I Myself Will Be the Shepherd

Text: Ezekiel 34:11-16

“The earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. Alleluia.” These words, which we heard this morning in the Introit, come from Psalm 33. They set the tone for this Sunday and give us the Latin for the third Sunday of Easter. The title for today is Misericordias Domini; Latin for, “the steadfast love of the Lord.” We confess this Sunday and this season – even in a pandemic – that the world is filled with God’s love for us. He continues to provide for all the needs of our bodies: He gives us oxygen to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear, and so on. In this season, we’re also witnessing plants putting out buds and flowers, each the handiwork of God’s love. Especially in this season in the Church year, do we witness God’s steadfast love for us in the resurrection of His Son, our Lord. Truly, the earth is full of the Lord’s steadfast love.

It is this love that brought God to speak to His people what He did in our Old Testament text. In the Gospel, Jesus often had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The same is true of the people in Ezekiel’s time. They were displaced by war. Spiritually, they were dry, old bones – as we heard last week – and led astray by generations of unfaithful shepherds. The Lord promised through Ezekiel a time where He Himself would come and shepherd His people. He would be their good and faithful shepherd. This promise is fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, which continues among us now in the Word and Sacraments.

I.

Our portion of Ezekiel 34 today is pretty well-known, and for good reason. It’s very likely that our Lord had this passage in mind when He called Himself the Good Shepherd. Just after our text, there’s an awesome passage where God promises the Incarnation. We heard from the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel last week, so you might remember the context. Remember, Ezekiel prophesied among the exiles of Judah during their captivity in Babylon. Jeremiah was also preaching during this time, but he mostly stayed back in Judah. What had led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of God’s people in Babylon was a period of generations of unfaithful shepherds among God’s people. Those shepherds were the kings and priests of the people who were unfaithful in their charge. They were supposed to encourage and lead the people by feeding them with God’s pure Word. But instead, they only fed and cared for themselves. They did not teach God’s Word, they allowed false doctrine and worship to flourish. The shepherds of Israel became no different from the kings of the world.

Unfortunately, the witness of the Old Testament is: as the shepherd, so the sheep. When Israel and Judah had faithful kings and priests, often the people were faithful. David is an example of this. Josiah, the boy king who found the Book of the Law after it had been lost for over 100 years is another. In the absence of faithful shepherds, the sheep became unfaithful to God. They sacrificed to idols and lived as pagans do: in lies, murder, and adultery. As discipline, God allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed and the sheep scattered. But, that time of chastisement would not last forever. The Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah, “Thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise and bring you back.” (Jer. 29:10)

This is the promise our Lord builds upon in our text today. Here, He promises Himself to be the shepherd of the sheep. The Lord said, “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out…I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered…and I will bring them into their own land.” (Ezek. 34:11-13) Here the Lord promises, Himself, to be the shepherd of His people. Unlike the unfaithful shepherds of Israel, His focus would be on His sheep. He would gather them together, feed them, give them rest, and bring them into their own land. He would show them His steadfast love. In part, this is fulfilled by the return of the children of Israel to their home. After 70 years, God did raise up King Cyrus, and the people were returned to their own land. Its true fulfillment is something even greater.

II.

Today we heard our Lord speak to us in the Gospel, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (Jn. 10:12) Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to shepherd His people Himself. He came, as He Himself said, “to seek and to save the lost.” (Lk. 19) He came to gather “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (Mt. 15) who had been scattered both physically and, especially, spiritually. He did this by preaching and teaching in their synagogues. He shepherded His people through healing the sick and cleansing the lepers. He fed and nourished souls with His Word and then, as the Good Shepherd, laid down His life for His sheep on the cross. Apart from the shepherd, the sheep had gone astray in sin, but He won forgiveness by giving Himself into death, and eternal life by taking it up again.

Jesus’ ministry, the shepherding of the sheep promised through Ezekiel, isn’t something limited to the past, though. It continues now. In less than a month, we get to celebrate the Ascension of our Lord. The Ascension is when, 40 days after Easter, our Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus’ ascension doesn’t mean that He’s away from us; it means that He is with us always. It means that He is, and will always remain, our Good Shepherd. We confessed in the Psalm, “The Lord is My Shepherd.” The title for today is Misericordias Domini, the steadfast love of the Lord. Out of love, our Lord became our shepherd. In love, our Lord continues to be our shepherd and we, His sheep. But, what does it mean that the Lord is our shepherd? How does He shepherd us?

Through Ezekiel, the Lord said, “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out…I will bring them out from the people and gather them.” (vv. 11, 13) We confess today, and always, that we were each conceived and born in sin. We were united with the world in death, but the Lord sought us out and brought us out of the world of death through His Word. Through the Word, the Lord sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts and gave to us the gift of faith. By faith, we have been united to Him. Through the Word, also, the Lord continues to lead us. In the Word, He shepherds us in what is right and true. Through it, He comforts us and gives us rest in His promises.

The Lord promised through Ezekiel to feed His people with good pasture. This, the Lord does through His Word and, also, in the Sacrament of His true body and blood. The Lord’s Supper is true bread from heaven, given to be our sustenance as we travel through this weary world. In it, the Lord binds up our wounded hearts by giving us the forgiveness of sins He won for us. Through the Word and the Sacraments, the ministry of our Lord continues. He continues to be our shepherd, and we His people. He bids us take comfort in this and rejoice. And so, we do. We confess that, even in this pandemic, the Lord is our Shepherd and we, His sheep. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

I Will Raise You from Your Graves

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14

St. Peter wrote to his hearers, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2, English Standard Version) From ancient times, these words were heard on this, the first Sunday after Easter in the Introit. In our congregations, we don’t often use the Introit; we use the Psalm in its place. The Introit is a portion of a Psalm, or sometimes other portions of Scripture, that is chosen to emphasize the theme of each Sunday. 1 Peter 2 was chosen for this Sunday because this was the first Sunday after the learners had been confirmed. They spent three years learning Scripture and Christian doctrine and then were baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. They were encouraged today to continue longing for the Scriptures like newborn infants for milk or, in Latin, “Quasimodo Geniti;” our title this Sunday.

