Sermons

May 14, 2017                                                             Text:  Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a, 51-60

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Richard Wurmbrand was a Lutheran Pastor in Romania when the Communists came to power.  The Romanian communist government organized a Congress of Cults.  It was a platform for religious leaders to affirm their loyalty to communism and the new government.

Pastor Wurmbrand’s wife, Sabina, said to him, “Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ.”  Wurmbrand warned, “If I do this, you’ll lose your husband.”  “I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband,” she replied.  In a speech broadcast to the whole country and in front of 4,000 others, Wurmbrand confessed that the Christian is to worship Christ alone.

Wurmbrand’s example reminds us that it is against Jesus as God and His authority that His enemies rail against.  We are comforted by remembering that it is our Lord whom they hate as God.

This is the story of Stephen in our text.  He gave a passionate, Bible-based plea for Christ and the faith.  We know it made a difference in at least one life that day.  Let’s see the day enfold and how it brought about . . .

“A CHANGE OF HEART”

Here is the background that Stephen has been placed in.  He is a Christian believer and a member of the Jerusalem church.  “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.  And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.” (v. 7-8)

Well this was causing trouble.  Stephen was doing miracles in Christ’s name, something only the called disciples had been doing up to this time.  Certainly the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.  Things were in motion for a change of heart.

Are people ever bothered that you tell them the Lord has healed you?  What about the protection you receive from the Lord’s angels?  Is that ever scoffed at?  We all know someone who could use a change of heart.  Someone questioning the faith or downright antagonistic toward it.  Someone in our inner circle or on the fringes of our personal contacts.  Oh, we want them to have what we have so badly.  Why can’t they see it?

Why the Word melts some hearts while others deliberately and permanently harden themselves against it, no man knows.  The former is due wholly to God’s grace; the latter is due wholly to man’s guilt.  You and I cannot change hearts so don’t get worked up or frustrated.  The Holy Spirit working through the means of grace is the ultimate heart-changer.

This is what Stephen understood.  When he gave his speech in Acts 7, which is not in our text, but which I encourage you to read, he was conducting a Bible Class.  What he said was all true and part of Israel’s history.  His accusers also know the validity of his pronouncement but they can’t turn toward the truth because they are “stiff-necked” and “uncircumcised in heart and ears.”  Stephen is like a surgeon cutting deep into their unbelief.  The corruption needs to come out.  The heart cannot be saved if the cancer has ravaged the other organs.

They were enraged.  Grinding of teeth is heard.  But Stephen preaches on.  He sees Jesus at the right hand of God just as the Savior had promised when He ascended into heaven.  Now he has gone too far.  Jesus is dead.  He has to be dead.  Our ears can’t take anymore, you have offended us.  He is seized, taken outside of the city where stones are readily available and the arms of those men sling hatred and death his way.  But before the onslaught takes him to eternity the Lord allows these five last words that will change hearts.  “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Stephen countered hatred for Jesus with love and truth.  Like our text and from those around us, we get most upset when we are told the truth.  That seems to set us off because we have no defense.  From childhood on we can rant and rave when our conscience and brain battle our heart.  This is the way of Satan.  Who has always yelled the loudest on planet earth?  Those who know the truth told is about them.  Today it is reaching epidemic proportions.  We need to pray for a change of heart.  We need to pray for others to have a change of heart.  Like Stephen, the gift of the Holy Spirit is ours.  He gives words.  He gives actions.  His power can work the miracle that we can’t see.

Who had a change of heart in our text?  “The witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.” (v. 58b)  Stephen’s prayer had a notable fulfillment.  Being a young man like Stephen, Saul soon stepped into Stephen’s vacant place, took up the martyr’s work, and carried it forward with great power.  The apostle Paul had a change of heart that could not have been imagined that day.

Don’t give up on the Saul’s in your life.  The Lord might just have a Paul waiting to happen.  Love them.  Pray for them.  Share the Word with them.  Live the faith that changed your heart.

