Sermon for the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord - Acts 1:1-11

 

          Ascension

                                                                                                Acts 1:1-11

                                                                                                5/29/25

 

            “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

            These words from Isaiah chapter two describe the end time work that Yahweh will bring about. Almost the exact same words are found in his contemporary, Micah. These prophets describe a situation in which Mt. Zion and Jerusalem – the place where the temple was located – is the source from which God’s reign goes forth. It is the highest of the mountains and all the other peoples and nations are coming to it. They are learning the ways of Yahweh so that they can walk in his paths.

            This scene is one in which God’s reign has given victory to Israel.  Instead of being threatened by a superpower like Assyria in the days of Isaiah and Micah, the God of Israel is acknowledged by all as they come in submission before him. And this means victory for Israel.

They have been vindicated for believing in Yahweh and as God’s people they are blessed by his reign. Isaiah says in chapter sixty: “Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.”

When you read the Old Testament prophets, it is easy get the impression that God is going to restore the kingdom to Israel. As God’s chosen people, Israel will reign over the nations. Zion and Jerusalem will rule over all, and the nations will bring their wealth to the capital of Israel.

In the days of Isaiah and Micah, Israel was a small and divided nation.  In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel it was even smaller, as only the southern kingdom of Judah remained.  In both cases the nation was nothing in comparison to superpowers like Assyria and Babylonia.  It was clear that God’s action to change this would be sweeping and dramatic.  It would completely change the world.

This was all the more the case in the days of the apostles. Apart from about a hundred years under the Hasmoneans, the Jews had never ruled themselves. They had been just a small province of a series of empires, and now they were ruled by the Romans. There was an expectation that only God’s end time action could change all this and restore Israel.

In our text, we hear a summary of what the disciples experienced in the time after the resurrection of Jesus. Luke tells us, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”  We are reminded that the resurrection was not a one day thing.  The risen Lord was with the disciples during the course of forty days. He was with them in Jerusalem. He was with them in Galilee.  He was with different groups of people, and as Paul tells us, on one occasion this numbered five hundred people.

Jesus left the disciples in no doubt that he had in fact risen from the dead. And we learn that during this time he was teaching them about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God – the reign of God – that was present in Jesus had been the theme of Jesus’ whole ministry.  But now, in light of the Lord’s death and resurrection, the disciples were learning more about what this meant.

Now back in Jerusalem, Jesus told the disciples not to depart from the city.  He told them to wait for the promise of the Father.  He said, “for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Jesus had spoken about the future. And so when the disciples had come together they asked the question: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” It was a very natural question for them to ask. Jesus had risen from the dead. This was not just a return to life as Christ had done for others. He had risen with a transformation that was the resurrection of the Last Day. His resurrection was an end time event, and so the disciples naturally believed that now the prophecies of the Old Testament would be fulfilled as God restored the kingdom to Israel.

Jesus did not answer in the way they expected.  He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Then they were looking on as he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. He ascended into heaven, and while they were looking as he went two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord.  Jesus Christ’s ascension is, of course, directly linked to his death and resurrection. Paul told the Galatians that in the fullness of time God sent his Son into the world. The Son entered the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary.

The Son of God had created the world. Yet as he was in our world, Jesus did not use his powers to serve himself. Instead, he humbled himself to carry out the Father’s will. Paul told the Philippians about Christ: “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus died for our sins in order to reconcile us with God. Because of Christ’s death we are now holy before God. Paul told the Colossians, “he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”

Then, through the resurrection of Jesus, God defeated death forever. The resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the Last Day.  It was the end time action of God as the age to come broke into our world.  Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of the resurrection that will be ours as well.

The ascension was the exaltation of the crucified and risen Lord. On the Day of Pentecost Peter declared, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’”

Peter quotes Psalm 110 as he says that Jesus has been seated at God’s right hand. To sit at the right hand is to share fully in the exercise of the power of God.  Since God’s power is present and at work everywhere, his “right hand” is not a place.  In his ascension, Jesus withdrew his visible presence as he now fully makes use of all his divine power.

The ascension has not changed anything about Jesus. He was true God and true man before, and he is true God and true man now. It has not added any power to him. As the Son of God he always had all power. It has not changed his humanity, for in the personal union it has always shared in the communication of attributes with his divine nature.

What has changed is that Jesus Christ now makes full and complete use of all the power that he has. No longer does he humble himself. Instead, he actively rules over all things.

