Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost - Acts 2:1-21

 

   Pentecost

                                                                                                                        Acts 2:1-21

                                                                                                                        5/24/26

 

 

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John the Baptist was on the divide between the old and the new. He dressed like a prophet and spoke like a prophet of the Old Testament. And yet he was also the fulfillment of prophecies made in the Old Testament by Isaiah and Malachi. He was not announcing something that God would do in the distant future, but instead something that was about to happen in the present.

Like the prophets sent by God in the Old Testament, everything John says about the future is true. But since John speaks like a prophet of the Old Testament, everything is not true exactly in the way he expects. John announced that the coming One would bring God’s end time judgment. He said of this One, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John didn’t understand that the coming One, came first to suffer and die. When John sat in prison because he had spoken God’s truth to King Herod Antipas, and he heard about the miracles Jesus was doing, he was confused. This wasn’t what it was supposed to look like. So he sent two disciples to Jesus with this question: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  Our Lord’s answer used the language of Isaiah to say that, yes, he was the coming One. But he also acknowledged that it didn’t look exactly as John expected when he said: “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Today, on the Feast of Pentecost, we see another example of how what John the Baptist said was true – just not in the way he expected. John had said about the coming One, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” On Pentecost the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord did this not in the fire of destroying judgment, but instead in tongues like fire as the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Feast of Pentecost brings the season of Easter to a close. The Lord Jesus who had risen on Easter was no longer visibly present with the disciples as he had been for forty days. But Pentecost is still part of the season Easter because it brings some unfinished Easter business to conclusion.

On the evening of Easter, Jesus appeared in the midst of the locked room were the disciples were present. As they were talking, Jesus himself stood among them, and said “Peace to you!” He demonstrated that he was the same Jesus who had died by crucifixion on Good Friday and had been buried as he said, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”  He even took some broiled fish and ate it in front of them to prove the point.

Jesus announced that he was the fulfillment of everything that had been written about him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

These words summarize what Christ has done for us. He suffered and died on the cross in fulfillment of God’s saving will. He did it in order to give the forgiveness of sins. At the Last Supper Christ had applied the words of Isaiah chapter 53 to himself as he said, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’” Though he was the sinless Son of God, Jesus chose to be identified not just as a sinner, but instead as The Sinner. He received the judgment of God against the sin of every person – against your sin.

Sin brings death. It did for Adam. And it did for Jesus the second Adam. But in Christ God was working to defeat death, and so on Easter God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection. He is the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.

Christ had won this salvation, and for forty days he was with the disciples. He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” When the disciples questioned about his saving work for Israel he told 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.”

Ten days ago we celebrated the ascension of Jesus as he withdrew his visible presence. For ten days the disciples waited as the risen and ascended Lord’s promise remained unfulfilled. Then on the Day of Pentecost when they were all together in one place there suddenly came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. It filled the entire house where they were, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability.

In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for “spirit” can also mean wind. The sound like a mighty wind announced what was happening – the Holy Spirit was being poured out. And as John the Baptist had declared – there was fire. But it was not the fire of judgment. Instead, what appeared as tongues of flame were distributed on the heads of the believers.

Pentecost was one of the major feasts of the Old Testament. Faithful Jews from all over the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world who lived in the city were celebrating it. When they heard the sound they were drawn to where the disciples were located. They were bewildered because the disciples were obviously Galileans. They were not educated and sophisticated people. And yet they were speaking in all of these foreign languages as they proclaimed the mighty works of God.

We learn in our text that all were amazed and asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some mocked as they said, “They are filled with new wine.” They accused the disciples of being drunk. Peter stood up and called for their attention. He began by pointing out that this explanation was just dumb. After all, it was only 9:00 a.m. and no one was drunk at that time of day.

Instead, this was an event of God’s end time salvation. It was a fulfillment of God’s Word. Peter said, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.’”

In his sermon Peter went on to declare that although God had attested Jesus to them by his mighty works, they had delivered him up and killed him by the hands of lawless men.  Jesus had died and had been buried. But in fulfillment of David’s words in the Psalm 16, God had not allowed his holy One to see corruption.