I have now read a couple of books about Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand.  This is what they did.  Richard wrote in Tortured For Christ, “A flower, if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume.  Likewise, Christians tortured by the Communists, rewarded their torturers by love.  Many of our jailers were brought to Christ.  And we are dominated by one desire: to give Communists who have made us suffer the best we have, the salvation that comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The murdered Jesus, now resurrected seeks in love to change hearts and draw the entire world unto Himself.  May it be so for His sake.

Amen.

 

April 30, 2017                                                                        Text:  Luke 24:13-35

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

What kind of a guest are you?  If you stay a day or two or more with family or friends are you the kind of guest they want to invite back?  Or are you like me who needs my space and after about 24-36 hours I just want to be home?  There is an expression that says, “After three days, company is like an old, dirty shirt.”  Houseguests can easily wear out their welcome.  Nice to have company but also nice when they leave.

The disciples entertained an unusual guest in today’s Gospel, one whose presence may not wear out as quickly as an old, dirty shirt.

“THE ABIDING GUEST”

In the beginning of our text the disciples mistake Jesus for a guest and visitor to Jerusalem.  “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” (v. 16)  They even treat him as an ignorant guest.  “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”  Even in the day of no cable news or instant messaging to not know what happened in Jerusalem would be like not knowing about 9/11 or the explosion of the space shuttle.  Some news is universal and a guy rising from the dead after crucifixion would certainly cause a Fox News Alert.

Jesus is getting a little irritating to these men.  He pulled their chain with, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” (v. 17)  “They stood still, looking sad.” (v. 17)  They had placed their whole hope in this “Jesus of Nazareth” as “the one to redeem Israel” (v. 21), but now that hope seemed dashed to pieces.

We all know about displaced aggression.  We get mad about something and take it out on a person that had nothing to do with what made us angry.  Jesus’ question didn’t warrant the strong reaction it received, but it had hit a sore spot, and it showed in their reaction.

Jesus was truly a guest of the disciples, but not as they perceived him.  He was hardly ignorant.  Although they do not know it yet, he is the very one who endured these things that have them so glum.  He knew the purpose of these things.  He was about to take them through a Bible study that would have their empty hearts bursting with hope.  Nor is He ignorant of the promise of God standing behind these things:  “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (v. 27)  And the risen Christ is hardly ignorant of the things that weigh us down, the idols that have failed us, the behaviors we are ashamed of and the irritants that we can be to others.

Jesus was only briefly irritating.  He hit a sore spot but it gave him opportunity to dress and heal it, as they would come to realize:  “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32)  Our sore spots burst open with his Law but it gives the Savior opportunity to heal it with the Gospel.

Christ is the guest from heaven.  “He acted as if he were going farther.” (v. 28)  With his redemptive work complete, he would be returning to the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is our abiding guest.  ”They urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is no far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them.” (v. 29)  They yearned for him to stay and it took no arm-twisting for him to abide with them.  Christ yearns for fellowship with those whom he in love has redeemed.

He abides with us, filling the Scriptures with himself.  “All the promises of God find their Yes in him.” (2 Cor. 1:20)  Without him, Scripture is a lifeless book of standards we can never attain.  Filled with him, the Scriptures contain eternal life.

He abides with us, making himself known to us “in the breaking of the bread” (v. 35), giving us his body and blood, the forgiveness of sins, fellowship with the Father, and a foretaste of the feast to come.  A host of hymns echo this theme of faith’s yearning for fellowship with our abiding guest, including our closing hymn.

Earthly house guests can quickly wear out their welcome, believe me I know, “when is that guy going to leave!”  But not this abiding guest.  Though heaven was his home, the risen Lord abides with us as our earthly guest through his Living Word and Holy Supper.

He fills our empty hearts with himself, and we are glad to make him our abiding guest.

Amen.