Our Lord reigns, and everything has been subjected to him. Paul referred to “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”

We have the comfort of knowing that this is the Lord who cares for us. This is the Lord who is at work for his Church. This is the Lord who will return in glory on the Last Day. For as Paul told the Philippians, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark's thoughts: Thy kingdom come - Praying for the coming of God's reign now and on the Last Day

 

The Lord Jesus has taught us to pray in the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come.”  When Christ says “Thy kingdom” he is referring to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God was a central feature of Jesus’ ministry.  We learn in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

 

When Jesus spoke about the “kingdom of God,” he was not talking about a place. Instead, coming out of its Old Testament background, the phrase “the kingdom of God” refers to the reign or rule of God. As Psalm 97:1 declares, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad.” The phrase describes God’s activity as He cares for His people and opposes sin and evil in the world. 

 

God’s reign, his kingdom, arrived in the person of Jesus Christ as God began to turn back the forces of Satan and sin. Jesus described God’s reign as being both present and future.  During his earthly ministry, Jesus was the presence of God’s reign as He forgave sins, healed diseases and cast out demons.  He announced, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28).

 

Jesus carried out the most important act of God’s reign when He died on the cross and rose from the dead.  God’s reign continues in our day as the Holy Spirit works through the Means of Grace to create and sustain faith in Jesus Christ.  Through this work he frees us from Satan and sin. At the same time, Jesus also spoke about God’s reign as being something that would arrive in the future.  God’s reign will arrive in all its completeness on the Last Day when Jesus Christ returns in glory.

 

Because of the nature of God’s reign, when we pray the Second Petition, we are asking for two different things at the same time. The Large Catechism says, “‘The coming of God’s kingdom to us’ takes place in two ways: first, it comes here, in time, through the Word and faith, and second, in eternity, it comes through the final revelation. Now, we ask for both of these things: that it may come to those who are not yet in it and that, by daily growth here and in eternal life hereafter, it may come to us who have attained it” (III.53).

 

We recognize that God’s reign comes by itself without our prayers.  However, we pray in this petition that God’s reign would come to us. The Small Catechism explains, “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives her in time and there in eternity.”  We pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to use the Means of Grace to strengthen us in the faith, for by faith in Jesus Christ we have been redeemed from the power of the devil and Jesus has become our Lord. 

 

Yet in this petition we are also praying that God’s reign will come in all its completeness.  When we pray “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for the return of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Last Day when God’s reign will do away with sin and death forever.  Each time we speak this petition we are saying, “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

 In the Divine Service, the Lord’s Prayer is spoken immediately before the Words of Institution and reception of the Sacrament of the Altar.  From ancient times in the Church’s practice the Lord’s Prayer has been used in close association with the Sacrament of the Altar. This is because several petitions in the Lord’s Prayer have always caused the Church to think about the Lord’s Supper. 

We pray “Thy kingdom come,” just before the Words of Institution and the reception of the Christ’s true body and blood because God’s reign comes to us in the Lord’s Supper as we receive the forgiveness of sins and as the Holy Spirit strengthens us in the faith.  At the same time, we pray “Thy kingdom come” because the coming of Christ in his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar points us forward to the coming of Christ on the Last Day when He will return in glory.  As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:26 about the Lord’s Supper, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter - 1 Tim 2:1-6

 

         Easter 6

                                                                                                1 Tim 2:1-6

                                                                                                5/25/25

 

 

            President Jimmy Carter died on December 29 this past year at the age of one hundred. Carter is remembered for being a very decent man, and for not being a successful president.  Carter was unable to deal with the stagflation that afflicted the economy – the combination of high inflation and low economic growth. His efforts at addressing the energy crisis were not well received and proved ineffective.

            Carter entered office saying that one of the United State’s problems was an “inordinate fear of communism,” only to see the Soviet Union promote revolution around the world and then invade Afghanistan. His response to the turmoil in Iran led to the Islamic revolution there and the hostage crisis as the U.S. Embassy was overrun and 52 Americans were taken captive. The latter event paralyzed his presidency for more than a year, while the Islamic regime has turned out to be one of the must destabilizing forces in the Middle East.

            However, President Carter did have one undeniable and remarkable success – and that was in his role as a mediator between Israel and Egypt. These two nations had fought wars in 1948, 1956, 1968, and 1973. During many of the years in between they fought an undeclared war of aerial combat and raids.

