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The Good Shepherd’s shepherding, past and present

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Sermon for Easter 2

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

St. John’s Gospel includes many pictures to help us understand the Lord Jesus better. He is the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning and who was God. He is the Bread from heaven, the Light of the world, the Door of the sheep, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Vine, and we the branches. It’s the Apostle John who also records the words of John the Baptist, identifying Jesus as the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sin of the world. But, how is He like a lamb? We learned that on Good Friday as He died on the cross and became the sacrificial lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world.

But in another sense, Jesus is not like a lamb at all, because when a lamb is slaughtered, it has no say in the matter. A lamb doesn’t choose to be slaughtered. It doesn’t lay down its life for anyone. Its life is taken from it by others. It’s an involuntary victim. Not so with Jesus. In today’s Gospel, Jesus pictures believers in Him as sheep and Himself as Shepherd. I am the good Shepherd, He famously says. He is the good shepherd who voluntarily laid down His life for the sheep, and who also took up His life again in order to keep caring for His sheep for all eternity.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He calls Himself good in contrast with the bad. The bad shepherd, the “hireling” as he’s called in our Gospel, is not the owner of the sheep. He doesn’t care about the sheep. He’s a hired hand who’s only out there in the field tending the sheep because it’s a way to make money. He stays with the sheep as long as it’s convenient for him, as long as it’s not too much trouble. But if danger comes, he’s looking out for himself. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

Who is the hireling? He’s every shepherd or “pastor” who looks out for his own best interests ahead of the safety and security of the flock entrusted to his care. And there have been many, many of those over the millennia. But Jesus is not like them. The sheep are His. They belong to Him. And He does care about them.

Who is the wolf? He is the devil. And he has power over people because of sin, power to accuse them before God, power to hold their guilt over them, power to drag them to hell. And no one could be free from his power, because no one is without sin. No one is righteous, no, not one, the Psalm says. And as Isaiah wrote, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, each one, to his own way.

When did we last hear those words? We heard them on Good Friday. Why? Because, as Isaiah’s prophecy continues, the LORD has laid on Him—on Christ, our good Shepherd—the iniquity of us all. Now tie those words to Jesus’ words: The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Willingly. Intentionally. Voluntarily. In fact, He came to earth in the first place for the very purpose of confronting the wolf and laying down His life so that the sheep might be saved. He laid down His life in every way, by living His life, not for Himself, but for us, and by giving His life on the cross for us. The Son of God took on our flesh and lived among us as both God and Man. He devoted His life to serving us by preaching the truth, the truth about us as sinners and about Him as the One who freely forgives sins to all who trust in Him. He laid down His life as the atoning price for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the world. You should picture your Good Shepherd bleeding and dying on the cross. That’s what it meant to see the wolf coming and to stand His ground for the sake of the sheep, so that He might be attacked and killed in their place. The good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep.

Of course, you should also picture Christ, your Good Shepherd, risen from the dead, perfectly healed and alive again on Easter Sunday—healed, though He kept the marks of His crucifixion, the nail prints in His hands and the spear print in His side, as He showed them to Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel. Those are the scars of the Shepherd from His battle with the wolf, and even as He wants you always to remember His resurrection from the dead, so He wants you always to remember His crucifixion, so that you never look at sin lightly, or take for granted the price that was willingly paid for your redemption: the holy, precious blood of your Shepherd.

Jesus’ life on earth, and His innocent death, and His glorious resurrection are His great shepherding acts in the past. But He isn’t done shepherding His sheep. He has more shepherding to do. As you know, it was never Jesus’ plan to stay on earth in visible form and to shepherd His flock, from Jerusalem or from some other place. Imagine how sad that would be! A Shepherd who lived on the other side of the world from where you are, who had only so much time to spend with each one of His sheep. No, the Lord had a different plan for this New Testament era, with a different form of shepherding in mind.

Jesus says in our Gospel, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. But that “bringing” into the one flock didn’t happen, or at least, was far from being finished during Jesus’ life on earth. This is the bringing the Good Shepherd does through the shepherds whom He has been sending into the world since Easter Sunday and whom He will continue to send until all the sheep are found who are to be found, until the whole flock is gathered into the One Holy Catholic—that is, Christian—and Apostolic Church.

So it is Jesus who sends the shepherds, which is the meaning of the word “pastor.” Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My lambs. Shepherd My sheep.” And as Paul writes to the Ephesians, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. That means that every pastor of God’s Church is placed exactly where the Good Shepherd wants him, in every time and in every place, so that Christ might preach to men through the humble service of men, so that He might gather His sheep, minister to His sheep, forgive the sins of His sheep, and preserve them in His flock through that very same preaching and through the administration of the holy Sacraments.

So, too, it is Jesus who brings the sheep, who went looking for each and every one of you, who brought you into contact with His Church and with His Gospel, who brought you—or will bring you—to Baptism and to faith. I know My sheep, He says, and am known by My own. He knew you from before the foundations of the world were laid, and He knows you still. Even if no one else on earth truly knows you, He knows you—who you are, what you need, what you’ve done, and what you will do. And He also knows all who will believe in Him as His Spirit calls them through the Gospel, even if they don’t yet know Him. There is still time to know Him! The invitation still goes out, to everyone!

And now, as St. Peter wrote in today’s Epistle, the Lord calls you to do good to others and for others, just as your Good Shepherd did, and to be willing to suffer for doing good, just as your Good Shepherd was. That means living as the light and salt of the earth. That means taking this Christian faith seriously, living a life that stands out in the world, that stands out in goodness and kindness and generosity, that shines with truthfulness in all things, that honors God’s Word above all things. You will suffer in this world if you live like that. But then, you’ll just be walking in the footsteps of your Good Shepherd, following behind Him wherever He goes, first to shame and then to glory.