 

April 23, 2017 Text: John 20:19-23

Dear Friends in Christ,

“Do you ever peche?” “Is peccato part of your life?” “Do you struggle with gunah?” “What did Jesus do with your dembi?” “When I dosa it really drags me down.” I have just shared with you the most despised word in every language. I did it in French, Italian, Turkish, Somali and Indonesian. Got a guess?
How about few more hints? Everybody says it: “We all make mistakes.” Everybody also says this: “Nobody’s perfect,” including a certain insurance commercial. But try to get Americans to say we constantly do this and you may have an argument. The word is – SIN! We all seem to know we are not perfect but nobody wants to admit that our imperfection – sin deserves God’s eternal punishment. Try that out at the next family dinner if you have relatives who believe that those who give it their best make it to heaven.
It’s still Sunday and it has been quite the day for our brothers and sisters who were alive on that first resurrection. We have a confrontation ready to take place between “poor miserable sinners who deserve God’s punishment” with the joy of Christ’s Resurrection. How can Easter overcome . . .
“THE MOST DESPISED WORD IN EVERY LANGUAGE?”
The boys. The gang. The merry men of misfits are together again. But what has brought them to one another? Fear. In a matter of moments they had abandoned their Savior. One denied him over and over. One hangs himself in shame. Finally, they are all hiding. Doors locked. It’s the way of the flesh, isn’t it?
Last Easter evening on TMC they had the 1953 movie, “The Robe” starring Richard Burton. He played a Roman soldier at the crucifixion that won the robe of Jesus. He eventually comes to believe in Jesus as Savior, the one whom he helped crucify. When I watched it reminded me that life didn’t just stop when this big event in history occurred. It’s like on Dec. 7, 1941 or 9-11, life still continued, people still went about their business.
The disciples were in the fraidy cat business, the boogeyman under the bed danced in their heads. Do you think they realized at that moment that they were “poor, miserable sinners?” It has a way of catching up with us, doesn’t it? We don’t like to admit our sin or the fact that we deserve nothing from God but His anger. But what it does to our heart is to make us “poor” and “miserable.”
“Intervention needed behind door #1 please!” “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’…the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” You know that feeling, don’t you? You see the headlights of your son or daughter’s car coming down the lane or into your driveway. The doctor comes in the room and declares all your tests came back clean. The job or finances come into your life right when you need them.
That’s the Lord’s doing, my friend. He is stepping into your locked door with his peace and presence. You have felt that, haven’t you?
But more than just his presence in your life, Jesus comes to where you are in your guilt and worry over sin. He removes the fear. Guilt taken away. Worry vanishes. The most despised word in every language is forgiven. The resurrected Christ stands before us. He loves and heals through giving Himself in Word and Sacrament.
What does Easter have to do with the most despised word in every language? Everything. As Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Cor. 15:14) And then this: “and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:17) You are still in your sins. The very resurrection of Christ is the on-going assurance that God declares us free from sin, though we are still sinful.
What we see unfolding today must not become lost on us. Jesus doesn’t enter this locked room and begin a therapy session, “Gather round and state your name.” He doesn’t institute a new command that the church must seek a new vision for its mission.
No! Christ enters. Absolves. And directs them to be about His business. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” He was sent to pay for our sin and overcome the grave for us. We are sent to proclaim that truth to a sinful, dying world. People may very well tire of hearing about their sin but sadly they never tire of sinning. It is purely raw, human arrogance and self-righteousness that dreams of a substitute for the eternal Gospel entrusted to the church.
Sinners need a Savior. And that’s what we are given in Christ. That is the Gospel we are to proclaim. The most despised word in every language – sin – finally and thankfully directs us to the best news that can be shared: Forgiveness and eternal life through our resurrected Christ!
Amen.

April 16, 2017 – Easter                                                         Text:  Luke 24:4-8

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Two summers ago we vacationed in North Carolina.  We rented an SUV and they gave us a larger one than we had requested with all the bells and whistles, including a touch screen GPS.  Now you need to understand I am a Rand McNally Atlas guy.  It’s simple and it doesn’t talk back to you.  On this trip we would occasionally use this new-fangled gizmo, but not well.  It would have an image of our vehicle driving through the grass or right off an exit ramp.  If we had followed this computer’s direction, we might not be here today.  We would be among the dead and not the living.