Peter announced, “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.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

            On Pentecost the risen Lord fulfilled his word. Ascended and exalted to the right hand of God, he poured forth the Spirit. Christ had described the Spirit as the power that would enable witness in the world. In the Gospel lessons during Easter from John we have learned about how the job of the Spirit is to bear witness to Christ. It is to take what belongs to Jesus and make it known to us.

            The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and so the work of the Spirit is to deliver what Christ has won for us. The Spirit is the presence of Christ with his Church. During his earthly ministry Christ’s presence and work was tied to one place. But now as the ascended Lord he has poured forth the Spirit so that he is present and at work wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. The Spirit is the presence of Christ at work all over the world at once.

The risen Lord had said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Jesus has accomplished salvation by his death and resurrection. But this Good News – this Gospel – must now be proclaimed and believed. This is the work of the Spirit. When he preached on this text Martin Luther commented, “God gives the Holy Spirit to push that preaching into the heart so that it remains and lives there.”

Christ has done everything to give sinners forgiveness and eternal life. As Luther went on to say: “The treasure lies there in a heap, not yet distributed or applied everywhere. Therefore, if we are to have that treasure, the Holy Spirit must come and put it into our hearts, so that we believe and say, ‘I also am one of those who are to have this treasure.’”

The Holy Spirit has done this for you.  He did it through the word of the Gospel. And he did it through the water and the Word of Holy Baptism. John the Baptist had come baptizing with water. He said the coming One would baptize with the Holy Spirit. We learn in our text that this word “baptize” was a metaphor for how Christ would pour out the Spirit on the disciples in the dramatic event of Pentecost.

But the risen Lord took up John’s water baptism and transformed it into his own as he commanded the disciple to make disciples by baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had already said that in order for a person to enter the kingdom of God he must be born again of water and the Spirit.

And on Pentecost Peter pointed his hears to the water of baptism. Those hearing him were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter responded, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”  Peter tied the gift of the Spirit to baptism, and promised that this was true for them and for their children.

Pentecost was the fulfillment of God’s promise through Joel to pour out his Spirit. Now, God has done this for you through baptism. The apostle Paul said that in baptism we have received but “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” God poured out his Spirit on you in baptism as he gave you new life and made you a child of God who has shared in Christ’s saving death.

            In his quotation from Joel, Peter emphasizes that it is in the last days that God has poured forth the Holy Spirit. It is the last days because in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the Last Day has started. He is the beginning of the resurrection for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

            And the Spirit who has given you new life in Christ is the guarantee that you too will share in Christ’s resurrection. The apostle Paul told the Romans that we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies.  He describes the Spirit as the first fruits because it is through the Spirit of God present in you now that God will raise you from the dead. Paul said, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

            On Pentecost the risen and exalted Lord Jesus poured forth the Holy Spirit on his Church. Through his Spirit Christ is at work everywhere the Gospel is proclaimed. The Forgiveness of sins and salvation won by Christ are given out through the Spirit as he works and sustains faith. You know that you have received the Spirit because you have been baptized - the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Spirit. And as you live in the last days that began in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the presence of the Spirit within you is the guarantee that God will raise your body to be like Christ’s when he returns in glory on the Last Day.

           

 

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter - Jn 15:26-16:4

 

   Easter 7

                                                                                                            Jn 15:26-16:4

                                                                                                            5/17/26

 

           

            “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” That’s what Jesus says in our Gospel lesson this morning.

            Now it would seem that if you are trying to gather people into your group, and preparing them for the time when you will no longer be visibly present with them, this is not the best way to go about doing it.  It doesn’t seem helpful to say: “Hey guys, they are going to ostracize you completely. In fact, when someone kills you they are going to think that they are offering service to God.”

            Yet that is exactly what Jesus says this morning. Then he explains why this will happen when he says, “And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  According to the Lord, everything comes down to knowing the Father and knowing Jesus. And so this morning we want to consider why this is so. We need to examine why people don’t know them, and why we do. And in light of this we can then understand why these words of Jesus are not something that should turn us away.

            At the very beginning of his Gospel, John throws us into the deep end of the pool. 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.”