These also would’ve been good words for the children of Israel in Ezekiel’s time. Ezekiel’s whole ministry was spent in Babylon among the exiles there. Though their physical existence wasn’t necessarily terrible, their spiritual disposition was. We heard in the text how they considered themselves, spiritually, as old dry bones. They felt that they had been clean cut off from the goodness of the Lord. To the contrary, the Lord would raise them from their graves. Not only did the Lord make good on His promises to them, we also confess today that the Lord raises us from the grave of sin by the resurrection of our Lord, both now and in the life to come.

I.

Let’s go back a little bit and talk about Ezekiel. Lord willing, we’ll hear from the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel this week and next. In Old Testament history, there are some big pillar event things to know. One might be the life of Abraham, another the Exodus. Another important one is the Destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. Jerusalem itself was conquered around 586 B.C. It was conquered then, but that was only after years of conflict and deportations. Babylon carried the people of Israel off to Babylon in waves before the destruction; Ezekiel was in one of the early waves. God allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed, just as He had the Northern Kingdom, because of their unfaithfulness. As a whole, the inhabitants of Judah were unfaithful to God in a variety of ways and they did not listen to the prophets God sent them to bring them to repentance. Therefore, God sent them more prophets to tell them that they would be carried into exile in Babylon. It would last 70 years, but then the Lord would raise up another servant who would return them to their homes.

The people of Judah forgot that last detail, for the most part. The Lord told people through Jeremiah that the exile would last 70 years and that He would take care of them even in exile. Through Isaiah, a generation earlier, God named King Cyrus of Persia as the one who would return them to their home. To remind them, God sent Ezekiel. The people in exile had forgotten God’s promises and felt, as they said, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.” (Ezekiel 37:11) The people were represented in Ezekiel’s vision as the valley of dry bones. 

This is what the Lord sent Ezekiel to say to them,

Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O My people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O My people. And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.

Ezekiel 37:12-14

The Lord did exactly what He said. Some time later, the Lord raised Cyrus who returned the children of Israel to their own land. They were not cut off; the Lord raised them from their grave of captivity and brought them home.

II.

That we are cut off from God is maybe something that we’re feeling about now. For members of our congregations here in Iowa, it’s been over a month since we’ve been able to gather in person. We used to take for granted the freedom we had to gather every Sunday – or whenever we want – to sing and pray to the Lord. Now, we are experiencing a sliver of what our Christian brethren around the world and throughout history have. It’s easy to lose hope and feel like old, dry bones. What really cuts us off from God, though, isn’t this pandemic; it’s sin. Each of us, from the youngest to the oldest, has lived and does live in sin. We were sinners before we even drew our first breath. For our sin, we rightly deserve to be cut off from God and severed from His presence eternally in hell.

Thankfully, our God chose not to carry out that sentence on us. Instead, He sent His own Son into the flesh to save us. He didn’t save us by snapping His fingers, no; but by joining us in death. Jesus lived the perfect life, He kept the Law of God perfectly. He did not deserve to die; He instead took our sins into Himself and paid for them with His death. Then, He rose from the dead, showing that our sins really are paid for. We have not been cut off from the goodness of God; He continues to care for us and give us life through the Resurrection of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

III.

Through Ezekiel, the Lord promised to raise His people from their grave. There, He was speaking about returning His people from their exile to the Promised Land. We can also take courage from this promise today. The Lord has promised, and does, raise us from the grave of sin by the Resurrection of Jesus. The Resurrection of Jesus is applied to us through the Means of Grace. In the Gospel reading today, we heard Christ institute one of those means, the Office of the Keys. By breathing out the Holy Spirit on His disciples, Jesus both gave the Keys to His Church on earth and instituted the office through which they are exercised. The Office of the Keys is the authority Christ gives to His Church to forgive the sins of those who are repentant. When the called pastors of the Church speak to us that, for Christ’s sake, our sins are forgiven – they are forgiven. When the Absolution is spoken, it is like Christ bringing us out of the grave of sin like Lazarus from the tomb. 

Our Lord is superabundant in His grace. He doesn’t apply Christ’s resurrection and the forgiveness He won for us only through the Absolution, but also in our Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper and even in the Christian encouragement we give each other. This is all because of the Word. The Word is the instrument of the Holy Spirit, the “active ingredient,” in the Sacraments. Through the Word, in these many ways – and even in this pandemic – we are not cut off from God, but continually raised by Him from the grave of sin.

Hidden in our text is also a preview of the Resurrection that’s yet to come. We heard about it last week from the prophet Job. In Ezekiel’s vision, he saw bones being raised from the dead, covered with muscles and skin. Though it may seem gruesome at first glance, this is exactly what we are awaiting from the Lord. We know that, because of sin and pending our Lord’s return, we will return to the dust from whence we came. Our souls pass unto Christ’s presence, but our bodies will decay. That is, until Christ returns. He will come and call our bodies out of their graves. He will restore our flesh and change our mortal bodies to be like His glorious body. Then, we will live forever with Him and our fellow Christians. The Lord is not one to cut off His people, not then and not now. Yes, we are in a difficult time; but the Lord’s promise holds true. He raises us from the grave of sin now through the Resurrection of Christ and He will raise us to live forever on the Last Day.

Who Gets the Final Say?

Texts: Job 19:23-27; Mark 16:1-8

Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.

Job 19:23-26, English Standard Version

These words of the prophet Job, where he expresses his confident hope in Christ’s resurrection, serve as our text this fine Easter day. Today is the day that our Lord triumphed over death and the grave for us. Though He died, yet He lives. Because He lives, we shall live also. The empty tomb we celebrate today shows us that Christ, not death nor the devil, gets the final say. 

I.

The book of Job is not always high on the list of books of the Bible that we love to read. That’s partly because of its length and partly because a large portion of it is poetic. These mark it harder for us moderns to dive into it than, say, Luke or Acts. Most us, however, do have some familiarity with Job – especially the opening chapters. In just the first chapter, Job, who was a righteous and faithful man, lost to death his seven sons and three daughters. Job was also a wealthy man and, at the same time, lost all his sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys, and his beloved servants. In just a short course of time, Job lost everything that he had and loved. They all died. The temptation for Job throughout the book is to doubt God’s goodness and allow death and the devil to have the final say. Job’s friends and even his wife pester him to believe this.