May the voice of the Good Shepherd ring in your ears today and every day. You know Him. Now follow Him. He will make you to lie down in green pastures. He will lead you beside still waters. He will restore your soul. He will be with you as you walk, even through the valley of the shadow of death. And He will follow you with His goodness and with His mercy all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

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The big announcement of redemption

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Sermon for the week of Easter 1

Isaiah 44:21-28

Now that we have finished our review of those key Holy Week and Easter chapters of Isaiah, chapters 52, 53, and 54, we can go back to looking at Isaiah’s prophecy in order again, and we’ll stay in order through the rest of the church year. Before Holy Week began, we covered the first 20 verses of Isaiah 44, where, above all, God excoriated and mocked the idolaters and revealed just how foolish it is to worship something that you’ve made with your own hands, to worship anyone or anything besides the only true God, the Lord, the actual Creator of the heavens and the earth, the who has revealed Himself in the Bible and who pledged Himself to the people of Israel, in order that He might accomplish His eternal purpose of bringing His Son into the world to save sinners.

We’re reminded again in these verses that the phrase “My servant” in Isaiah’s prophecy sometimes refers to Israel as a nation. Sometimes it refers to the ideal Israel, to the Christ, the perfect Servant of the Lord, who would rescue Israel, the imperfect servant of the Lord. It clearly refers to Israel here in these verses.

“Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

God speaks here to the people that He has formed, whom He has been cultivating since the time of Jacob. They seem to have been forgotten by God, as He has allowed them to be held captive in Babylon for 70 years, although He has explained them many times the reason for their punishment. But now, God says that He has blotted out their transgressions. That is, He will no longer hold them against Israel, would not keep punishing Israel in captivity. He is ready to show mercy to them and rescue them from their captivity.

Of course, this blotting out of transgressions points ahead to the great rescue that God would accomplish through the Christ, the blotting out of transgressions that takes place, not just for Israel, but for all baptized believers in Christ Jesus. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. Return to me in repentance and faith, God says to all people, because I have sent My Son to die for your sins. “Return to Me,” or, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “Be reconciled to God!”

Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And glorified Himself in Israel.

Why should the whole heaven and earth rejoice at God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Babylon? Why should the whole universe’s happiness revolve around Israel’s rescue from Babylon? For two reasons: First, because it brings glory to the God of the universe, who prophesied this rescue and who would surely be able to carry it out, no matter who opposed Him. And just as importantly, God’s saving act of returning Israel to the land of Israel means that the Christ can come to Israel, as promised! And the Christ would be a blessing to all mankind, because He bore the sins of all and invites all to return to God through faith in Him. That’s why all the earth should rejoice at the birth of Christ and at the resurrection of Christ, not just on the holidays we’ve chosen to commemorate those events, but throughout the year and throughout our lives.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

The Lord is getting His people ready for a big announcement. To do that, He reminds them who He is. He is the LORD, the great I AM. He is “your Redeemer,” the One who has always looked out for you and rescued you, even from your own sins. He’s the one who formed you, who knew you as a people and as individuals from the beginning of time. He’s the Maker of all things—the sole maker of heaven and earth. So what’s the big announcement from Israel’s Maker and Redeemer?

Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places; Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;

God always confirms the word of His prophets and messengers whom He has sent. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were such messengers. And they both prophesied, by God’s Holy Spirit, that Israel would be taken into captivity in Babylon and eventually released. Well, the prophecy of captivity had certainly been fulfilled. And now the other part will be also. He goes on,

Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Here it is. Here we come to it. The big announcement: The very name of the future King of Persia, Cyrus, who actually would say that very thing to Jerusalem, “You shall be built.” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” Cyrus II of Persia issued that very decree in 539 BC, after conquering the Babylonians, who had been holding Israel in captivity for 70 years. We’ll see Cyrus’ name repeated in the next chapter. And, understand, Isaiah wrote these words 100 years or so before Cyrus was even born.

As you can imagine, that’s a huge problem for those who don’t believe in God, who deny the inspiration of Scripture. Such a detailed, accurate prophecy of future events is impossible. In fact, this is the main reason why unbelieving scholars simply deny that Isaiah was the author of these chapters of Isaiah. Since detailed prophecy is impossible, they say, therefore, this prophecy must be fake.

But did you catch that other description God gave to Himself? Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness.

All the “wise men,” all the “knowledgeable men” of the world who refuse to believe God’s Word are turned backward; their knowledge is made foolishness by God. On the other hand, for us who believe that the God of the Bible is the true God and that the prophets were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s one of the many things that cause us to stand in awe of our great God, who holds past, present, and future in His hand and does as He pleases with them, who knows all things and guides all things to conform to His good plan for those whom He has chosen.

And as we’ll see next week, Cyrus himself, God’s “shepherd,” was a type, a pattern, of the coming Christ, whom God would send, not to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but to build a Church throughout the world, a Church made of up sinners who have believed the Lord’s promise of redemption and forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord’s true Shepherd, who will guide His people out of the captivity of this corrupt and crooked world into the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God. That’s God’s biggest announcement. And it can’t happen too quickly! Amen.

 

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If Christ is not risen…

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Sermon for Quasimodogeniti – Easter 1

1 John 5:4-10  +  John 20:19-31

As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…If Christ is not risen, then your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. We could add to that list. If Christ is not risen, then Jesus was a liar. If Christ is not risen, then He is not the Son of God, not the King of anyone, not your Savior from anything. If Christ is not risen, then evil truly does triumph in the end.

Those thoughts must have hit Jesus’ disciples like a ton of bricks on that first Easter evening. In their minds, there was no “if” about it. Christ had not been raised. Being raised from the dead, especially on a permanent basis, wasn’t a thing, even though Jesus had prophesied that very thing on several occasions, even though the women had seen Him alive that morning, even though Peter, apparently, had seen Him already, too. In a way, it’s hard for us to comprehend how they could still be in disbelief. But that’s only because we have gotten so used to this story. And we have seen how the Church of the risen Christ has spread throughout the world—spread, largely, by men who believed so strongly in the resurrection of Christ that they were willing to abandon their homes, willing to be hated by their countrymen, willing to be tortured and killed for His name’s sake. We haven’t seen the resurrection, but we’ve most definitely seen the effects of it. Those first disciples had only the word of Jesus, and of the handful of people who had seen Him that day—which should have been enough! But wasn’t.

