Sermon for 4/21/24: Fourth Sunday of Easter (series B)

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Hear and Follow

John 10:11-18

 

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

 

On this side of glory, our faith lives alongside of doubt. The devil doesn’t need to plant it in us. He just needs to water it. Jesus says, “My sheep know My voice. They follow Me.” But it doesn’t take much to get us thinking: “Do I really know His voice? Am I really following Him?” Doubt wants proof. How much have we done? Can we be recognized in this world by our love? The truth is, we can’t. Sinners that we are, we have blended all too well into the ways of the world. After all, it seems much easier to get forgiveness from a seemingly distant God rather than deal with the mockery and hatred of the world around you. You have not been good enough. Your life does not show your faith so much as it shows your sin. So repent. Turn away from your sin.

Yes, repent…but then tell doubt and the devil to shut up. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He lays downs His life for His sheep. He has met His Father’s wrath. He pays for your sins, your doubts. There is no one left to accuse you. You are righteous because Jesus has declared you to be so. He has substituted His life for yours. He has risen from the dead for your justification. He is the Good Shepherd. He didn’t only defeat death by His death; He also rose again to usher you into the green pastures of heaven, to bring you home. He loves you. You know His voice. You hear it now. You love it.

It seems strange to us, but doubt is actually evidence of faith. Your doubts are the pinpricks of conscience. As your faith in Christ grows, you become ever more aware of your sins and the weakness of your faith. Doubt is evidence that the state of your soul means something to you. Doubt is evidence that you are engaging the enemy inside yourself. If you were not engaging the enemy, you would not care. You would feel no worry about it.

If this is a hard word for lay people to hear, it is torture for pastors. No faithful pastor in Christendom can hear our Lord’s words about hirelings and not squirm. Every faithful pastor knows he does not live up to his own preaching. Every pastor has counted the cost. Every pastor has considered how we might package the message to be successful and make the people like us. The spirit indeed is willing. But the flesh? The flesh knows who writes the checks, and the pastor likes to be able to feed his family. As a pastor who has been forced to leave a congregation, I can tell you that it can be a challenge for me to say the things that are hard for you to hear; even so, that is what I am Called to do—both by God, and by you. It is no easy task, and it is only by the grace of God that any sinful man can serve in this overwhelming office.

But of course, this doesn’t hard saying apply only to the clergy. You have all stood up here at the front of the sanctuary and have made promises you haven’t kept. You have promised to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from the one true faith. Imagine that! You’ve made huge, impossible promises at Confirmation, at your weddings, at the baptism of your children. This hireling bit applies in the first place to pastors, to be sure, but it doesn’t stop there. When the wolf comes, baring his teeth at terrified sheep, the hirelings also run away from their wives, children, and neighbors, and the Church. It’s not just the pastors who squirm at these hard words.

But when we recognize that our faith is challenged and tested; when we recognize that Satan is seeking to devour us like the sheep we are; when we recognize that we have failed to live and believe as we should; it is especially then that we cling to the powerful grace of God. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. The promises of God are not dependent on perfect sheep, but a Good Shepherd who is faithful, a Good Shepherd who has made a promise that cannot and will not be broken, a Good Shepherd who cleanses you in Himself. Nothing can separate you from the love of God—not your sins, your failures, your imperfect faith, your broken vows, nor even your doubts. He has placed His promise upon you, baptizing you into His Name, placing that name on your forehead and your heart. He would have you be part of His flock. Death has no claim upon you. Hell has no way to hold you. You are His sheep, clean and pure by grace. He loves you. He laid down His life you. He comes to you in His Holy Supper. He feeds you with Bread from heaven in His very Body; He washes you anew in His Blood, which He pours out for you.

You are His sheep. You hear His Voice. You love it. You love Him. You desire to be with Him. Even in the midst of your doubts, amidst your struggles against the fallen flesh, you love Jesus. You rejoice in this forgiveness because you know your Shepherd and He knows you. That is why you are here. You are His sheep. And you need fear no evil, for He is Your Good Shepherd. ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.   