It’s a temptation we share, as well; to think that death is the final authority. All around us, for over a month now, we’ve seen fear and panic and anxiety. The Lord has worked good changes in some; but to use our Lord’s words, the world is filled with “fear and foreboding” about what is going on. Every day we hear about the number of infections and deaths, and we can fall into a line of thinking that puts death at the top of the food chain. We begin thinking that we’re all going to die and there’s nothing we can do but wait and accept our fate.

The women had accepted it when they went to the tomb. After all, it had been three days since they saw, with their own eyes, Jesus die on the cross. The reason they went to the tomb was to perform one last act of love for their master. They were going to anoint His body with oil and spices to cover the stench of death’s decay. Jesus’ promised resurrection wasn’t on their minds. What was, was the large stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. They had accepted Jesus’ death – that death would claim Him just as it does everyone else – and now only worried about how to get to His dead body.

II.

When they got to the tomb, though, what did they find? They found that the stone had been rolled away. Going into the tomb, they found that it was empty, save for a young man sitting on the right side – an angel. The angel said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here.” (Mk. 16:6) In other words, their ideas about who had the final say in all things were incorrect. It is true, Jesus did die. The death He died, He died as the once-for-all-time payment for our sins. But death could not hold Him, and it didn’t get the final say. The empty grave shows that it belongs to Jesus. He did battle with death and the devil for us, and burst forth triumphantly from the grave.

Job, for his part, was a prophet. By His grace, the Holy Spirit gave Job to see Christ’s resurrection and the great blessing that comes through it. You see, when Christ rose from the dead, He took away death’s fearsome fangs and claws. Death no longer has the power to enslave because Christ tripped the snare; but He didn’t do it just for Himself. The Scriptures say that those who are joined to Christ by Baptism and by faith are joined to His death and resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus means the resurrection of those who believe in Jesus, such as Job. Job knew that, that even after everything else wastes away, at the end of it all, Christ gets the final say. And, what does He say? To us, He says, “Life.”

This is what we celebrate today, even in a pandemic. God is on our side, what can death do to us? Jesus did die, this is true. He died on the cross as the payment for our transgressions. But, today, He rose. His resurrection shows that our sins are paid for and that death no longer gets the last word. That belongs to Jesus who, by His death and resurrection, makes our death but the gateway to eternal life in Him. By His resurrection, Jesus removes death’s sting. It is still bad, it is still the punishment of our sin, but we no longer need fear it. In fact, this is what we’ve already said in the Psalm, “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but has not given me over to death.” (118:17-18)

The empty tomb shows that our Lord, not death, gets the final say. After three days, He burst forth from that dreadful prison and left its bars shattered for those who are in Him. When He returns, He will give eternal life to mortal bodies and we will live with Him forever. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!

Our Iniquity was Laid on Him

Text: Isaiah 53:4-6

Tonight we gather in repentance and somber faith to confess that this is the day our precious Lord was crucified for us. Today is the day that the weight of all God’s wrath against human sin came to bear against our Jesus, the only one in all creation without sin. In the midst of this pandemic we are enduring, we must also confess that it is our own sinfulness that led to that fateful night some 2,000 years ago, and which brings us here tonight. It is our iniquity that has brought us here; it is the Lord’s steadfast love that will bring us through. Because we were unable to pay for the iniquity of our sin, God the Father placed it upon our Lord, instead.

The prophet Isaiah sang of our Lord throughout his ministry. Our text this evening is the word of the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 53, 

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds 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.

Isaiah 53:4-6, English Standard Version

I.

Yes, it is our sinfulness that brought upon that awful day 2,000 years ago, that led to what Isaiah said, “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities.” But, what does it mean to transgress, commit iniquity, to sin? We confess from the Scriptures that our God, in His infinite wisdom and for the good of His creation, set the standard of what is good and right and what is evil and wrong. As the creator of all that exists, it was His right to do so. At Creation, He wrote this standard upon human hearts and spoke it to our first parents. On Mt. Sinai, He wrote it on tablets of stone. To sin is to disregard this Law. To transgress is to go beyond and outside of what God says is right. Iniquity is the condition we are all in. We have each – every one of us – disregarded God’s Commandments throughout our lives and lived as though we are God.

The Lord declares in His Word, “I am the Lord; that is My name; My glory I give to no other.” (Is. 42:8) That is to say, God is the only God. He does not allow pretenders, such as our sinful selves, to stand. Instead, He punishes in His righteous fury those who claim His glory for themselves. Our first parents were warned what would be the punishment of their sin – death and eternal separation from God in hell. This is not just the punishment of sin in general, but of each sin in particular. Every time we have sinned, we have incurred the punishment of death and condemnation.

At different times in our lives, we become aware of this fact. Unfortunately, we have resorted to our human wisdom to address this issue. Our nature is to always assume that we can make up for something we’ve done wrong; that we can do good to offset something bad. We carry this into the spiritual realm and figure that we can do something to make up for what we’ve done. St. Isaiah speaks the truth when he confesses, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (64:6) Whatever we might think to do to bring ourselves back into God’s favor, whatever we might think are righteous deeds, are in fact wretched in God’s eyes. Not only can they not pay for our sins, but God sees our attempts at righteousness and spits them out of His mouth. Attempting to make ourselves righteous by our works is the same as sinning. Neither leads to a good end.

II.

If left on our own, we would – without doubt – perish eternally. Our Lord, however, is not just a righteous judge, but a loving and kind father. Even before the foundation of the world, He saw our wretched state and determined, Himself, to rectify it. He turned to us a Father’s heart, and did not take the easy part. St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law.” (Gal. 4:4-5) This, also, is what Isaiah prophesied. Rather than extract the punishment of our many sins from us – which would be just – He took another path. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into the flesh for us.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was born without original sin, and did not commit any sins. Isaiah said, “He [did] no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth.” (53:9) Instead, He carried our griefs and bore our sorrows. The Lord placed upon our Lord the iniquity of our sin. The guilt of our sins, of the evil and perverse things that we have done, God the Father placed upon Jesus, who bore them willingly to the cross. On the cross, our Lord was forsaken by God and on Him was poured all of God’s wrath against our many sins. Jesus gladly did this, so that we might have peace.

