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.

Source: Sermons

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.

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The events of Palm Sunday (and the day before)

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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  + Harmony of the Gospels for Palm Sunday

And so it begins, our annual walk with Jesus through this Holy Week. We don’t pretend that the events are happening all over again. Jesus didn’t ride in on a donkey today, nor will He be crucified again on Good Friday, nor will His body return to the tomb for the great Sabbath rest. So there’s no need for us to be overly somber or mournful this week. Holy Week isn’t for reenacting these events from Jesus’ life. It’s for remembering—or, if necessary, learning for the first time—what that special week was all about, the lessons Jesus taught, the things Jesus suffered, and the reason why He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. As Martin Luther wrote in his order for the German Mass, “Lent, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week shall be retained, not to force anyone to fast, but to preserve the Passion history and the Gospels appointed for that season…Holy Week shall be like any other week save that the Passion history be explained every day for an hour throughout the week or on as many days as may be desirable, and that the sacrament be given to everyone who desires it. For among Christians the whole service should center in the Word and sacrament.” And so it shall.

Just about everything that took place during that first Holy Week took everyone by surprise, except for Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus. Mary knew, at least in a general way, how that week would end. That’s why she poured out all that expensive oil on Jesus’ head and feet, to anoint Him for His burial, which would take place within a week’s time.

Mary knew. And, of course, Jesus knew. He knew everything, even where His disciples would find a pair of donkeys tied up, a mother and her colt. And still, knowing how the week would end, He sent for the donkeys. And He got up on that young colt on which no one had ever sat. It had been reserved in God’s master design for this sacred use by the Son of God. Not that He needed it to get to Jerusalem. He had always walked to the city before. No, He needed it to send the intended message—a message which even His own disciples didn’t fully understand until after the fact. It was the message God had sent to Israel hundreds of years ahead of time, through the prophet Zechariah: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The message was that Jesus was the promised Christ, that He was the true, eternal King of the Jews, that He had come to bring salvation to His people, and that He had come to do it first in a spiritual way, not as a glorious champion, but as a humble one, not as a commander of armies riding in on a horse, but as the Commander of angel hosts riding in on a donkey, not as a king sitting on a throne, but as a King hanging from a cross. He would bring salvation to His people, not by seizing power, but by allowing Himself to be seized. He would bring salvation, not by punishing the guilty, but by bearing the guilt of all men, not by ushering in an age of justice among men, but by suffering the most terrible injustice at the hands of men. The One who occupied the highest place of power and glory, together with God the Father, would humble Himself down to the lowest place of shame, disgrace, and death.

And yet, for all His humility, He welcomed the praises of the people that day. They weren’t the empty praises of flatterers. They were the genuine praises of people who knew they needed saving somehow, and who believed that Jesus was coming to save them somehow, although they didn’t know what kind of saving they actually needed or how Jesus would accomplish their salvation. They didn’t realize that the devil was their greatest enemy—a far greater enemy than poverty or than social injustice or than political oppressors—the one who had approached the first human beings in a garden and overcame them by convincing them to rebel against God by eating from a forbidden tree, whence death arose. They didn’t grasp how big God’s plans were, that He had ordained the salvation of mankind to come from another tree, from the tree (or the wood) of the cross (listen for a reference to this later on in the Proper Preface before Communion), so that people might “eat” from that tree and live forever. How? By believing in the crucified Christ, who was delivered up to death for our sins and raised again to life for our justification, that we might be justified by faith in the One who willingly made His way to the cross for us, through all the opposition that He faced during Holy Week, through all the suffering He endured from the Garden of Gethsemane up to the great “It is finished!”

The people of Jerusalem couldn’t fathom all that Jesus, their true Passover Lamb, would endure on their behalf during that Holy Week. And yet they still went out to meet Him and sang His praises with joy in their hearts. God the Father had ordained that Jesus must receive this well-deserved praise as the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Yes, the Father insisted on it, so much so that, if the people had remained silent, then the stones themselves would have had to cry out in praise of Jesus, the King of the Jews, as Jesus told the angry Pharisees.