            But Carter worked to bring the two nations together in order to establish peace. In September 1978 he brought the Israeli leader Menachem Begin, and the Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat to Camp David.  There, during the course of thirteen days, he helped the two sides to negotiate the Camp David Accords, which was then signed in 1979.  It established a peace between Israel and Egypt that has existed to this day.

            In our epistle lesson this morning, St. Paul describes Jesus Christ as the mediator between God and man.  Although we were trapped in sin and were opposed to God, Jesus is the Son of God who became man in order to reconcile us to God. He is the mediator through whom the peace of God with man had been established.

            Paul begins our text by writing, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” The apostle tells Timothy that Christians are to offer prayers for all people. He especially notes that prayer is to be made for kings and those in authority.

            Again and again, St Paul emphasizes the importance of prayer in the life of a Christian. He told the Colossians, “Devote yourself to prayer.”  Naturally, this prayer often is offered on behalf of the Church and Christians. Paul expressed to the Thessalonians, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers.”

            But here we note that the apostle says that we are to pray for all people – and in particular he mentions our leaders. In his grace, God has called us as his own.  Through baptism our sins have been washed away and we have become part of the Body of Christ. We have been given a new status.  St. Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

            We are the royal priesthood of the baptized.  Set apart by God, as priests we serve.  Jesus has offered himself once for all as the sacrifice for sin. So unlike the priests of the Old Testament we aren’t involved in offering animal sacrifices. Instead, we offer ourselves as the sacrifice in service to God and others. Paul told the Romans, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

            We offer our priestly service in the things that we do. In our text, Paul identifies prayer on behalf of others as an important part of this service. We do this every Sunday in the Prayer of the Church. We also do this in our daily prayers. So as you pray, include the needs that you know about in the world. In particular, pray for our leaders – for the President and Congress; for the Supreme Court; for our Governor and state legislature, and those make and administer our laws.

            Paul says that we are to offer prayer “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” We pray for our leaders in the recognition that they serve in a role provided by God. Paul told the Romans, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” He said that they are “God's servant for your good” and went on to say, “For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”

            We recognize that God’s rule in this world occurs in two different ways. This is often described by Lutherans as his right hand rule, and his left hand rule. God’s right hand rule occurs through the Gospel – the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This takes place through the Church. We do not use force to make people confess Christ. Instead, we share the Gospel by which the Spirit works faith and delivers the forgiveness of sins.

            God’s left hand rule occurs through the law. This is carried out through the institutions of the government that God has established. Note that this is God’s rule – is God at work – even when those carrying out these roles don’t believe in God. This is the means by which God restrains sin and evil so that we can lead a peaceful and quiet life. This is a very great blessing. If you doubt this, look at a places in Africa where civil war has brought chaos and crime, and continues to be a threat. More literally, Paul says in our text that we are to offer “petitions of thanksgiving” on behalf of those who rule. He teaches us to see the governing authorities as a blessing for which we should give thanks to God.

            Paul states that we are to pray for all people. Then he goes on to say in our text, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  We are to pray for all people because this reflects God’s own loving attitude towards all people.

            The apostle describes God as “our Savior.” He is the God who saves. This is what he wants to do.  Paul’s words could not be any clearer. God desires all people to be saved.  As God said through Ezekiel, “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” 

            God wants all people to be saved, and yet we see that many do not believe in Jesus Christ. Many die rejecting Christ. We know that God is the all powerful God.  He is the One who has elected us from eternity. The logical conclusion is that if people don’t believe in Christ, then it must be because God caused it. He elected them to damnation.

            This explanation – the idea of double election in which God has chosen from eternity to damn people – is the one that St. Augustine and John Calvin famously advocated.  But as our text shows, it is clearly wrong.  Scripture teaches that God wants all people to be saved. When people don’t believe and receive judgment we find the cause in the sinful fallen nature of man himself that rejects God. The question of “Why some and not others?” is something that we are not capable of answering and explaining.  What we can say for sure is that God is not the cause of people who are lost. And our job is simply to tell people the Gospel – to tell them what God had done for us in Jesus Christ.

            That Gospel is what Paul expresses in our text.  He says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” The concept of a “mediator” involves two sides that are experiencing division or opposition.