As we said a moment ago, our sin is what has brought us here. Our sin is what introduced death into the world. Sin is why we are afflicted as we are now, and it is why we will die. Yet, our sin is also why our Lord died. Only, the death He died, He died as the payment for our sin and to change the outcome of our death. Isaiah said, “He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” Jesus’ death means that our debt is paid. It means that we have peace with God. It means we are forgiven, but only at a great cost. So, we gather tonight in somber repentance and faith to confess our great sinfulness, but also our Lord’s great love and mercy. Lord have mercy. Amen.

The Lord’s Passover

Text: Exodus 12:1-14

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever.

Exodus 12:13-14, English Standard Version

Our Lord accompanied the institution of the Passover meal with these words. The Passover is the name we give to the night of the final plague of Egypt: the death of the firstborn. With that plague, Pharaoh’s hand would be compelled to expel the children of Israel from Egypt, an event the Passover meal celebrates. The Passover meal was both a celebration and participation in that event. It also foreshadowed the feast we celebrate tonight.

On Holy Thursday, we remember that our Lord was betrayed into the hands of sinful men for us. On Thursday night, our Lord was betrayed and given a sham trial. In the early hours of Friday morning, He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate, who had Him crucified. Today is also the day that our Lord instituted His Supper. In His final hours with His disciples, He gave them a meal whereby they (and we) would receive the fruits of His cross. In the Passover, the Lord gave His people a meal to celebrate their deliverance from slavery. In the Lord’s Supper, we receive a meal that is deliverance from the slavery of sin.

I.

The Passover meal is something we don’t talk about too much. This is partly because, outside of Exodus 12, the Bible speaks very little about it. The earliest accounts of how a Passover meal (what we now know as a seder meal) would go don’t come until well after Jesus. We know that Jesus celebrated the Passover; we don’t know what that looked like. The bigger reason, however, is that the Passover is one of those things in the Old Testament which are fulfilled in Christ. The Passover, along with the sacrifices and the observance of the Sabbath, pointed ahead to Christ and is fulfilled in His passion. The early Church recognized this and it’s why we don’t celebrate the Passover. Still, it is important for us to know what the Passover is.

The Exodus happened in about 1446 B.C. For 400 years leading up to that point, God’s people lived in slavery in Egypt. They went there, initially, because of a famine. The Lord blessed His people in Egypt and they prospered there. In time, kings of Egypt up rose up who knew neither Joseph nor the Lord, and they subjected the Hebrews to harsh slavery. God’s people cried out to Him for deliverance and He heard their cry. The Lord sent Moses and his brother Aaron to speak to Pharaoh, but when Pharaoh refused to listen and release God’s people, the Lord sent upon Egypt nine plagues. These plagues greatly afflicted the unbelieving Egyptians, but Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened against God. And so the time came for the final plague: the death of the firstborn.

As we heard, the Lord instructed His people to take a year old male lamb, one without blemish – in other words, a perfect one – and slaughter it. They were then to take its blood and mark the doorposts outside their house. That evening, they were to remain inside and eat the lamb together with their family. When the Lord came through Egypt that night, He would see the blood on the door and know that His children were inside; He would pass over them. Those who did not believe didn’t mark their doors, and God punished them with the death of their firstborn males – both man and animal. The result of this plague was that Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh’s hand was forced to release them. Every year afterwards, Israel was to commemorate that night by continuing to slaughter and eat a male lamb. In the Passover meal, the children of Israel celebrated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

II.

On the night our Lord celebrated His last Passover, He did something different. In the midst of the meal He took bread and gave it to His disciples saying, “This is My body.” After they had eaten supper, He gave them wine saying, “This is My blood.” With these words, Jesus instituted a new meal to be celebrated by His followers forever. He instituted the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of the Altar. Unlike the Passover, this meal is not just a memorial feast, but an actual deliverance itself. 

We believe from the witness of the Holy Spirit through Evangelists Sts. Matthew, Mark, and Luke and through St. Paul that in the Lord’s Supper we receive not just bread and wine, but with them the true body and blood of our Lord Christ. We take this from Christ’s clear words, “This is.” We also hear St. Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians that the bread we break is a participation in the body of Christ and the cup we bless a communion in His blood. Paul also admonishes the congregation that those who misuse the Supper sin against the body and blood of Christ. We are not cannibals, however, as some have accused both Christians and Lutheran Christians of being. We simply believe that since Jesus is God, He is able to give us His body to eat and His blood to drink with the bread and wine in a way unknown to us. We call this the sacramental union.

III.

For what reason did Christ give us this meal? The Passover meal was a celebration of a past event – the Lord delivering His people from slavery in Egypt. The Lord’s Supper, however, is not a celebration of a past event but, in fact, is a means by which the Lord gives deliverance from the slavery of sin and death. When Jesus gave us His Supper He said, “This is My body…this is My blood which is poured out…for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt. 26:26, 28) From these words, we believe that in the Lord’s Supper Christ, gives us His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. As the Catechism says, where there is forgiveness, there is also life and salvation.

The Lord’s Supper is a means by which our Lord delivers us from slavery to sin and death. As with Baptism, the Supper is a means by which the fruits of Christ’s cross are distributed to us. It is one thing for Christ to have paid for our sins on the cross, it is another to apply that payment to us. We confess this evening that we are sinners. We were born in sin, enslaved to it. Thankfully, our Lord’s grace is greater than our sinfulness, and He gives us forgiveness over and over and over again: through the Word, in our Baptism, in the Absolution, and – we confess tonight – in the Supper. The Passover meal was given to celebrate God’s deliverance of His people from slavery. The Lord’s Supper is given to be our deliverance from sin, death, and the devil. It takes the forgiveness Christ won and applies it to us. Thanks be to God.

Christ’s Mind for Us

Link to Audio

Text: Philippians 2:5-11

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2:5-7, English Standard Version) These words serve as the text as we enter our Lord’s Holy Week. They are the words of the Holy Spirit through St. Paul to the Philippians in a time of persecution and affliction. The Philippian congregation was a small group, St. Paul’s first planting in Europe. They were dear to him; St. Luke remained among them for a time, as well. Their love for St. Paul and for their Christian brothers and sisters around the world – as St. Paul noted the Philippians’ generosity in his letters to the Corinthians – however, did not displace them from the situation they were in.