So they were gathered together in that locked upper room, fearing the Jews, because if the Jews could crucify Jesus, they could certainly crucify His disciples. And they weren’t wrong! The Jews eventually did persecute Christians and have them stoned and imprisoned and put to death. But the only reason to fear any of that is, if Christ is not risen.

Or, if you don’t know or believe that He’s risen from the dead, which was the case with most of Jesus’ disciples on that first Easter day. But unbelief and fear were soon replaced by astonishment and joy when the Lord Jesus appeared out of nowhere in the midst of that locked upper room and said, Peace to you!, and showed them His pierced hands and side, no longer painful wounds, but signs of the death that had now been overcome.

Peace to you!, or Peace be with you! More than just a Jewish form of greeting. On the night before He died, Jesus had told His disciples, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If Christ is not risen, then that peace that He left with them and gave them is worthless. But if He is risen, then it changes everything. It means that God is reconciled to sinners through Christ, that we have peace with God through faith in Christ Jesus. And, since Christ is risen, He is able to maintain that peace forever and ever. What do you think it means to have peace with the God of the universe? What do you think it means to have peace with the One who holds the keys of eternal life and the keys of eternal condemnation?

Speaking of keys, Jesus said again to the apostles, Peace to you. Then He said, As my Father has sent me, so I also send you.” We’ll get to the keys themselves in a moment. First, how had the Father sent Jesus? The Father had sent Him to accomplish a mission. Several missions, actually. He was sent, for example, to die for our sins. But that mission was accomplished. Jesus wasn’t sending the disciples to do that. What was the mission, then? It was to reconcile sinners to God, just as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. Through Christ’s preaching, God the Father was reconciling sinners to Himself, calling them away from their sins to faith in Christ Jesus. The apostles were ministers like that, sent like that. More than ministers. Ambassadors for Christ, sent out in His name to reconcile sinners to God. That’s how Jesus proceeded to send them, the authority Jesus went on to give them:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus wasn’t at that moment breathing the Holy Spirit onto the disciples. (Remember, the word “spirit” means “wind” or “breath”). He was showing them, vividly, that He would soon (50 days from then, actually) send the promised Holy Spirit upon them in a special way, to enable and empower them to carry out this ministry in His name, which is summarized in what He said next: If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, their sins are retained. This is basically a restatement of what Jesus had already said to His apostles earlier: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The apostles were sent out with these keys, with this office of the ministry, directly by Jesus. The ministers after them are sent by Jesus through the call of the Church. But the ministry is the same: to preach the Gospel, to baptize and forgive the sins of those who repent believe, and to pronounce judgment and the non-forgiveness of sins to those who don’t believe.

Now, the ministry of Christ, the ministry He has given to men, includes preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God. It includes teaching people the story of the world, from creation to the coming of Christ in humility to His coming again in glory at the end of the age. But the message centers in the preaching of repentance, which would be useless without the authority to forgive the penitent. And Christ’s authority to forgive sins to the penitent is useless, if Christ is not risen from the dead.

So Thomas was still in a bind. He wasn’t there to see Jesus alive again, or to hear Him speak. Worse, even though every one of the other ten apostles gave him their eye-witness testimony, he refused to believe and spoke those bitter but famous words of unbelief: Unless I see the nail prints in his hands, and put my finger into the nail prints, and place my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Now, if Christ is not risen from the dead, then a person certainly can’t be faulted for not believing in something that isn’t true. But if it is true, if Christ is risen from the dead, if He who has never once lied to you did exactly as He said He would do, and if the people you trust most in the world are all assuring you that it is true, that Christ is risen from the dead, and you still refuse to believe, whose fault is that? It isn’t God’s fault. Or the fault of the witnesses. It’s your fault.

Thomas, on this occasion, exemplifies the atheistic scientific age in which we live. I just watched an interview with a man who is trying to cheat death itself. He believes that, with the right scientific measurements and the right diet, suggested by science, and with the right scientifically developed therapies, he can solve the problem of death. When it was pointed out to him that Christians think they have already solved that problem, through faith in the risen Christ, he replied, “Show me the evidence.”

Dear friends in Christ, God has shown mankind a lot of evidence, both of His existence and of His faithfulness to His promises. But I ask you, when has it ever been enough? Adam and Eve walked with God and yet still rebelled against Him. Noah’s sons walked off the ark God told them to build and within a generation their offspring worshiped pagan gods. The Israelites who walked through the Red Sea on dry ground were worshiping a golden calf within two months. The Jews saw miracle after miracle from Jesus and still kept insisting. “Show us a sign! Show us the evidence that You are who You say You are!” You and I can see the universe in all its complexity, the human body and the human mind in all their wonder. We can comb through the Bible and see how everything that’s verifiable in it has been verified and yet the vast majority of the world continues to insist, “Show me the evidence!” The problem has never been a lack of evidence. The problem has always been blind unbelief.

So you can’t blame God for refusing to perform when people have demanded it of Him, can you? “Show me the evidence!” over and over again, even as they completely ignore His Word and His faithfully-kept promises. No, God chose not to reveal the risen Christ to everyone. As Peter says in the book of Acts, God raised Jesus up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.

Thomas was one of those chosen witnesses, so Jesus mercifully showed him the evidence He demanded. Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put your hand here and place it into my side, and do not be unbelieving any longer, but believing.” And Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” And then Thomas, and the rest of the apostles, went on to become witnesses in all the world of Christ’s. And the only evidence they were given to pass on was their own eye-witness testimony, combined with the words and promises of God in Holy Scripture which pointed to Jesus as the Christ. And that would be enough to convince everyone who could be convinced.