The reference to “in the beginning” clearly identifies that we are talking about Yahweh, the God of Israel, and his act of creation. And if there is one thing the Old Testament makes clear it is the fact that Yahweh is one.  We learn in Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The Lord is one, and he is the only God – the Creator of heaven and earth. All other so-called gods are nothing.

Yet John also refers to the “Word,” and in the rest of the Gospel we learn that the Word is the Son of God. Without ever denying the fact that God is one, John tells us that the Word is God. In fact, all things were made through him.

We learn that Father sent the Son into the world. As John tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And through Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, we begin to learn more about the Father and the Son.  Although distinct from one another, we learn that Father and Son are also united in some way. Jesus tells the Jews that they should believe his works “that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Christ just comes out and declares, “I and the Father are one.”

While Jesus reveals that he and the Father are one, he also makes it clear that the Father has sent him into the world to carry out a mission. He has spoken what the Father wants made known. Jesus says, “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 Jesus reveals that he is doing that the Father has sent him to do. He said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus lay down his life by being lifted up on the cross. We learn that this was an act of love for us by God the Father. In chapter three we read, “For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This giving of the Son on the cross was necessary so that we would not perish.

The reason for this is our sin. God is the holy God. Though created for fellowship with God, through Adam’s sin we were all plunged into sin. Now the flesh, fallen sinful nature, brings forth more flesh – more fallen sinful nature. And we do as we are. We just confessed using the words of First John: “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

God is the holy and just God. But in love for us he sent his Son as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As Isaiah said, “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.”

Christ received the judgment against our sin. He cried out “It is finished” as he died on the cross. But this was not end of God’s saving work. He had sent the Son to lay down his life. And he had sent him to take it up again. This is what Jesus did on Easter when he rose from the dead. By his resurrection Christ has conquered death and restored us to life. We now have life with God – a life that death cannot end. And it is a life that will be resurrection life when Christ returns on the Last Day and raises our bodies.

Jesus, the Son of God, is the revelation of God’s saving love. Johns says in the prologue: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”  Jesus declared, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.” When Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” Christ replied, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

You know Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord, and so you know the Father. Baptized into Christ you have been born again of water and the Spirit. Your sins have been washed away. John says in his first letter, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

We are the children of God because of Christ. Because this is so we are no longer part of the world - this age that is ruled by Satan and sin.  We once were. As Paul told the Ephesians we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” But God called us as his own through the work of the Spirit. This was not our doing. It was God’s. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

In our text Jesus says, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” Christ explains that we will receive this treatment because we belong to him. Just before our text he said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Thankfully, we do not live in place like Sudan or Nigeria where Muslims kill Christians because they believe in Jesus, and think that they are serving God in doing so. But we do face social pressures against Christ and his word. The institutions of media, entertainment, and education treat Christianity as if it is benighted vestige of the past to which no thinking person would belong. Jesus’ own assertion that he alone is the way to Father receives condemnation because it is “not inclusive.” To even talk about sin – much less to identify particular sins on the basis of God’s word such as fornication and homosexuality – brings the world’s hatred. We are told that you can have your Christian faith in private, but don’t talk about it out in the world.

These challenges are real. And the point of our text is that Jesus said it would be this way. But we are willing to take up our cross in whatever form it takes and follow Jesus because through him we are children of God. We do have life – a life that death cannot end, and that will be resurrection life on the Last Day. For as Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart. I have overcome the world.”

If we are to continue in the faith while facing this opposition, we need to be sustained. And we find the source of this in our text as Jesus says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

The ascended Lord has sent forth the Spirit as he promised. He bears witness about Jesus as he takes what belongs to our Lord and makes it known to us. Jesus had promised earlier, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

In the Scriptures we encounter this inspired witness. These words are never mere words because they are the Spirit breathed words as he guided the authors so that what was written is what the Spirit has given to us.  They are words through which the Spirit continues to be at work to create faith in Christ and to sustain it.

And so there is the need to read them daily at home. There is the need to read them in devotions with our children. And we need to do what you are doing at this very moment – to come to church to hear the word read and proclaimed by Christ’s Office of the Ministry.