Philippi was a Roman colony, but there was no Jewish synagogue there. In all likelihood, the members of this congregation were converted to the faith from idolatry. They were poor and few in number and, as a whole, looked down upon by the world. Even in the early years of the Church, Christians were looked down-upon for their faith in Christ, sometimes harmed or killed. Put this all together – the Philippians’ poverty, their lack in numbers, the external pressures of the world – and you can understand why St. Paul wrote to them. Even for the most strong of a Christian, the struggles of this life make it very tempting to turn inward on oneself, to focus on our own needs and cares. In contrast, St. Paul directed the Philippians to the mind of Christ, which was set only on them and on us. Christ only had His mind set on us, resulting in our salvation. By faith, He sets our minds on Him and on each other.

I.

“Have this mind among yourselves,” St. Paul said, “which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (vv. 5-7) We heard this passage just a few weeks ago when we were talking about the Second Article of the Creed. We believe, by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, that Jesus is the true and eternal Son of God. His was with the Father and the Spirit in the beginning and by Him were all things made. What St. Paul means by His being in the “form of God,” is that, not only was Jesus God, but He did God “stuff.” He created, led, and defended His people. He provided for them in the wilderness. 

Yet, Jesus did not consider His being and acting as God something to be grasped. The Spirit’s language here in the Greek echoes the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve saw that the forbidden tree was good for eating and making one wise, they grasped it and ate it. They grasped after being and acting like God; so, also, do we when we sin. Every sin we commit involves making ourselves the judges of right and wrong. Every sin is a small attempt to make ourselves God. But, Jesus did not grasp after being God – even though He was God. Instead, He went the opposite route. He “made Himself nothing,” He “humbled Himself” to be in human form. We confess that Jesus became in every way as we are. He became true flesh and blood and was subject to the hardships we endure, except without sin.

St. Paul writes, “And being found in human form, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (v. 8) Jesus lowered Himself to punishment of the Law in our place, He took the punishment from God we racked-up by our many sins. In the Gospels we hear how Jesus was treated along the way. Last week we heard how His own people tried to stone Him for speaking the truth. Jesus was betrayed by one of His own disciples. He was struck and spit upon and mocked. He was flogged and crucified. Properly understood, He did not have to endure all these things; Jesus willingly submitted Himself to the will of the Father as Isaac did to Abraham when he carried the wood for sacrifice. Jesus did it all because, even in suffering, He had one thing on His mind: us. Even in His affliction, Jesus had His mind set on us and secured, by His death, our salvation.

II.

Suffering was not unknown to the Philippians. When St. Paul spoke of them to the Corinthians, he recalled how “in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.” (2 Cor. 8:2) In other words, the Philippians heard St. Paul’s encouragement – including to rejoice in the Lord always – and set their minds on Christ and each other. They realized that, because Christ did (and still does) set His mind on us, they and we have everything we need. We have air to breathe and water to drink. We have shelter, food, and clothing. We may lack according to what we would want in ideal situations, but the Lord preserved them and us thus far. The Philippians realized, especially, that even when everything falls away this one thing endures: the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of eternal life we have in Christ. This knowledge, that everything they truly needed was already provided for, freed the Philippians’ to serve and look to the needs of others. By setting their minds on Christ, they really became set on their neighbor in Christ.

The affliction that we are enduring now is nowhere near the suffering that some of our fathers in the faith endured, but the same temptation remains for us to turn inward on ourselves. When something bad happens our nature is to circle the wagons on ourselves. We first, and usually only, look to our own wants and desires. We sin and make idols in our own images. For this, we deserve affliction. But in this time, let us remember what was on Christ’s mind – us. It was for us that He took on flesh. It was for us He rode into Jerusalem. It was for us He allowed Himself to be betrayed, and for us that He died. He had on His mind not His own need, but ours. By His death, our redemption is won.

III.

St. Paul encouraged the Philippians to set their minds on Christ, but that is something really worked in us by the Holy Spirit. We just learned this last week that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings us and points us to Christ. He’s doing that even now. We know from Scripture that we are to love and care for our neighbor, especially in times like this. We also know that we sometimes fail at this, which is sin. We become preoccupied with worry and we forget that the Lord provides what we need. Thankfully, that includes the forgiveness of our sins. Through our Baptism, the Holy Spirit daily works faith in our hearts. When we hear and sing His Word, the Spirit uses that to strengthen and increase our faith – and set our minds on Christ. Let us remember, even in these trying times, that our needs are met. The Lord grant us His Holy Spirit, that our minds would be that of Christ’s – minds set for the good of our neighbor. 

I Believe in the Holy Spirit

Text: The Third Article, Pt. I

Link to Audio:

The Latin title for today, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, is Judica. It comes from a verse in Psalm 43 that says, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” (Psalm 43:1, English Standard Version) “Judica” means, “vindicate.” This verse applies well to Christ, as we heard in the Gospel how He was opposed and threatened for preaching the true Word of God. We might also use this verse ourselves as a prayer to God, that He might rescue us from death and from the clutches of deceitful and unjust Satan. The Fifth Sunday in Lent marks the beginning of what is called Passiontide, the final two weeks before our Lord’s death for us. It is a time of somber repentance, which is why the joyful words of the Gloria Patri drop from the Liturgy until the Resurrection.

This morning we’re going to move on to the next article of the Creed, the third. In it we confess our faith in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So far we’ve confessed the First Article, where we praise our God and Father for His work of creation and His continuing care for us. In the Second Article, we give thanks to Jesus Christ for His becoming man for us and redeeming us with His blood. In the Third Article, we confess that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to take the redemption that Christ won for us and bring it to us through the Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is the One who enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the true faith.

I.