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.” In other words, blessed are you when you stop demanding more and more evidence, when you hear and believe the Word of God, which is the word of all the witnesses who saw the evidence firsthand, from Moses to the apostle John. More than that, it’s the word of God. Let it be enough! As St. John wrote,  To be sure, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But 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.” If Christ is not risen, then it doesn’t matter what you believe. But if He is, then it matters more than life itself. So believe in Christ Jesus, risen from the dead. Put all your hope in Him. Because He is risen, and one day you will see Him, too, just as Thomas did. All men will see Him. And all who have believed, all who have been born of God, who have already been victorious over the world by faith, will sit down with Jesus at a feast that will never end. May God grant that we be among them! Amen.

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God’s Word the foundation of faith

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Sermon for the Week of Easter

Acts 10:34-41  +  Luke 24:13-35

We spent a lot of time last week hearing the Holy Week Scriptures. It’s important to know the events of Holy Week. In fact, it’s vital for us Christians to know them. But it’s just as important to know the Word of God that prophesied those events ahead of time, which is why we also spent some time reviewing the prophecies of Isaiah. This is how the Holy Spirit works faith in a person’s heart, through the Word of God, through the prophecies and through the fulfillment of them. Faith comes by hearing the Spirit-inspired words pointing to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Faith has to be founded on God’s Word, or it will never last.

Two disciples were walking toward the town of Emmaus on Easter Sunday afternoon. One is called Cleopas, who is probably the same man who is called Clopas by the Apostle John. He was Jesus’ uncle, in fact, married to Mary, the sister of Jesus’ mother Mary, who was one of the women at the foot of Jesus’ cross, together with Jesus’ mother. We don’t know the other disciple’s name, but, like Cleopas, he was not one of the Twelve apostles. They had witnessed all the events of Holy Week, and then their hopes that Jesus might be the Christ were dashed when He died. Even the reports of the women that day and of the empty tomb weren’t enough to give them hope.

Why did Jesus not allow them to recognize Him as He walked with them? Why were their eyes “restrained” so that they did not recognize Him? Because the kind of faith they would need for the rest of their life doesn’t come from seeing. It comes from hearing.

And so Jesus walked through the Old Testament with them, as He walked on the road with them, making the connections for them between prophecy and fulfillment, between shadow and reality, even as we did last week. Using the Holy Scriptures, Jesus swept out the debris in their hearts, the debris of misinterpretation that plagued the people of Israel, the notions that the Christ would appear glorious at His coming, that He would restore an earthly kingdom to Israel, that He would take up the throne of His kingdom without suffering, without dying, and without rising from the dead. As they walked, they began to see the truth, that the Christ, whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, had to come first to suffer for sin, that He was to be like the Passover lamb, and like all the Old Testament sacrifices, shedding His innocent blood in order to keep safe all who believe in Him. He had to be lifted up on a cross, like the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert, so that all who look to Him in faith are saved from the serpent’s venom. He had to be like the tabernacle and the temple, God’s dwelling place on earth. And the temple of His body had to be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.

The hearts of those two disciples burned within them as they listened to the Word of God that Jesus spoke, and only then, after their faith was resting securely on the foundation of God’s Word, only then did Jesus reveal Himself to them and allow them to recognize Him. He didn’t first show them visible proof of His resurrection. He first led them to faith through the Word. Then He allowed them to see.

And so it is with us, too. We haven’t seen Jesus. But He has sent His Gospel out into the world, and His Holy Spirit has caused our hearts to burn as He shows us that all of Scripture was pointing to the cross and to the empty tomb of the Christ, so that we might believe in Him and be saved. That’s the message that brought us to faith, and it’s the same message and the same preaching of Law and Gospel that will bring others to faith. No programs, no activities, no gimmicks, no youth groups, no amount of training in apologetics, no Shroud of Turin will bring a single soul to be convinced of Jesus’ resurrection or to trust in Jesus for salvation. Only the Scriptures. Only the Word of God. Only the preaching that centers on Christ, and on Him crucified. And risen! According to the Holy Scriptures.

And if the Scriptures were telling the truth about the Christ’s death and resurrection, then you can be sure they are also telling the truth about Christ reigning at the right hand of the Father, and about His constant care for His Holy Christian Church and for every single baptized believer in it.

So even though you don’t see Jesus, listen to the Scriptures! Listen to the Word of God! And your faith will grow! And then, if you know someone who doesn’t know the risen Lord Jesus, don’t try to convince them with arguments and proofs. Just use the Scriptures. Tell the story of God’s Word. It’s the Holy Spirit’s only tool for bringing people to faith. And if we come to know Christ through God’s Word, then He will surely abide with us here on earth by His Spirit, until, after believing in Him through the Word, we see Him in person, with our own eyes, when He comes again in glory. Amen.

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Everything went according to plan

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Every year, on Easter Sunday, we have two main tasks before us: to review the story (the true story!) of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and to consider the significance of it—what it means for the world, and what it means for the Church, including what it means for you and me as individual members of the Holy Christian Church.

We begin with the familiar story. The women who had so faithfully followed Jesus around throughout His ministry, who had served Him and listened to Him and believed in Him, were there on Good Friday, too, when the disciples hurriedly wrapped up Jesus’ body and placed it in the newly carved-out tomb. They watched as the large stone was rolled into place to block the entrance. They rested in their homes on the Sabbath, even as Jesus’ body rested in the tomb. And then, after the sun set on Saturday, they went out and purchased more burial supplies.

At the soonest opportunity, before dawn on Sunday morning, they set out on their way, sad, confused, afraid, but committed to doing a better job of caring for Jesus’ corpse than the disciples had been able to do on Friday. Among their worries was the question, How will we move that large stone out of the way? As it turned out, they wouldn’t have to. An angel had come down from heaven and moved it for them, so that all could see that the body that once rested there was gone.

