Mark's thoughts: Talking about your Lutheran church to share the faith

 

The Augsburg Confession defines the Church as, “the assembly of the believers among whom the Gospel is purely preached and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel” (VII.1).  This definition includes two parts.  First, it says that the Church is comprised of people who believe in Jesus Christ. Second, it says that the Church is present where the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.  Wherever this is taking place faith is being created and sustained, and we know that the Church is present.

This definition is helpful as we think about sharing the faith with others, for it includes two things that we are trying to accomplish.  First, we want to share the Gospel so that others are called to faith in Christ. Second, we want to share what the Gospel is when it is purely preached and the Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.  We want people to understand what the Gospel is when it is not mingled with Law.  We want people to understand what the Sacraments are when they are received as Christ’s Gospel gifts.  This is what we believe and confess as Lutherans, and we want others to share in this as well.

It can seem challenging to share the faith with others. How do we start a conversation about this subject? The Church is a great place to start. Ask a person: “Do you have a church home?”  No matter what the answer is, follow up by asking, “Were you raised in a/that church group?” These questions easily initiate an interaction that is going to take up the subject of faith in Christ and what a person believes. They tell you whether a person believes in Christ, and something about the background of how they arrived in their current status. This is helpful to know if the conversation continues or for a later time.

Your response is then to talk about your church. One can say: “I am a member at _______ Lutheran Church. I love how in my church I receive forgiveness and eternal life through the Word and the Sacraments because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.” This brief statement sets forth the Gospel – the good news about the forgiveness and life we have through Christ’s death and resurrection. It ties the Gospel to the Word and Sacraments, for these are the means by which Christ comes to us. By focusing on these Means of Grace it articulates a distinct Lutheran confession about how God works. And it says that this faith and confession are a blessing in your life.

We never know where the conversation will go from there. Our only job is to share what Jesus Christ has done for us by his death and resurrection, and what he still does now through his Means of Grace. If the person indicates that he or she does not have a church home where they are attending, it is very easy to follow up and invite them to visit your congregation. If the person does have a church, your confession about receiving the Gospel through the Word and Sacraments is an invitation to discuss this further in comparison to what that person’s church believes. It may not lead to anything.  It may lead to an opportunity later to do so. This is not something we can control. Our only job is to share.

(These thoughts were prompted by Dr. Ken Schurb's reference to "Church Testimony")

 

Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity - Isa 6:1-7

 

  Holy Trinity

                                                                                                Isa 6:1-7

                                                                                                6/15/25

 

            In our Old Testament lesson this morning, the prophet Isaiah describes an experience that was completely and utterly overwhelming.  He tells us exactly when it happened – it was in the year that King Uzziah died.  This was a time of uncertainty for Judah.  Uzziah had ruled for nearly fifty years.  It had been a period of peace and prosperity. But in that year he died, at a time when it was becoming very apparent that the Assyrians were a great power that threatened the nation.

            God called Isaiah at this moment to be his prophet.  He would speak God’s word during a time of crisis as Yahweh used the Assyrians to bring judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel.  He would deliver God’s word of Law and Gospel as he used the Assyrians to punish Judah, but ultimately provided dramatic deliverance for the city of Jerusalem. And he would speak a word of hope to Judah in the exile that was yet to come.

            Isaiah describes his call in our text. We don’t know whether this was something that he actually experienced in the temple, or whether it was a vision. It doesn’t really matter, because nothing could have made it any more “real” to Isaiah.

            He says, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”  Yahweh is seated on a throne because he is the king – he reigns over all as the Creator of heaven and earth.  The prophet seeks to capture the exalted nature of God as he says that Yahweh was “high and lifted up” – so much so that the fringe of his robe filled the temple.

            Isaiah tells us, “Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” He sees fiery angelic beings above Yahweh – the heavenly host that attend him.  Next we learn: “And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’”

            The seraphim acclaim God as they announce that Yahweh, the One who directs the angelic armies, is holy.  The threefold repetition of the word drives home the point that he is utterly and completely holy in a way that has no comparison. And they declare that the whole earth is full of his glory.  Isaiah says that the foundations of the thresholds of the temple shook at their voice, and that the temple was filled with smoke.