Of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit is probably the least understood. Throughout history there have been a number of controversies over the Holy Spirit, especially concerning His divinity and work. Many in the world today shortchange the Spirit and downgrade Him to some impersonal force or power. Our own church body, the LCMS, has had its own struggles in this area – not about whether the Spirit is God, but about how He does His work and what it looks like when the Spirit is at work. Rather than form our own opinions, which is where problems come from, let us strive for a faith patterned after the pure words of Scripture.

Something interesting about the Holy Spirit, though, is that He doesn’t like to talk about Himself. That has a lot to do with His job, but we’ll come back to that. Nevertheless, we learn from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is God. He is not just a power or force or energy, as some might say; The Holy Spirit is complete and true God, along with the Father and the Son. The Spirit was present at Creation, as we hear in Genesis: “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Gen. 1) In the Book of Acts there was a man named Ananias who, with his wife Sapphira, made a show of giving a large sum of money to the Church in hopes of gaining prestige. Their show involved a lie. St. Peter called Ananias to repentance, saying, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to men, but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4) There are other passages we could look at, but for the sake of time, we’ll let these words of the Athanasian Creed summarize: “Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.” But what does He do?

Jesus said on the night He was betrayed, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth…He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (Jn. 16:13-14) That’s what we’re building on when we say, “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” The work of the Spirit is to point us to Christ, to bring us into the Christian faith. He is the one who calls us out of darkness into Christ’s marvelous light. He takes the forgiveness which Christ won for us and declares it to us. In short, it is the Holy Spirit’s work to make us holy by bringing us to and sustaining us in the Christian faith. This is a necessary work, too, because without it we would without doubt perish eternally.

II.

We say in the meaning of the Third Article that we (“I”) cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. I’m repeating myself, I know, but this is what the Creed does – it takes the teachings of Scripture and puts them into a smaller chunk. Here, the teaching that is made smaller is what the Scriptures say about our fallen human nature. In Confirmation class, we spend a good amount of time talking about Original Sin. We do it in class because it’s hard, once we’re adults, to fathom this – that ever since the Fall, human nature is corrupt. We are not good by nature. Instead, we’re really bad; dead, even. This is totally different from what the world says, and what we, even, want to tell ourselves. But remember, we want our faith to be formed by Scripture and not opinion. So, what does the Scripture say? St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “You were dead in trespasses and sins…[living] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” (Eph. 2:1-3)

Original Sin means that, though we have freedom of choice in most areas of our lives, this freedom does not extend to spiritual matters. Instead, we are born at enmity with God – in hostility toward Him. We are born without faith in God, without love for Him, and without the ability to bring those things about in our own hearts. St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot;” to the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them.” (Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 2:14) Jesus Himself said in the Gospel that men prefer the darkness of sin to the light of God and, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (Jn. 5:44)

Put this all together and we’ll start to see why the work of the Holy Spirit is necessary. We were all born dead in sin and trespasses, unable to fear God, love Him, or trust in Him. We know from Scripture that salvation is by God’s grace through faith; faith that we lack by nature and are unable to create in ourselves. If left to our own, we would die and suffer eternally in hell. Thankfully, our God is merciful and kind. He sent His Son to purchase us back from death and the devil with His own blood. He sends His Holy Spirit to bring that Good News to our ears and heart. But how does that happen? How does the Holy Spirit do His work of creating faith in our hearts and sustaining us in it?

III.

In the Lutheran Church we believe the Holy Scriptures are the true, inspired, inerrant, and ineffable Word of God. We learn and use the Creeds because they are faithful explanations of the Scriptures. We also have a collection of documents called the Book of Concord. Some of you know what this is; all of us have learned from it – the Small Catechism is in the Book of Concord. Another document in the Book of Concord is the Augsburg Confession. This will be our last thought today, as we’ll finish the Creed on Wednesday. Article V of the Augsburg Confession teaches us how the Holy Spirit does His Work. It says:

That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.

http://bookofconcord.org/augsburgconfession.php#article5

We’ll unpack all that on Wednesday. For now, let’s end by speaking the meaning of the Third Article together.

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me  in the true faith.

In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.

On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

This is most certainly true.

http://catechism.cph.org/en/creed.html

Fatherly, Divine Goodness and Mercy

Link to Audio

Text: First Article, Pt. II

The Latin title for the Second Sunday in Lent is Reminiscere. It means, “Remember,” and it comes from part of Psalm 25 where it says, “Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses; For they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: According to Thy mercy remember Thou me For Thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” (Ps. 25:7-7, King James Version) This makes us especially think of the Canaanite woman in the Gospel reading. She begged Christ’s mercy for her demon-afflicted daughter, freely confessing she did not deserve it. The Lord heard her cry and had compassion on her daughter. During the season of Lent, we also cry out to God in repentance and faith; and we ask Him to remember His promise to forgive our sins by His grace. As the Catechism says, “for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.”

We ask God to remember us in the confidence that He will, indeed, remember and forgive us. He will do this out of His own fatherly, divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in us. It is the same divine goodness and mercy that causes our heavenly Father to provide not just for our souls but for every need of our bodies, as well. We pick up today where we left off last week. We confess in the First Article of the Creed that God our Father is the maker of all things. In addition to making us and all things, our God continues to provide for all our needs.

I.

We said last week that the division between those who are of God and those who are of the world becomes pretty clear in this first article. The world says that there is no maker of heaven and earth, but that all things came into being by happenstance. The Scriptures teach, and nature itself witnesses, that there is a Creator: the Triune God. God created all things out of nothing in six days, simply by speaking. Man, He formed from the dust of the earth as a potter would something of clay. Beyond this, we also confess in the First Article that God our Father didn’t just make everything and disappear. No, He continues to be intimately involved in His Creation, ordering and providing for all things – even us.

There are some who believe that God did create everything as Genesis teaches, but then left creation to run on its own as a watchmaker would a watch. In fact, they were Christians who came up with that idea. In school we learned about Isaac Newton; He was one of the first to suggest it. But what does the Bible have to say on the topic? “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Ps. 145:15-16) Elsewhere, it says, “He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth; He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.” (Ps. 147:8-9)

God’s gracious provision isn’t just for the birds and wild animals, but by His grace He extends it over us. This is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Mt. 6:26) The answer, of course, is yes. Our heavenly Father doesn’t just provide for the creation, He provides for us. Everything that we need for the body, He provides. In fact, let’s read the second paragraph of the meaning and see what sort of things God provides.