As we put the four Gospel accounts together, it appears that Mary Magdalene arrived before the other women. She saw the stone rolled out of the way, and assumed that someone had stolen Jesus’ body, so she immediately ran to find Peter and John. Meanwhile, the other women arrived and saw exactly what Mary had seen, except that they saw two angels there who told them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you. Luke adds something else that the angel said: Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

The women were still afraid, we’re told, but they hurried away to seek out Jesus’ disciples.

Meanwhile, Peter and John arrived at the tomb. Mary Magdalene came back with them. Peter ran right inside, and found nothing except for the grave clothes neatly folded up and sitting where Jesus’ body had been. John looked inside, saw the empty tomb, and believed that Jesus’ had risen. Then those two left, while Mary lingered, weeping. She went into the tomb, and suddenly there were two angels there asking her why she was crying. They’ve taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. Clearly she didn’t recognize them as angels. That’s when Jesus confronted her in the garden outside the tomb and asked her the same question: Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thought He was the gardener. She gave him the same answer. And then, as she wept, she heard Him say her name. “Mary.” Then she recognized Him and was overjoyed. And Jesus told her to go back and tell His brothers the good news, which she did.

Then, as the other women were still making their way back to the city, Jesus appeared to them also and said, Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me. And the women went and did as Jesus had told them, with joy, and with great relief in their hearts. They had all assumed that things had gone so wrong, and they didn’t see any path forward. Now that they had seen Jesus alive and well, they finally began to understand: Everything had gone according to plan.

And that’s the significance of Jesus’ resurrection, or at least, the part we’re going to focus on today. Over the past three days we heard the prophet Isaiah unveil God’s plan before our eyes. No one in Israel understood it all before it happened, but after Jesus suffered and died and rose again, the plan becomes obvious.

No, His betrayal by Judas, His abandonment by the disciples, His arrest in the garden were not unexpected. It went according to plan.

No, the torture and condemnation Jesus received from Jews and Gentiles alike, the coordination of Pilate with Herod on Good Friday, were not mistakes. It went according to plan.

No, the form of Jesus’ death, being lifted up on a cross, having His hands and feet and side pierced, the soldiers casting lots for His clothing, His thirst, His prayers for His enemies, His death and burial were not accidents. It went according to plan.

The resurrection demonstrates that. God was not thwarted or defeated in Jesus’ suffering and death. His plan for the salvation of mankind was being accomplished through it. That’s why we celebrate the death of our God on Good Friday, because it was part of our God’s plan, part of His victory. And now Jesus’ disciples can look back and see the truth: Jesus was in control the whole time. That doesn’t in any way excuse any of the bad actors along the way. It just means that God is so great, so powerful, so wise that He was able to steer everything where it needed to go so that mankind could have a graphic picture of God’s commitment to mankind, and a valid sacrifice of atonement in which to take refuge, so that sinners could be saved.

For the world, this means that Jesus Christ is the King of the Jews, and the King of all, which means that all need to repent, urgently. And while Jesus died for everyone’s sins and wishes to reconcile all people to God through faith in His blood, if they remain enemies of Christ the King, the only Mediator between God and men, then they will remain enemies of God for eternity.

For the Church, including each of you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this means, you can either shout for joy, or, at least, breathe a sigh of relief. Because Jesus’ resurrection means that, no matter how great your sins have been, no matter how much you’ve suffered, no matter how difficult life in this world has become, for however out-of-control things seem to be, it’s going to be okay now. Christ is risen! That means that everything has gone according to plan, just as Jesus said it would. Everything is going according to plan. Everything will go according to plan—God’s good plan to gather His Church and to preserve those whom He has gathered, His dearly loved sons and daughters, whose Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and is now preparing a place in glory for each one of His brothers and sisters, that we, too, may rise from the dead one day and join Him in the life that is truly life. Amen.

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You are part of your Savior’s victory

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Sermon for the Vigil of Easter

Isaiah 54:1-17

We can’t do justice tonight to the 54th chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, which you heard earlier among the Old Testament readings. You’ve heard so much from the Holy Spirit this evening and this week, so many Scriptures so full of meaning. So I offer you this brief summary and encouragement from the prophet Isaiah for our Vigil of Easter.

The theme of Isaiah 52 was, Rejoice, O Church of God! Your Savior is coming! Isaiah 53: Behold! Here is your Savior, who will bear your sins, suffer and die for them, and rise again in victory. Isaiah 54: Rejoice, O Church of God! You are part of your Savior’s victory!

Now, what is the victory of your Savior? He made it all the way through His life, and especially through His sufferings, sinlessly. He died innocently, providing the atoning sacrifice for all mankind. He rose from the dead victoriously. But His victory goes on! As Isaiah had put it in chapter 53, He lives to justify many. Or as the Lord says at the end of chapter 54, This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me. The Christian’s righteousness before God doesn’t come from ourselves at all. It comes from the Lord Jesus. Christ’s victory over the grave enables Him to apply His perfect righteousness to all who believe, to clothe us with it as a garment, a garment we’ve all put on—or are about to put on!—in Holy Baptism.

And when He justifies people, when He forgives them their sins, the Lord doesn’t leave them out in the cold. He brings them into His Father’s family, into His Holy Christian Church, and cares for them there. I will build My Church, Jesus had told His disciples months before His death and resurrection. I will bring My sheep into this fold.

And so God comforts His Old Testament Church, Sing, O barren woman, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations.

You, dear Christians, are those descendants of barren Jerusalem. You are part of the vast expansion of God’s holy Church. The true Church of the Old Testament has given birth to the children of the New Testament. Look! Here you are, the children of desolate Jerusalem, listening patiently, with joy in your hearts, to the story of God’s works for the good of mankind! Look, here you are celebrating your Savior’s victory over sin, death, and the devil. Look! Here they are, two more who will be added to the number of baptized believers tonight. You are Christ’s victory! You are His prize! And you won’t be the last! Amen.