            Isaiah is confronted by the almighty and holy God.  His response is to admit that he is completely undone.  He says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

            Isaiah’s response to being in the presence of God encapsulates the situation that is true for every person who has ever lived since the fall of Adam. God is the holy God, and his holiness illuminates the presence of our sin in the most intense and frightening manner. Created for fellowship with God, our sin now can only result in our annihilation when we come before him. Remember, God has not changed since the days of Isaiah. The writer to the Hebrews warns us that our God is a consuming fire. Sinners who sin cannot have life with God. Instead, this sin evokes God’s wrath and eternal judgment. 

            Sin prevents us from being in God’s presence – it makes life with God impossible. And we are powerless to do anything about this.  We see this illustrated in our text, for it is God who must act to remove Isaiah’s sin. We hear: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.’”

            The Old Testament makes it absolutely clear that there is only one true God – the Creator of heavens and earth. As we learn in Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” We learn that this God is a personal God – he is no mere force or power.  He has a name, Yahweh, and he enters into a relationship with Israel by taking them as his own.

            But how could sinful Israel live with the holy God? And how could the blessing of Abraham pass on to the sinful nations, so that they could as well?  Isaiah tells us that this salvation from God would take place through the Messiah – the descendant of David.

But in prophesying about this he uses very puzzling language.  He says: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”  We wonder, how can the son of David be called Mighty God?

Isaiah says that the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon the Messiah – the shoot from the stump of Jesse – and that he will bring universal peace. At the same time, he says of the Servant of the Lord, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

At times, the Servant is clearly identified as Israel. But other times it is not so clear. And on one occasion the Servant seems to be an individual who is the means by which God deals with sin. Isaiah writes, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The Servant is described as a sacrificial lamb - as an offering by which God “makes many to be accounted righteous.”

God’s Word called forth hope, but remained mysterious.  Peter tells us that the prophets themselves “who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”

And then in the fulness of time God acted. In the first century A.D. the angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary – a girl who was betrothed to a descendant of King David.  He told Mary that her son would fulfill God’s promise to David of the Messiah. When she asked how she – a virgin – would become pregnant – he told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.”

The angel told Mary that this child to be born would be the Messiah descended from David. But he also said that Holy Spirit would cause her to conceive, and that the child would be holy – the Son of God. As we learn from Isaiah, only God is holy. Yet somehow this child would himself be holy – he would be the Son of God conceived through the work of the Spirit of God.

Jesus Christ was born to Mary and at the beginning of his ministry he – the holy One - submitted to John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance. After he was baptized, the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Son stood in the water. The Spirit descended upon him. And God the Father spoke words based on Isaiah chapter 42 that identified Jesus as the Servant of the Lord.

At his baptism Jesus began his journey to the cross. He went as the Servant of the Lord through whom God was redeeming us from sin. He went as God’s answer to the sin that separated us from him.  In death he bore our sins and received God’s judgment to win forgiveness. Paul tells us, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Sin brought death for Jesus in our place. But on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  The apostle Paul told the Romans that Jesus was “descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” The risen Lord ascended into heaven and was exalted as he was seated at the right hand of God.  And then as we celebrated last Sunday, Christ poured forth the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

God has not changed.  There is only one God – the Creator of heaven and earth.  But in acting to save us, God has revealed more about himself. We have learned that the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scripture reveals that the Father is God. The Son is God. The Spirit is God.  We find that they relate with one another. And yet there are not three gods. Instead, God is three in one – the Holy Trinity.  He is one God in three persons.

God has eternally been this way. As we confess in the Gloria Patri: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.” In the Old Testament there were hints and things that made one wonder. God said, “Let us make man in our image.” There was the angel of the Lord. There was language about Wisdom. There were references to the Spirit of God.  But it is only as the Father sent forth the Son who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit that we have come to know the triune nature of God.

Our knowledge of the Holy Trinity bears witness to God’s love for us.  The writer to the Hebrews says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”  We live in the last days when the holy God has acted in Jesus Christ to give us forgiveness so that we can live with him eternally.  No longer does sin cause us to say, “Woe is me! For I am lost” like Isaiah in our text.  Instead, through faith in Jesus Christ we are justified by God’s grace. We are reckoned as holy in God’s eyes – we are saints.

Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit our sins have been washed away.  In confidence we are able to approach the Father through the Son in the Spirit.  We look forward to the Last Day when Christ returns in glory. For we will dwell in the presence of our triune God forever.

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost - Jn 14:23-31

 

          Pentecost

                                                                                                Jn 14:23-31

                                                                                                7/8/25

 

           

In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Jesus speaks of giving peace to his disciples – and to us. But many of the things that he says in this portion of the Gospel – his “farewell discourse” that he spoke to the disciples on the evening of Maundy Thursday – seem instead to be disturbing.

Jesus tells them that they will not see him for a little while, and that they will mourn.  He says, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” When they don’t understand what he is talking about, our Lord says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”  This time when they don’t see Jesus will be one of sorrow. Yet Jesus says that it will last only a “little while,” and adds, “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

While there will be this “little while” of sorrow, Jesus has also told them something that seems even more disturbing: He has said that he is going away, and returning to the Father.  Jesus says, “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 announces that he will be returning to the Father. He says that this is in fact a good thing for the disciples.  He explains, “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.”  Jesus explains that only by ascending and returning to the Father, can he send forth the Holy Spirit.

Christ states in our text that his departure should actually be a source of joy. He says, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

This statement by Jesus seems very puzzling. After all, we have learned at the beginning of the Gospel that the Son is truly God.  The first verses of the Gospel say, “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 and was active in making all things. John tells us, “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.”  In Jesus Christ we meet the incarnate Son of God – the One who is true God and true man.

Jesus affirms that he is God. He tells the Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” He said, “I and the Father are one.”  Jesus will pray to the Father in the next chapter, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

So then why does Jesus say, “If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I”? The answer to this question is to be found in our text when Jesus says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

Jesus Christ was in the world to do what the Father had commanded. During Holy Week Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” Then he added, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

The Father was greater than Jesus as he was speaking, not because he is greater in his being.  Instead, the Father was greater because at that time Jesus was not making full use of his power and might.  Instead, he was carrying out the saving will of the Father by which the devil has been overcome. He had humbled himself, and would allow himself to be arrested and crucified.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “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 Christ, the Son of God, humbled himself in order to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He walked the way of service and suffering, because we are people who avoid these very things. We put ourselves before God and our neighbor in order to avoid limitations on looking out for that unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. In thought, word, and deed we are people who sin. As we confessed at the beginning of the service using words from 1 John: “If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Jesus offered himself on the cross as the sacrifice that won forgiveness for us. He was, as John says in his first epistle, “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” The Father was greater than the Son as he humbled himself to the point of death … even death on a cross. Our Lord said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

However, the will of the Father did not end in death.  Instead, it was his will to give life through the Son. As Jesus had said, the disciples did not see him for the “little while” of three days when he was buried in the tomb. But then they saw him again when God raised him from the dead. The risen Lord appeared in the midst of the locked room on the evening of Easter and said, “Peace be with you.” He demonstrated that now through faith in Christ there is forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Death cannot separate us from God, and the grave is not the end for our body because as Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Now, the risen Lord has ascended to the Father. No longer can the Father be described as greater than the Son. Instead, the Lord Jesus has been exalted and exercises all rule and authority. And we see this in the event that we are celebrating today, the Feast of Pentecost.

Jesus says in our text, “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.” Jesus says that when he is ascended, the Father will send forth the Helper – the Holy Spirit. A little later, Jesus says that he will send the Helper as he declares, “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.”

Jesus says in our text, “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter.  He ascended into heaven. And then, as we heard in our Second Reading, on the day of Pentecost he poured forth the Holy Spirit.  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.”

Christ has sent the Spirit from the Father. And now the Spirit is the One who brings the saving work of Christ to us. It is the Spirit who gives us the apostolic witness about the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, “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 Spirit bears witness – a witness that is received through the apostles. Christ says in our text this morning, “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.” It is the Spirit who uses the inspired words of the Gospel to make known Christ and his saving work to us. Jesus said, “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 Gospel of John tells us, “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” The ascended Lord has given us the Spirit, and through him we have life. Fallen man brings forth more fallen man. Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The life giving Spirit sent forth by Christ has given us life. Through the work of the Spirit we have been born again – we have been born of water and the Spirit in baptism.