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.

http://catechism.cph.org/en/creed.html

Our God is even so loving that He provides for those who don’t (or do not yet) believe in Him. In short, our God supplies for our every need of body and soul.

II.

Our heavenly Father also, “defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.” We confessed this already in the Psalm. We spoke, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (121:1-2) It is true that life in this fallen creation is difficult and dangerous. Our God remembers us, however, and He works all things for our good. He defends us from danger through the Kingdom of the Left – our government, our military, our firefighters, police, and emergency medical services. They serve as hands of God in our daily lives. In confirmation class, we learn that is why we obey the Fourth Commandment. God teaches us to honor those who are above us in station, for it is really God serving us through them. This includes our parents, too.

When we confess that God guards and protects us from all evil, we also enter into the spiritual realm. St. Peter teaches us that the devil prowls around us like a roaring lion. If he could, Satan would devour us, too. Here is where our Lord enters in. By the ministry of His holy angels, we are defended from the assaults of Satan and his minions. Through their work, though hidden from our eyes, God defends us against the devil’s evil and mischief. So, also, does our God protect us from evil by sending us faithful pastors and teachers. Through their faithful preaching and teaching of the Word, God works to strengthen and nurture our faith, so that no place would be given for the devil and his crafty doctrines.

III.

These things, and many more, our God does for us. He provides for our every need of body and soul. He guards and protects us from all danger and evil. Even when, according to His will, we do suffer things that are adverse to us, He is still there working them for our benefit. We can say in confidence, with St. Paul, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) There remain for us two questions to answer. Why does God do all this? And, How should we respond to all these things? Let’s answer them both together by reading the rest of the meaning from the Small Catechism.

All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

http://catechism.cph.org/en/creed.html

God, Our Father and Maker

Link to Audio

Text: First Article, Pt. I

The Latin title for today, the first Sunday in Lent, is Invocabit. It means, “He shall call.” It comes from a verse in Psalm 91, where it says, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.” (Psalm 91:15, King James Version) This applies especially to Christ, whose temptation we heard in the Gospel reading; but it is also a promise for we who are in Christ. It is our Lord who teaches us to call on Him and promises to hear. Therefore, we may have confidence when we pray that God does hear us and will deliver us from every evil. 

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church, it has long been the practice to set aside the season of Lent as a time for relearning and refocusing on the teachings of the Small Catechism. We learn the Catechism not for the sake of the Catechism itself, but because the Catechism takes the essential teachings of Scripture and packages them in a digestible way. The Catechism isn’t always easy, but it is a good tool for us to learn and confess the Christian faith. We began last year by looking at our Lord’s Ten Commandments. The Commandments are God’s good and holy will. They show us what we should do, and what we fail to do. They show us our need for Christ and, after having received the forgiveness of sins by faith, they teach us how to love our neighbor. This year, our attention turns to the Apostles’ Creed. Today, we confess that God our Father is the maker of all things.

I.

Let’s pause for a moment so we can first answer this question: What’s a creed? Creed is actually taken from the Latin word credo, which means, “I believe.” A creed, essentially, is a statement of one’s beliefs. We all have many creeds. For example, if you believe one college team is better than another college team – that is a creed. In the Christian Church, we also have creeds. We have three of them: The Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creed. The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest, dating to at least the middle 2nd century. The Nicene Creed comes from 325. The Athanasian Creed is named after a man named Athanasius, though it probably wasn’t written by him. It comes from about the fifth century and is a defense and explanation of the faith we confess in the Nicene Creed – particularly as regards the Trinity and the divine and human natures of Jesus. These three together are called the Ecumenical Creeds because, if you are a Christian, you believe these things.

We confess these creeds not for their own sake but because, as with the Catechism, they take the true teachings of Scripture and put them in a digestible format. It takes a lifetime to learn the Scriptures, but one can learn the creeds in a shorter time. They also make it easier to confess the faith. If someone asks us what we believe, we can turn at least to the Apostles’ Creed, which we all probably have memorized. We use the Apostles’ Creed in the Catechism because it is the shortest and because, since ancient history, it was what you learned before you were baptized. Why not learn it before you get confirmed?

II.

The Apostles’ Creed is broken into three articles; one each for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This week and next we are looking at the First Article. Let’s speak the First Article together. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Already, with only one sentence, we have set ourselves at odds with the world. In recent years, we’ve begun to notice more and more the division between those who are of God and those who are of the world. This is one area where the division is plainly visible. The world says that there is no maker of heaven and earth, but that all things came into being simply by chance and brute force. Sadly, even many Christians have fallen into this thinking. Or else, they may believe that God created – but not in the way that He Himself says He did in Genesis. In the First Article of the Creed, we mark a line in the sand and confess that God is the maker of heaven and earth.

But why do we confess this and suffer friction for it? We confess that God is the creator of heaven and earth, and that it happened in the way Genesis says, because that’s what Jesus believes. In Matthew 19, some Pharisees came to our Lord in order to test Him. They asked Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, as Moses had allowed them. Jesus answered their question by going back to Creation. He said to them, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his 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.” (Matthew 19:4-6, English Standard Version) 

Jesus cites the Creation account, specifically the creation of man and the institution of marriage, as fact. Later in Matthew, Jesus also affirms the Flood account and how He spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush. All these are things the world calls into question, and so do some Christians; but we believe that God created the heavens and the earth because that’s what Jesus believed. It is the plain witness of the Holy Spirit in the rest of Scripture, as well; but time limits us from going further. One can learn these things from Hebrews, Romans, Colossians, 2 Peter, the Psalms, and, of course, John 1.

III.

We are breaking the First Article into two parts, so we’ll finish next week. But, before we end we should actually confess what we believe. We’ve now learned why we should believe that God created the heavens and the earth – in the way that Genesis says; but what do we believe? It’s simple, we believe what we’ve already said, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Martin Luther explains this well in the Catechism. So, let’s turn to the meaning of the First Article and read just the first paragraph. “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.”