This morning, in God’s Word, we see a group of women looking for Jesus in a cemetery and an angel asking this ironic question . . .

“WHY DO YOU LOOK FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD?”

These women were not confused.  They went to the last place anyone had seen Jesus, the tomb.  When we hear the angel’s question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” the natural answer is “Where else would he be?”

These women had gotten up in love early that Sunday morning because they didn’t want to leave the body of Jesus in the tomb without proper burial preparations.  There were no funeral directors back then.  When they get there nothing is as they imagined.  There is no large stone to move, no Roman guards present, burial clothes on the ground and no body.  That is when two men in shining robes – two angels – appeared and said, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!”

Do the words sound like a rebuke?  The angel thought the women should have known better than to come to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus.  Jesus had told his followers many times over and over that he was going to die and rise again.  They failed to grasp what he was saying.

Isn’t that you and I as well?  We’ve been wrong so many times in our lives, especially about spiritual things, that we can understand why the women didn’t grasp the promise.  After all, who comes back from the dead?  At this time in history, life was cheap.  Almost half of all children died before adulthood.  Sure they knew of Lazarus and others that Jesus had raised, but who would raise Jesus?  The point of those miracles was that Jesus had power over life and death.  They should have trusted the promise, but they didn’t.

Jesus says, “I will be with you always.”  Do we take that to heart in our day-to-day struggles?  Jesus says, “I will never give you more than you can handle.”  Do we ever question his promise?  Jesus tells us not to fear death.  Do we live in anticipation of this reality?  Do we look for the living among the dead?

What difference does it make if you look for a name on a mailbox or a tombstone?  Well, you will probably find names in both places, but you can only visit a friend in one of those places.  That is the point of the angels statement, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  Someone might ask, “What difference does it make?”

It makes all the difference.  When our faith is weak and foolish, we look for Jesus in all the wrong places.  Where do we find the Savior?  We find him in the gospel.  We find him in the Word that is taught and preached.  We find him in our baptism, sins washed away.  We find him in Communion, where we receive the actual body and blood of the Lord.

In our sermons for Lent/Easter the theme has been “Ironies of the Passion.”  Things turning out differently than we would expect.  One of the great ironies of my lifetime is the life of Norma McCorvey.  She was Jane Roe of the famous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.  Do you know that her baby was never aborted?  That baby lived.  In the 1990’s Norma worked in an abortion clinic in Dallas.  In that same building was a pro-life clinic helping young women.  Norma met a young lady there who invited her to church and Norma became a Christian.  She fought the rest of her life to overturn the decision that involved her.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair was a famous atheist who fought to get prayer out of schools and founded the American Atheists organization.  Do you know that one her sons is a Christian?  The world would call these two situations – ironic.  I would call it the power of God as He works through His means.

That ultimate power is on display today – the tomb is empty!  He is not here.  He has risen just as he said he would.  No atlas or GPS will find his grave because it doesn’t exist.  Jesus is living and that means all our sins are wiped out and forgotten.  Jesus is living and that promises that we will live with him forever.  Jesus is living and we will see our loved ones who died in the faith again.

“Christ has triumphed, He is living!”  Then they remembered his words.  Blessed Easter!

Amen.

April 9, 2017 – Palm Sunday                                                Text:  Matthew 21:12-17

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

The Pastor of a large family likes to tell the story of one hectic Sunday when his son couldn’t find his belt.  Everyone was looking for it, no one could find it, and the Pastor was going to be late for church.  Then the son, seven years old asked a simple question, “Dad, have you prayed about it?”  The Pastor had been teaching the boy this lesson since he was born but did he remember to apply that lesson in a moment of frustration?