This is how Christ enables us to live as God’s children in the midst of a world that is hostile to him, and therefore to us. We do so because of the blessing that we have received in Christ.  He is the saving revelation by which we have come to know the Father. In him we have forgiveness and life which will have no end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

   Ascension

                                                                                                            Acts 1:1-11

                                                                                                            5/14/26

 

            As we have seen in the recent Gospel lessons from John, Jesus had told the disciples that he would be leaving.  He had said that he would be returning to the Father who had sent him. But in our text today, we do not receive any indication that the disciples were actually expecting this.

            Instead, Luke describes a time in which the disciples rejoiced in the continuing presence of the risen Lord. We are reminded that the disciples were not convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead because of only one experience. Instead, the Lord appeared to them in different places, and to different groups of people, over the course of forty days. 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.”

            On the night of Maundy Thursday, Christ had told them that he would depart and send to them the Spirit. Our Lord continued to say that he would do this as we learn in our text that while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

            Luke tells us of how these forty days were a time when Jesus was with the disciples, and was teaching them about the kingdom of God. And so the disciples asked: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” The disciples had come to understand that Jesus was the Christ – the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel in the Old Testament. He had brought God’ end time salvation by his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. And so as they thought about God’s saving action for Israel, it was natural that they wondered if Jesus was about to restore the kingdom to Israel.

            But God had intended Israel to be a light for the nations. He had worked through Israel to bring salvation to all. And now, the work of bringing that salvation to the world was about to begin. He answered, “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.”

            We learn in our Gospel lesson that Jesus led them out of Jerusalem as far as Bethany on the Mt of Olives opposite the city. Then as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. The disciples were watching Jesus as he ascended. As they did so two men stood by them in white robes who 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 celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. On the one hand, it probably seems counterintuitive to celebrate the fact that the Lord Jesus has withdrawn his visible presence from us. But we learn in the Gospel lesson that this was not the response of the disciples. Instead Luke tells us, “And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” They rejoiced, and in the years to come the reason for that joy was amplified by what the Holy Spirit revealed to and through them.

            Paul told the Philippians that the Son of God willingly humbled himself in order to carry out the Father’s will and save us. He said, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

            In the incarnation the Son of God took on the role of a servant. As the One who is true God and true man Jesus had the almighty power of God – the power that had created the world. But he did not use this power to serve himself. Instead, he used it to serve others. And in the ultimate act of service he allowed himself on to be arrested on Maundy Thursday, tortured, and crucified on Good Friday.

            As Jesus hung on the cross, it appeared that he had been rejected by God. But instead, it was God directing his wrath against our sin. Paul told the Corinthians, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

            On Easter God raised Jesus from the dead.  True God and true man before the crucifixion, Jesus was raised as the One who is still true God and true man. The Father vindicated the Son and demonstrated that he was indeed the Christ. Paul went on to tell 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.”

            God highly exalted Jesus. But this exaltation was more than just the resurrection. In the ascension of Jesus we see the Father exalting Christ. The most quoted verse in the New Testament is Psalm 110:1 which states: “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” We learn that in the ascension, Christ was seated at God’s right hand.

This “right hand” is not a place, but instead an expression of how Christ now exercises all might and power. He who humbled himself to serve us now reigns over all things.  Peter tells us that Christ “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” In Ephesians the apostle Paul referred 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.”

And remember, the Lord now does this as the One who is still true God and true man. Christ exercises all power and authority according to his human nature as well. The ascension is the exaltation of the incarnate One.

This has important meaning for us. Man was created in God’s image for fellowship with God. But in Adam’s sin we lost the image of God and no longer enjoy this direct experience. Jesus Christ is the second Adam. In his ascension and exaltation Christ has taken redeemed humanity into heaven – into God’s presence. Because he has, we know that we too will dwell with God.

Though the Son of God, Jesus was made like us in order to save us. Now as the One who has saved us by his death and resurrection, Christ is the one who intercedes for us. Paul told the Romans, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” He speaks on our behalf because he was made like us in all ways, except for sin.  He has redeemed us and now as the risen Lord he speaks on our behalf that we are the forgiven children of God.

The ascended Lord reigns now. No longer is he at work only at one place.  Instead through his Spirit whom he has sent, he works through the proclamation of this Gospel in all places at once. And we now experience the fact that Christ exercises all power according to his human as well as his divine nature. This happens in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar. The One who is true God and true man still comes into our midst in his body and blood.