We believe that, in six days, God created all that exists, both in heaven and on earth; things both visible and invisible. He created all things out of nothing, simply by speaking. He is God, after all. Not only did He create planets, plants, and animals, but He also created you and me. Of course, He created us by knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs as Scripture says elsewhere. In the beginning, He created man by forming him from the dust of the earth. The Scriptures say that God formed man as a potter would a clay vessel. He breathed into man the breath of life and we became living creatures. 

This belief does mark us as different from the world. Isn’t this what Jesus said though, “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.” (Jn. 15:19) The First Article doesn’t stop with creation, though. We also confess our faith in God using the word father. Just as our earthly fathers care for us throughout our lives, so does our true Father continue to be involved in His good creation. We’ll continue with the First Article next week.

The Lord Works Not as Man Works

Link to Audio

Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

The Latin title for today is Quinquagesima and it means, “about fifty days” until Easter. This is the last Sunday before Lent begins. Ash Wednesday is this week; we’ve already sung the Gloria in Excelsis for the last time until we sing it joyfully at the Resurrection of our Lord. The tone of this Sunday is especially brought out in the Gospel reading, particularly in the beginning. In the first portion of the Gospel, Jesus said,

See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.

Luke 18:31-33, English Standard Version

The second half of the Gospel is what pulls us into our theme for today. When Jesus drew near to Jericho, His last stop before Jerusalem, He encountered a blind man named Bartimeaus. Bartimeaus heard that it was Jesus passing by and cried out for healing to the Son of David. Jesus stopped and healed him, saying, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” (Lk. 16:42) Each of the last few weeks, we’ve looked at different aspects of the Reformation solas: Grace alone and Scripture alone. Today, we confess that our God does not work the way man does; He chooses us for salvation by His grace through the faith He Himself gives us in Christ. We ponder this from our Old Testament text.

I.

This week we’re in the book of 1 Samuel. The book is named after Samuel, who was a priest, prophet, and the last judge of Israel. The book, as a whole, focuses on the reign of Saul, which went poorly at many points; but there are spots that set us up for 2 Samuel, which focuses on the reign of David. Today is one of those spots. Our text takes place after the Lord rejected King Saul. This means that there would be no kingly line of Saul; none of his children would sit on the throne. Instead, because of his unfaithfulness before the Lord, the throne would pass to someone else. Samuel spoke these words to Saul, “Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23) The throne would pass from Saul to someone else, but whom?

“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for Myself a king among his sons.’” (1 Sam. 16:1) In the text, the Lord sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint the Lord’s chosen king. We know, of course, the True King who comes from Bethlehem – but that’s about 1,000 years after this text. Samuel met Jesse and invited him to sacrifice to the Lord. Jesse, in turn, made seven of his sons go before Samuel. But, one by one, each was rejected by the Lord. God said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (v. 7) Finally, Samuel asked if Jesse had any more sons. Turns out, he did – the smallest and youngest, who was out shepherding the sheep.

II.

When Jesse had David go before Samuel, the Lord said to him, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” (v. 12) David was the one chosen by the Lord to be king over Israel. Samuel anointed him in the midst of his brothers, it says, “and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.” (v. 13) This brings us to the question of why David. Israel first received a king (Saul) because they wanted to be like all the nations around them. They grew tired of the Lord being their king and of the judges whom God sent. They wanted to be like everyone else, so the Lord allowed them a king like all the other kings, Saul; and it went very badly. Now, the Lord gets His chosen king; and He doesn’t work like man does. Even Samuel had to be told that when he thought Eliab was certainly going to be the one – perhaps because of his height. 

No, David was the one chosen by the Lord – but why? Here’s the clue, “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” There was something different about David. He had faith, which itself was given to him by God. Out of His own good will, the Lord revealed Himself to the world through the prophets. David had heard the Word of the Lord through said prophets and, by the work of the Spirit, held onto it in faith. Though he himself was, perhaps, nothing to write home about compared to his brothers, yet by God’s grace he was adopted into the salvation that is in Christ alone. It wasn’t because of anything in David that God chose him as king. God chose David by His grace through the faith He had already created in his heart. God doesn’t work like man does. When man wants a ruler, they look for strength or other outward characteristics; but God looks on the heart. He works by grace through faith. This is, of course, what St. Paul says. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

III.

This is a good thing, too, that God doesn’t work the way man works. From an outward perspective, we don’t amount to too much. Not individually and not as congregations. I mean this from an outward perspective. There will always be other organizations out there that have more members, more money, more visible good works to their name, more organization, better facilities, better leaders. In fact, as far as the world is concerned, we don’t exist – except to those who wish us harm. As individuals, too, we don’t amount to much. None of us are international celebrities as far as I’m aware. None of us are particularly prestigious or decorated in the world’s eyes. In many other organizations, the longer you’re in the group the more you climb the ladder. Many of us have been members of the Church for decades, but every day we go back to the beginning when we die and rise with Christ in our Baptism.

But, you see, God doesn’t work the way the world works or the way man works. He looks on the heart. When He looks at us, He chooses to not to see the evil and sin that lurks in our hearts by nature, but the faith He has planted in there Himself. Our God is such a loving Father that He spared no expense to bring us back into His own good favor, not even His own Son. It is for our sake that, as He said, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise. He did this because deep in our hearts, according to our nature, there is not one good thing. There is only sin, evil, and death. But, by His death, Jesus made the payment for our evil sins. Then, by His grace, He sent out to us His Holy Word. He sent the Apostles out to preach and teach in all the world (like we heard last week), and through their writings we have been brought to faith. God the Holy Spirit has worked through the Word, to plant and grow the seed of faith in our hearts. This faith is what saves us.

That’s what Jesus really said to Bartimaeus in Jericho, by the way. English translations of the Bible commonly miss that. Jesus really said, “Recover your sight; your faith has saved you.” God doesn’t work the way man does. He doesn’t forgive, save, or choose based on anything that is in us. He didn’t choose David based on appearances, but because of the faith which He (God) created in David’s heart. Not even having faith is something we can do. It is the work of God the Holy Spirit in us. When we hear these words, that Jesus went to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise for us, and believe it, we can take comfort that God has chosen us for salvation in Christ. This is not because of anything in us; it is only by His grace through faith in Christ, who is revealed to us in Scripture alone. In Jesus’ name. Amen.