            In this case it is sinful man who rejects the true God, even as his sin provokes God’s wrath and judgment.  St Paul describes our spiritual condition apart from Christ when he tells us the Ephesians, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

            Our sin is not merely the violation of some abstract rules. It is in fact always committed against God himself. David confessed, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” And this brings the wrath and judgment of God against all who sin.

            It is God’s will to save, and so in response to this God sent his Son into the world.  Paul says that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus was indeed a man who lived in first century Palestine. But he was also more than that. Paul told the Philippians about Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

            True God and true man, Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man. He is the mediator who carried out the action to reconcile us to God.  Paul says in our text that he “gave himself as a ransom for all.”  Christ offered himself as the sacrifice on the cross. Though without sin, he took ours as his own, and received the wrath and judgment of God in our place. 

            Adam had brought sin and death. The man Jesus Christ – the second Adam – was the means by which sin was forgiven and death defeated.  On Easter, God raised Jesus from the dead with a body that can never die again.  And then as we will celebrate this Thursday, Jesus was exalted in his ascension into heaven. Paul says in the next chapter about God’s work in Christ, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

            Jesus Christ is mediator between God and man.  Because of Christ’s suffering and death for us, we now have forgiveness before God – we are saints. The crucified and risen Lord is the reason that we can now come before God in prayer. All of our prayer is offered in Jesus’ name – he is the reason that we can approach God the Father in confidence

  

 

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - Jn 16:5-15

                                                                                       

                                                                                      Easter 5

                                                                                      Jn 16:5-15

                                                                                      5/18/25

 

 

I am going away. As you know, Lord willing I will be going to South Sudan in July to teach about Paul’s letter to the Galatians at the Lutheran seminary there.  I will be in Africa for three weeks teaching basically all day each week day.  I have also learned that I will be preaching each Sunday that I am there, along with leading the students in a discussion of the texts assigned for each Sunday. So while I am sure that it will be a very interesting and rewarding experience, I am certainly not going to describe it as a “vacation.”  I am going to be working rather hard.

The trip itself will have been the result of a great deal of work done in preparation for it. I have been working with Galatians to get ready to teach. I had to arrange the specific schedule when I would arrive, teach, and then leave so that it fits with their school schedule and also the timing of when flights go from the capital Juba to Yambio where the seminary is located. There has been the need to obtain a visa to get into South Sudan, and to receive the necessary immunizations. I have had to make arrangements for a pastor at Good Shepherd while I am gone, and for emergency pastoral care if needed. Sometimes it has seemed as if I have done more work preparing to go than I will actually do while I am there.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going away.  He tells them ahead of time, even though at the moment they can’t understand what he means.  Our Lord says that his departure is actually a good thing for them – and for us.  This is because he will send the Helper – the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel lessons during the latter portion of the Easter season come from John chapters fifteen and sixteen.  These are words that Jesus spoke to his disciples on the evening of Maundy Thursday. They are words that Jesus spoke to the disciples as the group was on its way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus begins our text by saying, “But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” He says that he is leaving.  He is going to him who sent our Lord.

          As you know, John’s Gospel does not include an account of Christ’s conception and birth.  John certainly discusses this, but in a very different way.  He begins by talking about the Word – about the Son, the second person of the Trinity. He says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

          We learn that the Word – the Son – is God. He was at work in the creation of all things. And then John tells us that the Son entered our world.  He says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Son of God became man without ceasing to be God. True God and true man, he was present in our world.

          Jesus Christ shares in our flesh. But he is also the One who is completely different from us. We hear in this Gospel, “He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.” Our Lord is the One who has come from heaven.  As we confess in the Nicene Creed he is the One, “who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven.”

          Christ says in our text that he is going to the One who sent him. This fact, that the Father sent him, is something that Jesus emphasizes again and again.  The Father sent him, and he is here to carry out Father’s will. This is true of what Jesus does. In chapter six, Jesus declares, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”  This is true of what Jesus says. Our Lord said during Holy Week, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment--what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

          The Son of God came down from heaven to carry out the will of the Father.  The Father’s will was to deliver us from sin, death, and eternal damnation. Since the sin of Adam we have been people who live in the ways of this fallen world.  We live lives that are guided by the sin of this world instead of the will of God. John says in his first epistle, “For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world.”  Lust, jealousy, coveting, anger – these are the things that often direct our actions.  In our thoughts, words, and deeds, we sin against the holy God.