He will be present in a few moments as he gives us the very price he paid for the forgiveness of our sins. As we prepare to receive him we will sing in the Sanctus, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” These words confess that Christ comes to us in the Sacrament.  Yet every experience of the Lord coming in the Sacrament points us to the event the angels describe this morning: “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.”

            The ascended Lord will return in glory. He will return as the One who is still true God and true man. And when he does he will raise our bodies and transform them to be like his own. He will renew creation and make it very good once again. Just as Christ has now taken humanity into God’s presence, so we will live in body and soul with our triune God forever. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter - Rogate - Num 21:4-9

 

   Easter 6

                                                                                                                        Num 21:4-9

                                                                                                                        5/10/26

 

 

            “And the people became impatient on the way.” That’s what Moses tells us caused the event that we learn about in our Old Testament lesson this morning. They became tired of the journey and the challenges it entailed.

            Now this is an incredibly ironic statement. Because you see, the Israelites themselves had caused the journey. They had not trusted God. They had disobeyed his word. That was the reason they were on the journey in the first place.

            Our text this morning is found in Numbers chapter 21. So we need to take note of the fact that we are not in the book of Exodus. There we learn about how God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. Through the Passover, Yahweh forced Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. Then when Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued the nation, God brought Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground but drowned and destroyed the Egyptians.

            Next, God took Israel into a covenant with himself at Mt Sinai. He said to them: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

            Even when Israel committed idolatry and worshipped the golden calf while Moses was on Mt Sinai with Yahweh, God did not destroy them. Though they had broken the covenant, Yahweh renewed it with them. He gave them the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant through which he dwelt in their midst. He led them by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

            Again and again God had promised to give them the promised land – the land of Canann – a place flowing with milk and honey. In Numbers chapter 13 they arrived at the edge of Canaan. Yahweh commanded Moses to send spies into the land to do reconnaissance. When they returned, all but Joshua and Caleb said that while the land itself was bountiful, the people already living there were too powerful for the Israelites. They said Israel could not conquer it. The people despaired and refused to enter the promised land.

            So God said that Israel would wander in the wilderness for forty years.  He said that those who were twenty years and older would die in the wilderness and would never enter the land. This is the journey about which our text tells us: “And the people became impatient on the way.” These were circumstances that Israel had brought upon themselves by disobeying God’s Word – by refusing to trust in God.

            The Old Testament tells us about how God worked out his promise after the Fall that a descendant of Eve would defeat the devil. We see God identify with increasing specificity Abraham, Jacob, Judah, and David as the line through which he will send the Christ. We learn that Israel is the means through which God worked to bring salvation to all people – to you.

            Baptized into Christ who is the seed of Abraham, you are now part of God’s people. And this means that Israel’s history is actually your history. This also transforms the meaning that these Old Testament accounts have for us. Paul told the Gentile church at Rome, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” He says that it was written for our instruction. Likewise, Paul told the Corinthians, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”

            The account in our Old Testament lesson was written down for our instruction as the people of God. So it is helpful for us to stop and ask why the Israelites are on this journey in which they have become impatient. They are on the journey because they did not trust God and do things his way. They did not listen to his word. And the result was very bad for them.

            There is an important lesson here for us. God’s word describes how he has set up things up to work. He gives his word so that we know his ways – so that we know how to live according to his will because his will is best for us. And by contrast, breaking his will and doing things in the ways we choose is bad for us.

            It’s not hard to see this as it plays out in our culture and the lives around us. If you choose to use sex outside of marriage you end up with sexually transmitted diseases and children who have no father. When sex is part of dating and living together is what leads to marriage, the bonding character of sexual intercourse which is meant to unite husband and wife instead clouds the judgment about whether this person is a good choice for a spouse. In addition, the act of living together makes it more difficult to break up. So in what has been described as “sliding instead of deciding” people drift into marriage. But because they have not done it God’s way, it dramatically increases the likelihood of divorce.