This work of the Spirit takes place in us because we are living in the Last Days that have begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter says, “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.”

The Old Testament prophets described how God would pour out his Spirit.  Isaiah compared this to water as he said, “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.” Jesus used similar language when he cried out, “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.”

            Jesus has been glorified. And on Pentecost he gave the Spirit. Now, we are the children of God because the Spirit has given us life.  The Spirit has created faith in Christ, and sustains this faith. And the Spirit enables us to live in faith.  Jesus says in our text, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  We keep our Lord’s word as by the power of the Spirit we continue to believe in him, and love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us.

The Son of God, Jesus Christ, carried out the Father’s will by humbling himself in death on the cross to free us from sin. On the third day God raised him from the dead, as he began the life that is ours. The risen and ascended Lord poured forth the Spirit on Pentecost to give us this new life in which we are the forgiven children of God. The Spirit creates and sustains faith in Christ, and enables us to share Christ’s love with others as we look towards the day when God will raise us from the dead through the Spirit of Christ.

             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter - Ez 36:22-28

 

Easter 7

                                                                                      Ez 36:22-28

                                                                                      6/1/25

 

“You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” Those are the words with which Yahweh instructed Israel in the book of Leviticus. He commanded them to walk in the ways of the Law – the Torah that he had given to them as his covenant people.  He told them that if a person does them, he will live.

Yahweh told them that if they walked in his ways and kept his law they would receive life and blessings. But he warned them that if they did not – if they violated his law – they would receive judgment and destruction. In Deuteronomy, just as they were about to take possession of the promised land he warned them, “And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.”

As Ezekiel wrote in the sixth century B.C., the results were clearly in. God’s people had not walked in his ways. The Law – the Torah – had not brought them blessings and life.  Instead, they had disobeyed it at every turn.  They had worshipped false gods.  They had not loved their neighbor as themselves, and instead had oppressed the poor in their midst.

And God was bringing judgment upon them exactly as he had said. The northern kingdom of Isarel had broken away from Judah and had pursued the most crass form of idolatry.  God had used the Assyrians who in 722 BC. conquered them and took them into exile.

Judah was now about to face the same thing.  Already, some like Ezekiel, had been taken into exile.  Ezekiel wrote from Babylon. He was a priest who had been taken there in 597 B.C. as part of a group of middle level social figures that the Babylonians took away as a warning that Judah should not disobey again.

In a vision, Yahweh had dramatically revealed to Ezekiel the depths of Judah’s sin. He saw that the kings of Judah had brought idols into the temple itself. The temple was the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located in the Holy of Holies. This was the throne of Yahweh – it was the located means by which the glory of Yahweh dwelt in the midst of his people. But now, Judah had completely defiled it.

Ezekiel watched as he saw the glory of Yahweh leave the temple. God showed Ezekiel that he was abandoning the temple. He was rejecting it and the people and city in which it was located. He had withdrawn his presence and revealed to Ezekiel that siege and destruction awaited Jerusalem.

The Book of Ezekiel is interesting, because the first thirty three chapters are basically all law, as Ezekiel confronts the sin of Judah and announces that Yahweh’s judgment is coming. Then, in chapter thirty three Ezekiel reports: “a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, ‘The city has been struck down.’” The prophet learns that Jerusalem has been captured, and that it along with the temple has been destroyed. From that moment on, the rest of the book is all Gospel.  It is God offering hope as he speaks about the restoration he will provide.

Our text comes from this portion of the book. Yahweh says that he will bring his people back. He states in our text, “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.”

However, God tells the people that they have not merited this deliverance in any way. He says, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.”

In the ancient world, each nation had their god or gods. The way that you evaluated whose god was most powerful was on the basis of how that nation did in conflict. The nation that won in war had the more powerful gods.