          But for us men and for our salvation the Son came down from heaven as he was sent forth by the Father. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Son of God became flesh to be nailed to a cross.  He was the Lamb of God sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.

          At the end of chapter three in this Gospel we learn, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” To reject the Son – to refuse to believe in him – leaves a person under God’s wrath and judgment. But to believe in Jesus means eternal life. It does because Jesus did not remain dead.  On Easter, God raised him from the dead.

Now, because Jesus lives, we have eternal life.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” We have life with God now, and if our bodies die, Jesus will raise them up on the Last Day. Our Lord went on to say, “"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

On the evening of Maundy Thursday, Jesus Christ knew that he would die on the cross and rise from the dead. But he also knew that his course did not end there. His resurrection was part of the upward movement by which he would return to the Father. During his ministry Jesus said to the Jews who opposed him, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.” At the Last Supper, Jesus said to the disciples, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’”

Jesus says in our text, “But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” Our Lord tells the disciples that he will be returning to the Father.  He speaks of his ascension, and acknowledges that this announcement brings sorrow to the disciples.

However, our Lord says that his ascension is actually a good thing for them – and for us.  He states, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

We learn that there is a progression in the sending by God that works for our salvation. The Father sent the Son in the incarnation to die on the cross and rise from the dead. Now, risen and ascended, the Son sends forth the Spirit. The Son does this because he has been glorified – he has completed the work the Father gave him to do. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Then John explains, “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Risen and ascended, Jesus has been glorified. And he has sent forth the Spirit. Our Lord refers to the Spirit as the Helper. The Greek term used here is Paraclete. This is a difficult word to translate and is often rendered as Helper, Comforter, or Counselor.  In our text, Jesus explains how the Spirit will help and comfort us.  He says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

The Spirit guides us into all truth, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the Helper – the Comforter – because he points us to Jesus.  He takes what belongs to Jesus – the saving work that he has accomplished – and makes it known to us.

Of course, the work that Jesus has carried out is the will of the Father.  Our Lord said during Holy Week, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”  That is why Jesus says in our text, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

The Spirit is the One who has called us to faith in Jesus Christ.  He gave us new life as we were born again of water and the Spirit in baptism.  The Spirit is the Helper – the Comforter – who continues to lead us in faith.  He takes what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us. He has given us new life in Christ, and he sustains this life.

A little earlier, Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”  The Spirit dwells in us so that we can continue to walk by faith as those who have eternal life.  He does so as we look for the day when our Lord returns in glory – the day when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Isa 40:25-31

 

   Easter 4

                                                                                                Isa 40:25-31

                                                                                                5/11/25

 

            “I am the greatest.” The boxer Muhammed Ali – then known as Cassius Clay – made this declaration in 1964 as he was about to fight Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship.  At the time, Ali was just a challenger.  But this wasn’t the first time he had expressed the claim. The previous year he had made a record with lyrics that he helped write. The title of the album: “I am the greatest.”

            Ali defeated Liston to become heavyweight champion.  During the 1960’s and 1970’s he held the title three different times – something no one else has ever done. Ali has been widely known by the epithet “The Greatest,” and many consider him to be the greatest heavy weight boxer of all time.

            Sports fans engage all the time in arguing about who is the GOAT in each sport – the greatest of all time.  Is the greatest basketball player Michael Jordan? Is the greatest quarterback Tom Brady? But these are conversations that others have about an athlete.  Few athletes have ever come out and said this about themselves – certainly not in a way as memorable as Ali.  He declared that he was the greatest – that there was no one who could compare with him.

            In our text from Isaiah this morning God declares that there is no one who can compare with him.  He is the greatest. He is the Creator of all things. There is no end to his strength and understanding. Because this is so, his people can trust him to give them strength and salvation.

            Isaiah wrote in the eighth century B.C. He lived at a time when God brought judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel because of their sin and unfaithfulness as they were taken into exile by the Assyrians. Yahweh’s dramatic intervention spared Judah. Yet while God had given the southern kingdom the opportunity to repent, it seemed very unlikely that they would do so. Judah continued on the same path of sin and idolatry.

            Yahweh brought judgment upon Judah in 587 B.C. when the temple was destroyed and the nation was taken into exile in Babylon. But in his prophecy, Isaiah looks beyond this to the restoration that God is going to provide.  He speaks of how God will bring the people back from exile.