            The same can be said about divorce itself. Jesus pointed to God’s institution of marriage when he said: “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Then he added, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

            Since the 1970’s and the appearance of “no fault divorce” our world has operated on the assumption that if people aren’t happy for some reason, they should get divorced. They should find someone with whom they are happier and get remarried. But approaching marriage with this outlook increases the likelihood that you don’t do the things that make marriage good and lasting. And in turn when children are involved this sets in motion a pattern that harms them and their ability to form healthy relationships in marriage. The same can be said about children who have been raised outside of marriage. The sins of the fathers … and mothers … are visited upon the children.

            When you don’t do things God’s way, it causes problems. That’s where the Israelites found themselves in our text. They had put themselves in this position of wandering in the wilderness. Then they became impatient on the way and doubled down on their error by speaking against God and Moses as they said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

            The Israelites said that God wasn’t providing for them. What they really meant, was that God wasn’t doing it in the way they wanted. They said there was no bread. Then they turned around and said that they loathed the worthless bread that God was giving them.

            God was indeed giving them bread. He was giving them manna from heaven. As Psalm 78 says, “Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them bread in abundance.” And there was no question about his ability to provide them with water.  He had already done it twice from a rock.

            The Israelites’ words should lead you to consider whether you take for granted what God provides. The apostle Paul told Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” Do you covet the wealth of others? When it comes time to give an offering do you think God hasn’t given you enough, and therefore do you give little in return?

            The Israelites’ sin brought God’s judgment. He sent fiery serpents among the people so that they bit the people and many died.  Faced with this situation, the Israelites knew that they were in the wrong. They repented. They came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”

            They asked Moses to intercede for them. He did so and Yahweh responded, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Moses followed God’s instruction. He made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he looked at the bronze serpent and lived.

            A basic principle of biblical interpretation is that “Scripture interprets Scripture.” And you can hardly find a better illustration of this than our text today. Jesus declared that the serpent on the pole pointed to him. He told Nicodemus, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

            Jesus said that the serpent on the pole was a type – it was something in the Old Testament that pointed forward to what God would do in Christ. You may have sinned sexually – through lust in the heart or through the act of intercourse. You may have sinned against God’s will for marriage by divorcing and remarrying for reasons that are not valid before God. You may have taken God’s daily bread for granted. You may have coveted the wealth of others. You may have withheld for yourself money that should have been given to God in your offering as a response to his blessings.

            But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was lifted up on the cross because of your sin. As John the Baptist declared, he is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. He has taken away your sin because he made your sin his own.  Christ received God’s judgment in your place. And then on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, all who believe in him have 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.”

            Our Old Testament lesson today points to Jesus Christ who is the source of forgiveness and life for you.  And it also demonstrates the manner in which God works in order to deliver that forgiveness.  It shows us how God acts through his word and means to leave no doubt that it is for you.

            In our text God tells Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole. He attaches his word of promise that all who have been bitten and look at the serpent on the pole will live.  We see here that God works through located means in order to deliver salvation. We are, after all, people who live a bodily existence at a place and time. God made us that way. And when he deals with us he does not ignore this reality of our existence.

            Quite the opposite, our salvation has been made possible by the fact that the Son of God took on bodily existence in this world. He is Immanuel – God with us – because the Son of God became flesh. His body – his flesh – was nailed to the cross. His body – his flesh – was then raised on the third day.

            As he delivers the forgiveness that Christ has won, God meets us where we are. He attaches his word and promise to located means. Baptism is water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word. The Sacrament of the Altar is bread and wine to which Christ adds his Words of Institution.

            These are now the means by which God gives forgiveness and life. The Israelites were to look in faith at the bronze serpent and trust God’s promise. Now we look in faith at what God did in baptism and do the same. We know that through baptism our sins have been washed away. We have shared in Christ’s saving death. The Holy Spirit has made us a new creation in Christ as we have been born again.

            And in the Sacrament of the Altar Christ puts into your mouth the body given for you and the blood shed for you. You come to the altar believing his word and promise that he has attached to bread and wine. In this faith you eat and drink his body and blood, and so you receive forgiveness and life.

God works in this way because it is the way he has always worked. It reflects the way he made us in the beginning. It is seen in the incarnation of the Son of God – the second Adam in whom resurrection life has begun. And it will reach its consummation on the Last Day when Jesus raises our bodies and transforms them to be like his own.