But the joy wouldn’t last, at least, not for most of Jerusalem. Jesus foresaw that and wept for the city, for the people whom God the Father had invited ahead of time to His Son’s banquet of salvation. He wasn’t weeping for what the Jews would do to Him on Good Friday. Yes, their behavior would be wicked and appalling, but they could have been forgiven for that. Jesus was about to give His life to make atonement for all the wickedness of men, even the wickedness of crucifying the Son of God. But there is no forgiveness, only condemnation, both temporal and eternal, for those who refuse to repent of their wickedness, who go on living in it, who are proud of their sins, or who try to make up for them in some other way than by trusting in Jesus Christ, whose blood alone can reconcile sinners to God.

But you are here today as those who have repented of your wickedness, who do repent of it, and who recognize the Lord Jesus as your King and your Savior. You know that He came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to spend the week there fighting for you, suffering for you, and teaching you the things you need to know for your salvation. So may the Lord bless our meditations this week as we hear large portions of His inspired Word. May God bless our learning and our remembering, and may He grant us the spirit to hear and to listen, to thank and to praise, to love and to appreciate Jesus, our Savior and King, and to rejoice in Him and in the peace of His kingdom. Amen.

Source: Sermons

The gift of being able to say, I am the LORD’s.

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Sermon for Midweek of Lent 5

Isaiah 44:1-20

Before we walk briefly through the first 20 verses of Isaiah 44, I want to explain now something that I won’t have time to explain next week, with the long readings we’ll be hearing.

As we’ve discussed before, the last 27 chapters of Isaiah (chapters 40-66) form a literary unit which is neatly divided into three 9-chapter units, which, in turn, are each neatly divided into three 3-chapter units. As it turns out, Isaiah 52, 53, and 54 form such a unit, with Isaiah 53 being the central chapter, not only of that unit, but of the last 27 chapters. In Hebrew literature, and especially in Hebrew poetry, there’s a technique called “centering,” where the main idea of a section is placed right in the center, right in the middle. When I say, “Isaiah 53,” I hope that you immediately think of Good Friday, because that’s always the Old Testament reading for Good Friday, as it describes so accurately Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. So next week, since we’re focusing on Isaiah during this whole Church Year, we’ll hear Isaiah 52 on Maundy Thursday, Isaiah 53 on Good Friday, and Isaiah 54 at the Easter Vigil, and we’ll spend a little time unpacking each chapter on those days.

For now, we turn back to the 20 verses before us from Isaiah 44. 20 verses is a lot, but most of this section doesn’t require much commentary. Most of it is simply God’s justifiable mockery of those who worship idols.

Before we get to that part, though, God has some very encouraging words for Israel—words which apply directly to you and me.

“Yet hear me now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

God calls His people by three different names here: Jacob, Israel, and Jeshurun. That third name, Jeshurun, is only used a few times in the Old Testament, mostly in the book of Deuteronomy. It means “Upright One.” It was a name that was sometimes applied to Israel in a sarcastic way. They were meant to be upright among the nations. But very often they weren’t. Here it’s used sincerely as God is talking to the invisible Church, to the true believers in Israel. He also calls them “My servant,” and He says to them, “I have made, I have formed you from the womb, I have chosen you.” And to all that He adds the comforting command, “Fear not!” And to that He adds the promise, “I will help you.” What a beautiful way for God to talk to His children, to His chosen ones, to His elect.

How will He help His children?

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground;

God has been using this analogy in Isaiah for a while about putting water in dry places. Here He explains what that picture is referring to:

I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’ One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s’; Another will call himself by the name of Jacob; Another will write with his hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ And name himself by the name of Israel.

Pouring water on the thirsty one is a promise to pour out His Holy Spirit, with His all His blessings on the descendants of Israel. But these aren’t necessarily physical descendants of Israel, because many of them end up renaming themselves after Jacob or Israel, and they do that because they come to trust in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. So this is a promise to the believers in Old Testament Israel, to the Church of God at that time, that God would expand His Church, that it wouldn’t be a nation defined any longer by a national flag or a piece of land or a specific strain of DNA, but by true faith in the LORD God—faith worked by His Holy Spirit. It’s a promise fulfilled in large part on the Day of Pentecost, and in the following years when the Gospel went out and bore fruit in the world. It’s a promise that has come to include you and me, as we happily and readily say about ourselves as Christians, “I am the LORD’s. I belong to the LORD, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am part of the true people of Israel, because the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, has persuaded me that Jesus is the Christ, my Savior and King.”