            Isaiah begins this chapter by saying, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” God’s punishment was over and he was going to bring the people back from exile. He was coming and Isaiah declared, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

            Yahweh was going to act for his people. He – the almighty One – was going to deliver them. Before our text Isaiah declares, “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”

            God is the almighty One and there is no one who can be compared with him.  Just before our text Isaiah says, “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.”

The idols made by man are nothing. By contrast, God is the Creator.  Isaiah says, “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”

In our text, God again declares through Isaiah that there is no one who can be compared with him.  He says, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” God created the heavenly bodies, and by his power they continue to exist.

Judah would bring the judgment of exile upon themselves. But Isaiah describes how as the years passed by in Babylon they would feel that they had been abandoned by God. They would feel like he was not caring for them. We hear, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God’?”

It is not only Judah in the sixth century B.C. that feels this way.  There are times when we do as well.  We want to say, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God.” Like Judah, sometimes our sins have contributed to the situation as we have made decisions and done things that are against God’s will. At other times, the hardships and difficulties that we experience have been completely out of our control. We get sick. We lose a job.

The life of faith is always a struggle against unbelief. The presence of doubt is unbelief seeking to gurgle up and quench out faith.  Doubt and feelings of despair – feelings that we have been abandoned and wronged by God – are unbelief gnawing away at our faith in God. They are the presence of the old Adam that causes us to break the First Commandment as we fail to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

In our text, God responds to this by saying, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” When we struggle with doubt and feelings of despair, God calls us back to himself. He reminds us that he is the Creator who has all power. He is the One who acts in ways that we cannot understand.

But he is also the One who acts for us.  Isaiah says in our text, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Yahweh did act for Judah in the sixth century B.C. In an unexpected development he used the Persians to defeat the Babylonians. The Persian king Cyrus issued a decree that the people of Judah could return to the land and rebuild the temple. He renewed their strength as they saw that their way was not hidden from the LORD, and their right had not been disregarded by their God.

God’s act of deliverance and salvation in the sixth century B.C. for Judah pointed forward to an even greater action that he would carry out. He worked through Israel, for Israel and for all people.  He sent forth his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus was born as the Christ – the descendant of King David promised in Isaiah’ prophecy. As the Christ, he was Israel reduced to One.  He was the fulfillment of what the nation was meant to be. 

Jesus was the Servant of the Lord. Anointed with the Spirit at his baptism he went forth to provide deliverance from our sin. In obedience to the Father, he walked the way of service that led to the cross to give us forgiveness for the ways that we doubt and fail to trust in God.

Jesus Christ died on the cross as the suffering Servant.  God laid upon him the iniquity of us all and judged our sin in Christ. Jesus received God’s wrath that we deserved as he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and died.

A little later God says in Isaiah, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” God’s action for Judah pointed to the new thing that he has done in Christ – the beginning of the new creation.

On Easter, God raised Jesus from the dead. He defeated death in Christ as the age to come broke into our world. God did the new thing as Jesus Christ was raised with a body that can never die again. Paul told the Romans, “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” And his resurrection is the beginning. It is the beginning of the life of the world to come. It is the resurrection that will be ours when Jesus returns on the Last Day, for as Paul told the Corinthians, “Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

A little later in Isaiah God says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Israel lived with the expectation that the end time salvation of God would see him pour out his Spirit.

Forty days after Easter, Jesus ascended into heaven. And then on the fiftieth day – on Pentecost – Christ poured forth the Spirit upon his people. Peter declared, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

And now, you have received the Spirit. In baptism you received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.  Your baptism continues to be source of the Spirit’s work in your life.  And through the God’s word – the word inspired by the Spirit – you continue to receive the work of the Spirit.

Isaiah says in our text, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” The Spirit of Christ gives us strength to believe and trust in God.  He works through the Means of Grace to strengthen our trust as we reject doubt and despair.

There is no denying that at times we feel faint and weary.  But God who has called us as his own promises to give us strength to walk in faith. He says through Isaiah, “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Like the people of Judah, there are times when we want to say, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God?” In response, God says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”

The almighty God has acted to give us deliverance and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ our doubt and failure to trust God is forgiven. The Spirit poured out by the risen and ascended Lord gives us strength to continue to walk in faith. Certainly, we do not understand many of the things that God does. But we do understand what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. And through this knowledge, the Spirit gives us strength to trust in the Lord.