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The Servant’s suffering and triumph

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Sermon for Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Behold! My Servant! God says through the prophet Isaiah about the coming Christ. Nowhere do we behold the Lord’s servant like we do on Good Friday. Isaiah 53, and the final verses of chapter 52, unfold the events of Good Friday for us, both the “what” and the “why.” They talk about the suffering of the Christ, but their theme is His triumph over suffering and His exaltation after His humiliation. We begin with the last few verses of Isaiah 52.

Behold, My Servant shall prosper; He shall rise and be lifted up and be highly exalted. One could also translate that last word as “glorified.” “He shall rise and be lifted up and glorified.” Maybe that reminds you of what Jesus said about Himself just three days earlier on busy Tuesday: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…But if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself.” St. John tells us that this was a reference to the kind of death He would die, by being “lifted up” on a cross. So, you see, even this verse from Isaiah’s prophecy points, in a cryptic way, to the crucifixion of the Lord’s Servant. That understanding goes well with the next verse: Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.

Isaiah continues, So shall He sprinkle many nations. Moses, the Mediator of the Old Covenant, sprinkled the blood of the Old Testament on the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai. So the Christ will sprinkle the blood of His New Testament beyond Israel, on many nations. In other words, after shedding His own blood on the cross and providing atonement for sins, He will apply that atonement throughout the world through preaching, through the sprinkling of Holy Baptism, and through the meal of the New Testament which is His holy Supper.

But if He’s going to do that, He can’t remain dead, and we can see that here in Isaiah’s prophecy, too. My Servant shall prosper; He shall rise and be lifted up and be highly exalted. Those words can also point to Christ’s glory in His resurrection and exaltation following His death. It’s all there underneath Isaiah’s prophecy. And it’s there for you and me, so that we can see that this was God’s will all along, for His Son to suffer, die, and rise again, and then prosper in bringing people from every nation into the New Covenant in His blood.

Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider. The word will go out of what He has done, and even kings will be amazed. They will be made speechless by this astonishing plan of salvation that no mind of man could have imagined. Many will believe!

But many will not believe, especially in Israel, as St. Paul explains the next words of Isaiah’s prophecy: Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Even after all the prophecies fulfilled on Good Friday, even after the Lord’s resurrection, most in Israel would not believe. That unbelief is what led to Israel despising Christ in the first place. And that’s what we hear about in the next verses.

…He has no form or majesty; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Jesus never appeared regal, never looked like a king, much less like God Himself. But how much worse that became on Good Friday, after He had been abused and tortured. When Pilate brought Him out before the crowd in that purple robe, with the crown of thorns on His head and with all the blood and bruises from the blows He had received—truly He was despised.

Why? Was God really so angry with Him? Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Oh. That’s why He suffered. That’s why He died. Not because God was angry with Him. But because God was angry with us—with all sinners. We all have iniquities, we all have transgressions recorded in the books that will be opened at the Last Judgment. We have, every one of us, gone our own way, done things our way in this life. We all should have paid for those sins with our lives, with our eternal souls. But God’s anger against us for our sins was not as great as His love for us, not as great as His desire that we should be saved. So He caused His beloved Son to suffer the things we all should have suffered, to pay the price we couldn’t pay, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And the Son willingly obeyed.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Jesus didn’t defend Himself before the Sanhedrin or before Pontius Pilate. Because His goal wasn’t to be released or to prove Himself right before men. His goal, all along, was to suffer and die for our sins.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. The death of the Christ is clearly prophesied here, and in the following words. And they made His grave with the wicked— but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. The innocent Christ had to die. And He had to be buried in the tomb of the rich Joseph of Arimathea. That small, small benefit had to be granted to Him, to be buried in an elegant, rich man’s tomb, because, although He was treated like a wicked man in His death, He was the only “unwicked” man who has ever lived.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By knowledge of Him My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.

What an amazing sentence! It pleased the LORD to bruise Him—to bruise His own beloved Son, and to put Him to grief, because it pleased Him to save us from our sins. And, because Jesus was innocent, because Jesus suffered not for His own sins but for ours, His resurrection from the dead is clearly prophesied here, too, as well as the success He would have in bringing many to faith in Him, by which He would justify them, save them, and make them children of God.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

In the coming days, we’ll talk about that “portion with the great” that God the Father would bestow on His Son. For now, take comfort in the Son’s willingness to pour out His life unto death, so that you and I, who deserved death, might share in His life. Yes, stand in awe of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His willingness to be numbered with the transgressors, so that you and I, who are transgressors, might be numbered with the saints, through faith in His blood. Amen.

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Rejoice! Your Savior is coming!

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Sermon for Maundy Thursday

Isaiah 52:1-12

After hearing the whole story of the events of Holy Thursday, what can we say? The Scriptures lay it all out so plainly, all that Christ did and all that He endured, from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the high priest. Of course, all that was still leading up to Good Friday, when the Author of our salvation would finish the offering of Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice of atonement. We’ll spend just a few moments yet this evening applying the words of the prophet Isaiah to these events, selected verses from chapter 52, which has chapter 53 directly in view, the chapter for Good Friday. As Maundy Thursday leads into Good Friday, as Isaiah 52 leads into Isaiah 53, the message of Isaiah for Maundy Thursday rings out loud and clear: O Church of God, rejoice! Your Savior is coming!

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! Isaiah isn’t talking to unbelieving Jerusalem now—the Jerusalem that was about to put Jesus to death, but to believing Jerusalem, the “holy city,” to the believers in God’s Church who were yearning for God’s deliverance from their captivity, not only from Babylon, but from sin, death, and the devil. To the captives longing for their salvation to appear, Isaiah writes, Put on strength and put on your beautiful garments, because, through the suffering of Christ that Isaiah was about to reveal in chapter 53, through the suffering of Christ that would take place between Maundy Thursday evening and Good Friday afternoon, your Savior is coming!