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me, Since I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come, Let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ ”

The LORD God is the King and Redeemer of His Church. There is no other. He says here what Jesus says of Himself in the Book of Revelation: I am the First and the Last. There is no other God, no other Judge, no other Determiner of history, no other Savior, no other Rock in whom we can take refuge, no other King. Which is why it’s so foolish to pretend that there are other gods who deserve our worship, our praise, our prayers, our obedience, our affection, or our love. .

But that’s exactly what the idolaters do—they pretend, they play make-believe. And so God lays into them in the rest of the verses of our text that are just dripping with mockery. It’s absolute stupidity to do what idolaters do. Taking a chunk of wood, using half of it to make a fire, bake bread, and keep himself warm, while taking the other half and crafting it into the shape of something or someone, ascribing a name to it, and then bowing down to it, praying to it, and expecting help from it. And they’re so given over in their minds to this foolishness that they don’t even see the problem with it!

There are still some people who bow down to a piece of carved wood—or stone or marble or clay, or to animals or to inanimate objects in the natural world. But the truth is, that’s not the only form of idolatry that’s ridiculous and worthy of being mocked by God. Is it really any less foolish to idolize science, or scientists, or mother nature, or space aliens? What about actors and celebrities and TV personalities? Or philosophers, theologians, or church fathers? Founding fathers, politicians, political parties, the American flag? Money, family, your own heart?

No, it’s foolish and ridiculous to worship any of these things, to serve them or to set your heart on them. Set your heart on the LORD God of Israel, who has given His Son into death for your sins. Set your heart on the LORD God of Israel, who has given You His word and His Spirit, who has brought you to faith in Christ Jesus, and who makes you able to say, “I am the LORD’s. I am His servant. He is my God and my Help, by King and my Rock. And there is no other.” Amen.

Source: Sermons

The claims that required vindication

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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation! That was the opening verse of today’s Introit, from Psalm 43. Vindicate me, O God! That’s the cry of a righteous man who has been unjustly accused of unrighteousness, of a truthful man who has wrongly been called a liar, of an innocent man who has been unjustly accused and judged and condemned as a criminal. It’s a plea to God, who sees the truth, to stand up for the one who is being falsely accused, to rescue him, to make him victorious over his accusers. Men may get it wrong. They may treat the just man unjustly. But in the end, God will sort it all out and see to it that the righteous are vindicated and that the unrighteous are condemned.

Now, if Christians who have been falsely accused can pray this Psalm—and we can!—how much more the Son of God when He is falsely accused! And that’s exactly what we see happening in today’s Gospel. This Gospel is a fitting preparation for Holy Week as Jesus’ bitter enemies, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, spoke to Him with utter hatred and contempt, falsely accusing Him of all sorts of things. Next week, we’ll watch Jesus being falsely accused before the Jewish Council and before Pontius Pilate on Good Friday, and we’ll marvel at His silence. But in today’s Gospel, which takes place several months before Holy Week, Jesus does not remain silent at all. In fact, He doubles down and makes even bolder claims before the unbelieving Jews—claims that would, eventually, get Him killed, claims that would, eventually, require vindication from God.

“Which one of you convicts me of sin? And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?

The Pharisees and other unbelieving Jewish leaders had been scolding Jesus on this day for His teaching. They had been boasting about their lineage from Abraham. “How dare you claim that you are some kind of savior, that we need you, that you were sent from God? We’re Abraham’s children. We’re the chosen people of God, Jesus! You’re a nobody!” And yet not one of them could prove anything Jesus said to be untrue. No one could point to any sin He had committed. Everything He did proved that He was telling the truth, and yet they still refused to believe Him. Here He tells them why that’s the case: He who is from God hears God’s words. This is why you do not hear, because you are not from God.

In other words, God’s children listen to God’s Word. The fact that people refuse to listen to Jesus, refuse to believe in Him, proves that they are not God’s children. That’s an accusation from Jesus, and how much of our society, of our world, would be on the receiving end of such an accusation! “You won’t listen to God’s Word. You insist on making up your own truth, your own right and wrong, your own doctrines and beliefs, your own way of salvation. You who do this—you are not God’s children.” That’s the accusation Jesus made against the unbelieving Jews. It’s the same accusation He continues to make against the unbelievers of the world. And people today mostly react the same way the Jews did to that accusation:

The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?”