Sermon for 4/14/24: The Third Sunday of Easter (series B)

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Believe with Your Ears, Confess with Your Lips
Luke 24:36-49

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Jesus opened the minds of the disciples to understand the Scriptures: how He Himself was the fulfillment of everything written in the Law and the Prophets; how He must suffer and die, and then He must rise again, so that the forgiveness He died and rose to win would be proclaimed to all nations. And then He told the disciples, “You are witnesses of these things.” To be a witness is a big deal. It’s a big deal because you had to be where something happened to be a witness. You had to see and hear the event for yourself. Only then can you reliably testify about what happened, about what you saw and heard. A witness doesn’t have second-hand information; in fact, a court of law will not accept second-hand information, because a witness sees for himself, and he testifies about what he has seen and heard. Only then may all who hear him know what truly happened. That’s also how it works when it comes to the Truth about Jesus. The Holy Spirit inspired the men who saw with their own eyes the life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to share with the world what they had heard and seen.

The truth is, you have not received the charge from Jesus to be a witness of what He did and taught. You can’t be a witness; you weren’t there. You didn’t see Jesus with your own eyes or hear Him with your own ears as He taught in the Temple, as He shone on the mountain, as He hung on the cross. You can only receive from the apostles what they saw and heard. With that being said, while you have not witnessed with your own eyes the events in the Holy Land 2000 years ago, you are no less blessed than those who did witness these events, for you are blessed to receive their eyewitness accounts. In fact, as Jesus reminded us last week, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus attaches a special blessing to faith without sight.

One special blessing you have received because you believe without being an eyewitness is that our Lord has made you a confessor. The Truth which the disciples heard directly from the mouth of Jesus, you have heard it from them; now you repeat what you have heard. You make a confession of the Truth. You confess what you believe on the basis of eyewitness testimony. This is what we will do here in the Creed this morning. Everything our Savior taught the disciples; everything the disciples have passed on to the Church from what they have heard and seen; we, the people of God, His Church, are privileged to confess all of it. We confess with first-century Christians who were martyred in the Coliseum; we confess with St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius—and a whole bunch of other saints whose name don’t begin with the letter A; we confess with Martin Luther; we confess with CFW Walther; we confess with all the people who have been members of St. Paul’s over its 100-year history; we confess with all the Christians of all times and places. We confess that Jesus is Lord. We confess that our Lord Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. We confess that He suffered the wrath of God which we deserve in our sin. We confess that He died our death. We confess that He rose from the dead on the third day. We confess that He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand. We confess that He is coming again. We stand where God has placed us; we stand before the world; we spit in the face of Satan himself and confess the Truth as we have received it. “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me!”

As important as it is for us to receive the testimony of faithful witnesses, it’s just as important to confess faithfully what we have received. We confess because people need to hear the message of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. That was true in the days after Jesus rose, and it is still true today. You don’t come to the Divine Service to fulfill some obligation to God. You don’t even come to praise God, although that is certainly a fruit of what happens here. You come because you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, in need of nourishment for your faith. You come to church to hear the message of life and peace in Christ. You come because you need that message as desperately as you need air to breathe. And so do your family, your friends, your neighbors, and your world. Have you shared the message with them? “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

 

The question is often asked: “How will the Church grow?” That certainly ought to concern us all. But there are no fancy tricks, no nifty advertising that will do that job. Leave the slick marketing to the world. In order for the Church to grow, the Church must be centered in Jesus Christ and the good news of forgiveness, life, and salvation. So if you believe that Jesus is your only true source of hope in this life of heartache and pain, you cannot help but tell others about Him. You confess the Truth as you have received it. And once you confess the Truth, then you, too, can be a witness. You can tell everyone about the hope that is within you because of how Jesus has worked in your life. You can tell your friends that Jesus has forgiven your sins. You can tell your neighbors that Jesus has made you His own child in the waters of Holy Baptism. You can tell the world that Jesus is present with you as you deal with the heartaches and tragedies of your life. You can tell them all that Jesus has come to dwell in you by feeding you with His own body and blood. As you receive His holy Supper, He will lead you to remember with joy and gratitude everything He has done for you. This is what will overcome all doubt and fear so that you can open your lips to confess His name and sing His praise, no matter what the world throws at you.

You don’t see Jesus in front of you like those disciples. But that’s okay. In fact, it’s a blessing, because it means you don’t have to see to believe. You can trust that, wherever the Word of God is preached and His Sacraments are given out, He is surely there. He is right here, right now, in our midst; He comes to give you life and hope and peace. Believe this, and then confess it: for the sake of His holy name, for your sake, and for the sake of all who need to hear this wonderful good news. ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.