For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Never in history has this promise been fulfilled in a literal way for Jerusalem. Clearly it’s a spiritual promise, that, through the work of Christ, the suffering Servant described in chapter 53, God’s people would be protected, would be kept safe from the devil and his allies, even as Jesus protected His fickle disciples in the Garden and promises that He will give His sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

Shake yourself from the dust, arise and take your seat, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing…

Sold yourselves for nothing—what did Adam and Eve get from eating from that forbidden tree and selling themselves and their children into the slavery of sin? Nothing. What did Israel get for trying to make alliances with Gentile nations and foreign gods? Nothing. What did Jesus’ disciples get for forsaking Him in the garden? What did Peter get for denying Him three times? What do any of us get for giving in to sin and temptation? Nothing.

But, by God’s grace, we also don’t have to pay anything toward our redemption. and you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord GOD: “What have I here,” says the LORD, “That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them make them wail,” says the LORD, “And My name is blasphemed continually every day. Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

Redeemed without money, but not for free. Redeemed with the humble service of Christ Jesus, with His child-like obedience to His heavenly Father. Redeemed with the bloody sweat of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Redeemed with the betrayal, abandonment, and denials He willingly suffered, with the blows He received in the high priest’s presence, with the condemnation that was pronounced upon Him by the traitorous leaders of the Church, along with the blood He shed on Good Friday. My people shall know My name, God says. And many in Israel did come to know it as they saw what the Lord Jesus willingly endured for them. We have come to know it, too, by watching (through the preaching of it) what Jesus did, said, and suffered on the night of Maundy Thursday, pointing ahead to the culmination of it all on Good Friday.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” … Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah is looking ahead to Maundy Thursday, and to Good Friday. And beyond! He foresees the Gospel going out, proclaiming the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and, of course, also Easter Sunday. The going out of the good news is essential. Because Jesus didn’t actually save you when He suffered and when He died on the cross. That was the cause of your salvation, but not the timing of it. The timing of it is tied to the bringing of the good news to your ears, the good news of God’s promise to deliver you, through faith, from sin, death, and the devil, on account of the suffering and death of His Servant, the Christ. Your salvation is tied, not only to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection, but also to hearing the good news, and to having water poured on you in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to eating and drinking the body and blood that were the price of your salvation in that Sacrament first instituted on Maundy Thursday evening.

Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing…For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Depart! A command, a gracious invitation for the Church of God to leave behind its captivity, not only in Babylon, where Jerusalem was held captive for 70 years, but in the devil’s kingdom and in the grasp of sin and death. Because Christ, your Champion, is coming (from Isaiah’s perspective)! Has come, from ours. He went out into battle on that Thursday night, leading the way for His Church, defeating our enemies as He went. And then He became our rear guard also, making sure that we are kept safe from sin and from the devil all the way through this life, until, by faith in Him, we reach the heavenly Promised Land. Amen.

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The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified

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Sermon for Holy Tuesday

Harmony of the Gospels for Holy Tuesday

Holy Tuesday is often referred to as “busy Tuesday,” and I think we can all appreciate why, after hearing the extended reading this evening. For the most part, “busy Tuesday” was a final opportunity for Jesus to accomplish a few different goals: to teach the people who were willing to listen, to expose the lies, hypocrisy, and unbelief of the Jewish leaders, and to give His own disciples—and future generations—the instructions they and we would need to make it, not just through Holy Week, but through the coming years, all the way up until His second coming.

First, let’s run through the list of Tuesday’s events: (1) Jesus defended His authority before the Jewish leaders. (2) He spoke three parables against them: The parable of the two sons sent into the vineyard, of the wicked vinedressers, and the great wedding banquet for the king’s son. (3) He was tested by the Herodians about paying taxes to Caesar, by the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, and by the Pharisees concerning the Great Commandment. (4) Jesus then questioned them about the Christ as both David’s Son and David’s Lord, which put an end to all their testing. (5) Jesus gave a fire-and-brimstone-type sermon against the scribes and Pharisees, “Woe to you, you hypocrites!” (6) He was shown a ray of hope in the widow’s humble faith as she dropped her two little coins into the treasury, and in the desire of the Greeks to come and see Him. (7) He instructed His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end times, and His return for judgment, and then told them the parables of the Ten Virgins and of the sheep and the goats. (8) Finally, He prophesied His arrest in two days, which would be followed by His suffering, death, and resurrection. (9) And then Judas went to the Jewish leaders and agreed to sell His Lord for thirty pieces of silver.

What shall we say about all this? What shall we focus on in the brief time we have left together this evening?

Let’s focus on Jesus’ statement, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain… Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Since the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus had been telling His disciples that His hour had not yet come. Several times people had tried to kill Jesus, even in His hometown of Nazareth. But no one could touch Him, because His hour had not yet come. Several times people had wanted Jesus to reveal Himself to the world as the Messiah, to draw all people to Himself. But He couldn’t. He wouldn’t, because His hour had not yet come. Finally now, on busy Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus knows that His hour has come, that it’s only two days away until the devil, the “ruler of this world,” will manipulate the minds of the men who belong to the unbelieving world to have Jesus seized and put on trial, that it’s only three days away until He is “lifted up from the earth.”

Will He shrink back from it? Of course not! This is why the Father sent Him. This is what He “signed up for.” And while He does not look forward to dying (as we see most acutely in His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane), He is able to see what His death will accomplish. It will “produce much grain.” It will make it possible for sinful men—for you and me—to be accepted by a holy God, who designed this sacrifice of atonement to be the sufficient payment for the sins of the world. The preaching of His death will change the hearts of millions as we are shown the extent to which God was willing to go to save us from the ruler of this world, by handing His beloved Son, His obedient Son, His innocent Son over to the devil and His allies among men, so that they might do to Him whatever they wanted.

And by giving His life into death for our sins, the Lord Jesus would cast out the devil, the ruler of the world. The strong man would be bound by the Stronger Man. The devil’s ability to accuse believers would be nullified. His ability to drag us to hell would be removed. And one day the devil himself will be taken completely out of the picture because of the victory of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus sees what will happen when He is lifted up from the earth onto a cross. He sees the countless numbers of men from all over the world who will be drawn to Him, drawn to know God through His sacrifice and to trust in Him as their Savior and King. It’s what kept Him going through that Holy Week, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.