During the season of Lent, in our midweek services, we’ve been considering the ironies of the passion.  Irony is an outcome that’s the opposite of what you might expect.  You wouldn’t expect a child to take a minister to school on such a basic matter of faith.  But that’s what the Scriptures say about children and their faith.  Today is Palm Sunday.  We just sang “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna.”  This morning, we want to consider the incident that inspired that stirring hymn.  We want to see the irony in the question Jesus’ enemies asked:

“DO YOU HEAR WHAT THESE CHILDREN ARE SAYING?”

Matthew writes in our text, “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did…”  What does wonderful mean here?  In this instance it caused the people to wonder – to be amazed.  Jesus did things on this day that caused people’s mouths to hang open in surprise.

What things were so wonderful?  Certainly the triumphal entry into Jerusalem caused people to sit up and wonder.  But the incident in our text happened after that.  It’s Monday of Holy Week.  Jesus goes to the temple and what does He find?  Moneychangers and merchants.  But these sellers of goods were over charging to make more money and the priests were getting a cut of it.  It’s like buying a hot dog at a ballgame; it costs a lot more than it does at the grocery store.  People were being cheated so Jesus drives them out.

The second thing happening is “the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.”  This then caused the third wonderful thing.  He called forth a response of faith.  Children were shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  The children were still singing the praises that had excited them the day before.

The children understood it was Messiah, the Christ.  Hosanna means, “to save.”  This is what the children shouted.  The Holy Spirit was working and that’s not ironic because we expect God to work through His Word to change hearts and minds.  The reaction of the Jewish leaders – “they were indignant.”  These men who spent their days reading the Bible did not recognize the Messiah.  They were angry that other people were claiming He was the Savior.  We must catch the irony in this action as Matthew presents it.  The most awful disorder of the buyers and sellers, the stench of cattle, the haggling and dickering were quite acceptable to these priests – there was money in it for them, but these innocent children who were voicing the praise of Jesus and giving Him the title which His great deeds demonstrated was his due, were intolerable to these men.

Children knew their Savior while the theologians didn’t.  My friends, it’s no different today.  People who don’t believe in Jesus think we’re just stupid or misinformed.  One of the saddest realities of the Christian Church in the 21^st Century is the large number of Pastors and professors who do not believe in Jesus anymore – at least not the way these children did.  They don’t accept a Savior who died and rose to give us eternal life.  They don’t claim God in the flesh who paid for our sins.  They deny the prophecies of the Old Testament that tell of the coming Savior.  Why do they refuse to see the truth?

Because they don’t want to believe it.  People will believe in a past life you were Napoleon or Joan of Ark.  They will believe in God talking to us through feelings.  God coming down to earth to pay for our sins with his own blood so we won’t go to hell – well, not that!  Why not?  Because that would mean God is a judge and that there is an absolute standard of right and wrong that every person on earth must submit to or suffer the consequences.  People don’t buy into that.  They think right and wrong mean’s what is best for them in any situation.  Eternal standards, absolute rules – people today just won’t swallow that because it would finally mean that some people are, in fact, wrong.

Simple Christians the world over see Jesus with the faith of a child.  They recognize the only answer for the guilt we feel over our sin and for the hurt and sadness that sin causes in our lives is Jesus.  Yes, that does mean there is absolute right and wrong.  But the Christian, in childlike faith has no problem saying, “I have done wrong, I have hurt others, said things I shouldn’t.”  The forgiveness we receive rode into Jerusalem to begin a week of redemption for all mankind.  God has forgiven us and given us eternal life.  Do you understand what these children are saying?

Jesus did.  “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.”  God ordains praise from the children’s lips.  He does this through Baptism and the gospel message they hear at church.  Through Lutheran elementary school and Sunday School.  Through family devotions and prayer time.  God reaches into these little ones hearts and fills them with joy in their Savior and confidence in His promises.  So what is the problem with us as adults?  We poison our faith with our reason or limit it with our assumptions.  The child just believes.

Where can adults get the faith of a child?  Only in one place – the gospel.  The gospel in Word and Sacrament.  The gospel that the Savior died and rose for us that we are forgiven.  God gives us that faith and He calls forth our praise.

Do you hear what these children are saying?  Join them in their song of praise!

Amen.