They mocked Jesus as a Samaritan, a half-breed, an outsider, a worshiper of a false god, and even possessed by the devil. The world does the same thing today. They hold up their own false version of God—sometimes, even their own version of Jesus!—as the true God and label Bible-believing Christians as the mean ones, as the intolerant ones, as the ones on the wrong side of history.

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges.”

Notice, Jesus doesn’t launch into a grand defense of His words or His ministry. He doesn’t dabble in philosophy or apologetics. He simply denies having a demon, and claims that He is honoring His Father. He even claims that God seeks honor for Him, for Jesus, and He threatens the unbelieving Jews, that God will judge the one who does not honor Jesus. Then He adds an astounding promise:

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.

Death comes for us all. Everyone knows that. Imagine hearing someone claim that their words were the key to avoiding death. Now, what does it mean to keep Jesus’ word? It means, first, to believe He is telling the truth about God, about Himself, about us, about right and wrong, and about the way of salvation from death, which is through faith in Him as the Conqueror of death, sent by God to save sinful human beings who are otherwise destined to die, and to suffer death forever. But it means more than believing it to be true. Keeping His word also means actually acknowledging and repenting of our sins, trusting in Him for the forgiveness of sins, and seeking to put His word into practice in how we think and speak and behave in this world. Those who keep His word will never see death, will never taste death. That’s not a promise that our bodies won’t give out. It’s a promise that, when they do, our souls will not experience even a moment of hell or of separation from God, but will go on living with the life that we have in Him even now, and that, one day, our bodies will be raised and perfected and joined back together with our souls.

But all that was too much for the Jewish leaders. Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

They just can’t believe. They can’t believe anyone would be so bold, to claim that He can keep people from dying. That’s even crazier than claiming that God created the universe in six natural day—which those Jews likely believed. But to them, Jesus’ words couldn’t possibly be true, because if they were, that would mean that He was greater than Abraham, greater than the prophets. It fact, it would mean that Jesus was truly sent by God, was the Lord of life and the Ruler over death. And they were not going to accept that.

Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God.

The Father had been honoring Jesus throughout His ministry, in every miracle Jesus performed, in every perfect outcome of everything Jesus said and did. That’s why we really need to take note during Holy Week next week, because during that Holy Week, some 2,000 years ago, for about three days, the Father would not publicly honor Jesus. Instead, He would allow Him to be utterly dishonored by men. Why? And would the Christ ever be vindicated? That will be our focus next week.

For now, Jesus just keeps doubling down on His claims. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” Not only does Jesus call His detractors, “liars” for claiming to know God when, in fact, they didn’t know Him, but He adds another claim, almost as a taunt. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

You know, there are many, many so-called Christians today who claim that Abraham never believed in Jesus, and, therefore, modern Jews will also be saved without believing in Jesus. But in this text Jesus proves them all to be liars. Abraham did believe in Jesus. He saw Jesus from afar and put his faith in Him and rejoiced in Him, the distant Seed of Abraham who would come and be a blessing to all nations. In fact, when Abraham encountered the LORD God, even back in Abraham’s day, the truth is, he encountered the person of Jesus, though not the Man Jesus, because, unlike the rest of us, Jesus existed before He was born. In fact, He existed before the universe was born, from the beginning, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus is. Or as He puts it, “I AM.”

This is the One whom you worship, dear Christians. The LORD, the great I AM, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of God and the Son of Man. This is the One who confronted the unbelievers in Israel, who spoke the truth to them but was called a liar, who was righteous but who was branded as unrighteous, who was innocent, and yet who was, eventually, put to death. They couldn’t do it on that day, because, as John says, His hour had not yet come. But it would, and we’ll spend next week hearing about it in detail. The accusers and enemies and murderers of Christ would have their day. And Jesus cries out through the Psalmist, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation! For a few days, it would appear that the Father didn’t hear Jesus’ plea. But all that would change on the third day, when Christ’s vindication would come.

You, too, will be vindicated, eventually, against all the false accusations people make against you, against all the mistreatment of the world, against all the apparent victories of the devil, who has been pummeling and pummeling the true Christian Church on earth for a long time now. When you suffer unjustly, when you’re unjustly accused, when the world condemns you, when the devil comes for you, when death itself comes for you, don’t lose heart. Say, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, against unjust persecution, against sin, death, and the power of the devil. And you’ll see. God will vindicate you, just as He vindicated His perfectly innocent Son, to whom you belong, because, unlike the unbelievers in our Gospel, you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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