And you are part of that, part of the reason why Jesus allowed Himself to be lifted up on the cross, part of the joy that sustained Him through the agony and the pain, part of the purpose of all His busy-ness on busy Tuesday, that you might know everything you need to know and believe everything you need to believe in order to be saved. Take that knowledge, take that faith and let it determine how you live from now on, that the life you live in the body you no longer live for yourself, but for Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Amen.

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The events of Holy Monday

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Sermon for Holy Monday

Harmony of the Events of Holy Week for Monday

Not much is recorded in Scripture for the Monday of Holy Week. Just two events: The cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple. These are the things the Holy Spirit has revealed to us about the Lord Jesus four days before His crucifixion. Let’s consider them both.

As Jesus was making His way toward Jerusalem on that Monday morning, He noticed a fig tree. And He went up to it to inspect it, to see if it had fruit. It had leaves, but no figs at all. So He cursed it. Not the kind of curse where you use foul language, but the kind of curse where you express a wish for harm to come upon someone, or, in this case, something. May no one eat fruit from you ever again! And, as we heard in our reading this evening, by the next morning, that fig tree had withered and died.

Peter was amazed that the tree could wither like that so quickly. And we wonder how he could possibly be amazed after Jesus had calmed the storms and walked on the water and changed water into wine. Maybe his amazement had something to do with the fact that he had never seen Jesus destroy anything before. Every other miracle Jesus had done was to help people. This is the first and only time in His life, as far as we know, that Jesus wished harm upon anything. So we have to ask, why? It seems like such an unimportant thing, to find a fig tree without fruit, especially when it wasn’t even the season for figs.

To understand this event, we have to look back to a parable Jesus had told earlier in His ministry: He spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, good. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

The fig tree in the parable represents the people of Israel. God had given them time to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, as John the Baptist had begun calling on them to do some four years before Holy Week. For three years, although God certainly found some within the nation who repented, He found no repentance in the nation as a whole. The vast majority worshiped Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. Jesus is like the keeper of the vineyard who pleaded for a time of grace, for one more year before God should cut the nation down. And He worked tirelessly to turn people’s hearts to God. But now, as of Holy Week, that year had come to an end. And still the nation of Israel, as a whole, stood in rebellion against God. They had produced no fruit. They were about to put God’s own Son to death, and Jesus knew it. And so, as Jesus speaks a curse upon the fig tree, He is essentially indicating that the time of grace for Israel has ended. During Old Testament times, Israel often fell away and then repented and returned to the Lord. That pattern had repeated many times. Not anymore. From then on, Israel, as a nation, as a people, would never come to repentance. They would never be allowed to produce fruit again.

That curse didn’t prevent individual Jews from coming to repentance and faith in Jesus as the Christ, as we see from the Day of Pentecost onward. Some did, and some still do today! But never again would the whole nation return to the Lord. Never again would God consider Israel to be His “chosen people.” Israel would be expelled from God’s Holy Church.

This event is a stern reminder that, while God’s patience is long, it is not unlimited. The same Jesus whom we know to be the Savior of the world, whose chief purpose in coming into the world was not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him—that same Jesus will also be the Judge of mankind. The same Jesus who allowed unbelievers to torture and kill Him will one day sentence those who remain unbelieving to eternal torture and death. If you would know Jesus rightly, then you must know Him both as Savior and as Judge. But know also that His fervent desire is to save men, not to judge them. So don’t despise this time of grace that you’ve been given to turn from sin and to find full and free forgiveness and salvation in the Lord Jesus!

After cursing the fig tree, Jesus and His disciples made their way to the temple in Jerusalem, where we’re told that Jesus taught daily. But before He could do that teaching, He had to take care of something first.

The temple area was littered with tables and chairs and people using them to buy and sell and change money. But that was never God’s purpose for the temple. This was to be the one place on earth where people could come to find God, to pray and to know that their prayers would be heard favorably, to hear the Word of God, as Jesus was able to hear it in the temple when He was twelve years old. This is where God commanded sacrifices to be offered, and where mankind could find atonement for sins and forgiveness through that atonement. It was supposed to symbolize Christ Himself, in whom alone God is pleased and through whom alone people can find a reconciled God. It was to be a house of prayer for all nations. But they had made it into a noisy den of thieves.

So Jesus, the Temple’s true Owner, used His authority to cleanse it. Zeal for God’s house consumed Him. Zeal for God’s honor, and even more, zeal for God’s people consumed Him. God’s people needed this temple, needed this place of prayer, and sacrifice, and the preaching of the Word of God. So, for their sake, Jesus cleansed the temple of all the distractions, even as He had done on another occasion, at His first Passover after beginning His ministry. That’s when He had made that cryptic statement to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it,” referring to the temple of His body. In fact, that was the very charge that the false witnesses brought up at Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin (although they misquoted Him even then), and it may well be that this cleansing of the temple caused them to remember what He had said when He cleansed it the first time a few years earlier.

Yes, in these early days of Holy Week, we find Jesus putting on full display God’s anger against the unbelieving Jews—which is what makes it all the more striking that, on Good Friday, not a drop of that anger would be poured out on the wicked. Instead, it would all be poured out on the innocent Son of God, which is the ultimate testimony that God does not desire the death of the wicked, but has given the wicked every possible opportunity to turn from their wickedness and be saved.

That’s why Jesus kept teaching daily in the Temple during Holy Week. And notice, it was not without effect. The people hung on Jesus’ words, and the children sang to Him the very praises they had heard the day before, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Because it’s only by the word of Christ that sinners, both Jews and Gentiles, both children and adults, will be brought to repentance and faith, will be cleansed and made into pure temples of God the Holy Spirit, and will be enabled to produce the fruits of faith that God seeks from all the fig trees in His Holy Christian Church. Amen.

Source: Sermons