Yahweh was the God of Judah.  Because of Judah’s sin, he had used Babylonia as his instrument to bring judgment on his people.  But to the world, this looked like Yahweh was weak and unable to protect them. The sin of Judah had profaned God’s name among the nations. Now, Yahweh would act to vindicate his holiness among the nations by bringing Judah back.

Judah is not the only one who profanes God’s name. We do as well.  God put his name upon us when we were baptized and he set us apart as his children.  Every Sunday we receive a reminder of this fact in the Benediction.  There we use words from Numbers chapter six.  God commanded that Aaron and his sons were to speak the words of the Benediction over the people, and he explained, “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

          In the triune Name of the invocation and in the words of the Benediction, the liturgy of the Divine Service begins and ends with the reminder that God has put his name on us and made us his children.  We have the privilege of bearing his name – and we also have the responsibility of doing so.

          The way that we live either brings glory to God’s name or profanes it.  If we claim to be Christians, then what we say and do reflects on God.  As Luther writes in the Small Catechism, “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it.  Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!  But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us.  Protect us from this, heavenly Father!”

          In our text, God describes how he will bring his people back from exile. This is what God did in 538 B.C. using Cyrus and the Persians. But we learn that this saving action by God was the beginning of something even bigger. It was an action that has found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

          In the next chapter Yahweh says, “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.” God describes how the Messiah – the descendant of King David – will rule his people.  This didn’t happen in the sixth century B.C., or in the centuries that followed. But in the first century A.D. God sent his Son as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary. True God, he was also the One who descended from David according to the flesh.

          As an expression of God’s will, the Law offered life. However, it did not provide the power to live in the ways it described. And so, instead of life it brought a curse and death on fallen people. Paul told the Galatians, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

          Jesus Christ was born under the law in order to redeem those who were under the law – those whose own actions could never produce any outcome other than the curse. And so on Good Friday he died on the cross for our sins. Paul says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Jesus freed us from the slavery of the curse by dying in our place.

          The goal of the law was life – eternal life with God. Because of our sin, it could not provide this. But on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead as the beginning of the life that is ours.  In Christ God has overcome sin and death.

          In our text God says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

          God has washed us with water and cleansed us of all our sin. Ananias urged the newly converted Paul, “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” Our sins have been washed away in baptism. There we were clothed with Christ so that in God’s eyes we are now holy. There we were born again of water and the Spirit.

          The law did not provide the power for its own fulfillment. Israel and its history was a demonstration of this fact. But God promised that he would do something new. He would put his Spirit within his people to transform their heart. As the baptized, God has done this for you. You have received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirt.  You are a new creation in Christ.

          Next Sunday, on Pentecost, we will celebrate the fact that God has poured out the Holy Spirit on his people. This action is part of the end times in which we live. God has fulfilled the promise in Ezekiel, and now the Spirit leads and empowers us to walk in God’s ways. There is still a struggle because the old Adam in us has not yet been completely destroyed.  Yet as Paul told the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

          The Spirit is the resurrection power of God already at work in us. Our life with God is not defined by works of the law that we do as we seek favor with him. Instead, the Spirit is at work in us to bring forth fruit – to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. He brings forth love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This love is not a feeling. Instead, it is the act of service directed toward others. And this life of love prompted by the Spirit is what the law was really all about. Paul said, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

          The Spirit empowers. The Spirit leads. But we are not robots.  The life in Christ is something to which we must direct our attention and effort. Paul told the Galatians, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit,” or “let us keep step with the Spirit” as it can also be translated.

And here, God’s Word – his Law – becomes the guide for how we live according to God’s will. We find here a description of what the life in Christ looks like.  We see the goal of how we seek to live each day through the Spirit. 

The Law is an expression of God’s will, and it describes life lived in fellowship with him. However the Law does not provide the power by which fallen man can live according to it. In Jesus Christ, God has delivered us from the curse of the law and its judgment. Now, because of Christ, we are holy before God.

God has fulfilled the words of Ezekiel by sending his Spirit in the last days. Through the work of the Spirit we have been born again, and are a new creation in Christ. The Spirit who has given us new life continues to empower us to walk in the ways of the Lord.

 

         

 

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.”