There is here nothing new!

Concerning that first Holy Thursday and the betrayal of Judas, let him who has ears, hear what the Spirit says to the churches. “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be sorrowful and say to him one after another, “Is it I?” He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Fellow-Redeemed, the true mysteries of the kingdom are not hidden secrets told only to a reinvented Judas or to any of the pseudo Gnostic heroes. The true mysteries of the kingdom are not secrets that God wants to keep hidden at all. Although they are veiled in water and word and bread and wine God freely reveals them to all believers. Today (tonight) His Word holds before you the Holy mystery of His body and His blood in the Last Supper and in the Lord’s Supper.

They were in the upper room to celebrate Passover. This feast was marked by excitement and the high hope of God’s intervention once again. The meal was framed by a liturgy which included prayer and praise and Psalms. It was a night of reverent and joyful watching unto the Lord for it was the night they were redeemed. The bitter herbs recalled their bitter slavery under Pharaoh. The roasted Lamb recalled God’s gracious “passing over” of homes stained with the blood of the Lamb. The third of four cups of wine was called “the cup of blessing”.

Instructive questions were asked and God’s saving acts were recounted.

But on that first Holy Thursday in the upper room of Jerusalem, the festivity of the Passover meal was shattered when Jesus spoke a solemn “amen”. Amen or “truly”, He began, and then announced that one of His inner-circle would betray Him. After years of teaching, despite the intimacy of the table fellowship they shared, one of the twelve would do the unthinkable. “Amen”, that is “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”

No wonder they were sorrowful. No wonder they fearfully asked, “Is it I?” No wonder Jesus said, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” The blessing of birth for Judas was turned into a curse by a sin from which he does not repent. Scripture makes clear that it was not Jesus’ command for Judas to betray Him, but the active leading of Satan (Luke 22:3/John 13:2). We do not know the precipitating cause of his betrayal. Perhaps it was greed or perhaps guilt over his money-pilfering or perhaps despair over Jesus’ prediction of crucifixion for Himself and persecution for His disciples. Jesus’ stated course for His work did not fit with the disciples earthly plans for the Messiah. What we do know is that Judas’ betrayed his innocent and loving master with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver. This is not a mystery, but clearly revealed.

The Holy mystery that reaches down to us today (tonight) and each time we gather for weekly worship is what Jesus did next on the night of His betrayal. He took bread…broke it…and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” After the main meal Jesus then passed the common cup from which all were to drink and spoke the second word of institution. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Beloved, this is the mystery of mysteries, the Holy of Holies for the Bride of Christ, for the New Testament Church. Ordinary bread and wine become the means for Christ’s crucified body and shed blood to be given to you. More than a Satan aroused treacherous plot is underway. The saving plan of God for us sinners is reaching its culmination. God did not cause Judas’ treachery and evil, but He does work through that evil to bring to us eternal good.

According to Jesus words, the bread is His body. All three evangelists and St. Paul are in complete agreement. With the same words and syllables they repeat these clear, simple, certain reliable words of Christ, “This is my body,” in just the same way, without interpretation or alteration. There is no word present that could be translated as symbolizes or represents. There is not one indication that the words of Christ are picture language. Rather, God’s Word clearly teaches that in the Lord’s Supper the bread and wine are a participation (that is a partaking, a communion) in the body and blood of Christ (I Cor. 10:16, 17). We believe that bread and wine are present in Holy Communion on the evidence of the senses. We believe that Christ’s body and blood are in the Sacrament on the evidence of God’s Word. He who at creation said, “Let there be light” and there was light is the one who in the upper room said, “This is my body”. His Word gives just what He says it gives.

As we learn from other texts what He gives us here with His very body and very blood is the forgiveness of sins. This is His will – to give you His forgiveness. This is His will – to keep on giving you forgiveness, life and salvation in this way. It is not magical. It does not benefit those who receive it in unbelief. But it is a mystery. It is a mystery that brings the sum and the substance of the Gospel to you in person. This is His will, to be here for you.

We know from Scripture that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb 9:22). Whenever God drew near to His people in the Old Testament, the blood of sacrificial animals flowed freely. As God gave His Torah to the people through Moses, (Ex. 27:3-11) blood was in abundance. Half the blood he threw against the altar. The other half he threw on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words.” Sprinkled with blood, they beheld God and ate and drank. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

That’s what makes Maundy Thursday such a joy filled day. Amid the ominous notes of betrayal, sorrow, guilt and imminent suffering, the best news in the world is present here. Jesus said it this way, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him…” Nothing is going to stop God’s plan to purchase your salvation. From the fall in the garden, God promises a Savior to crush Satan’s head, a Savior from sin. God means to keep that promise.

On this night the disciples killed the Passover Lamb (v. 12). On this night they prepared the Passover in the upper room (v. 16). As we have said, this was done each year to celebrate God’s rescue of His people. But on this particular night, these simple, annual acts explode with eternal meaning! All the Passover celebrations through the centuries, all the lambs that were slain, all the blood that was poured out pointed ahead to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The hour was now at hand for that Lamb to be sacrificed once for all.

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Within a few hours the blood of the eternal Son would begin flowing for the life of the world. Soon the Holy Passover Lamb would be skewered to the cross and roasted over damning flames. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. But God’s own son shed His blood for us. There was blood from the thorns crowning His head. There was blood from the whip tearing at His back. There was blood from the spikes driven through His hands and feet. There was blood from the spear piercing His side in death. O beautiful blood of our redemption! O life-giving blood of our rescue.

His blood now cleanses you from all sin (I John 1:7). You are justified by His blood (Rom 5:9). You have redemption and peace through His precious blood (Eph. 1:7/Col 1:20/I Pt. 1:9). Your robes are made white through the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14).

It is that holy blood that He comes to give you now. Drink of it all of you, this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins. It is His holy body He comes to feed you now. With food for your journey, He spreads a table for your body and soul. It is a mystery. It is a marvelous mystery showing forth the generosity of our gracious heavenly Father, to whom with the Son and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. AMEN.