DAY OF PENTECOST

“Gaining the Holy Spirit Knowledge of Christ”

John 14:26 NKJV “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 things that I said to you.”

Philippians 3:8-10 NKJV “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

My friends in Christ: It seems rather strange for Saint Paul who, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote so much of our New Testament to state: “I want to know Christ!” We generally would attach this kind of proclamation to a heathen or a pagan who is searching for the truth and knows he is in need of salvation. Yet these are the words of Paul, the great missionary to the gentiles, who is now addressing fellow Christians of the church in Philippi. “That I may know Him (Christ) and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings...” Paul, here, is telling every Christian in Philippi and those gathered here today for the celebration of Pentecost to know Christ and the power of His resurrection!

It soon becomes evident in almost every congregation that once a person is placed on the church roster, either by confirmation, transfer, or affirmation of faith, that then he thinks he right away has the true faith and that's that. The church is then supposed to be present for these people on those special occasions dictated by polite society to hatch, match and to dispatch, which is to bury. But, dear friends, that is not so.

This is not the case. The pastor, the steward of the mysteries of Christ, is your called servant but not to do your every whim whenever you feel like you need him to fulfill some traditional ritual. The pastor is called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in order to carry out the church’s business in helping people to continually seek Christ and to know Him and the power of His resurrection. But fake Christians think that they are exempt from the sufferings of Christ and have no real Holy Spirit knowledge of Him. Make certain you are not among their numbers but rather among the teachers of God’s Word that are Spirit filled with the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His teachings.

If the church and her pastor are treated as only to be present when you wish to have something done for you and your family, the result is almost guaranteed, namely, the mere ability to know a few good stories about Christ such as the Christmas and Easter stories. But they are still without the understanding that comes from a circumcised heart, the very place where Christ is to be ruler and Lord. They neither know nor desire to gain the Holy Spirit who will teach them and testify of Christ. Therefore, the person who truly wishes to know Christ is the person in whose heart Christ is already present. For Jesus cannot be found by the unbeliever. The Lord in Isaiah 65:1 says, “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me” and, as Paul tells the Corinthians, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3b)

Is a person, therefore, just to wait for God to find him and not seek the true religion to perchance save him from destruction? To believe that would be tantamount for us to be denying the office of the Holy Spirit, which is to convince the world of sin, and of righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us directly through the written Word of God and is our ever-present Sanctifier in keeping God’s laws perfectly through the power of Christ's resurrection. No sir, we cannot deny that people are not to seek the righteousness of God and seek their own soul’s salvation when in the grip of despair; but if anyone wishes to know Christ, he must first know that Christ cannot be known outside of the revealed Word of God.

Sad to say that many who consider themselves good Christians fall into this category: They may come to despise what is commonly known as the “institutionalized church.” “I’m not as bad as Joe Blow down the street,” such as person says, “and, besides that, I’m pretty good as compared with all those hypocrites sitting in church Sunday after Sunday.” Or try this saying on for size: “I don’t need to worship inside a building and hear and study God’s Word because I am so spiritual that I already know all that stuff about Jesus anyway and I also do my good deeds.”

I’ll be blunt by explaining the difference between those who claim to know Christ and stay away from church and those who find themselves gathered together on the Lord’s Day and read the Bible at home confessing, “I want to know Christ.” Here’s the difference: Those who deliberately stay away are those who make themselves out to be super spiritual and righteous; and those who seek Christ and His kingdom have come to the realization that true righteousness and holiness, which is the meaning of the image of God, as stated in Ephesians 4:24, are attributed to them because of Jesus’ death and resurrection without any works or knowledge of their own. Each time you go to your house of worship you are making a confession to each other and to God that you wish to have as your own possession Jesus’ resurrection power; and, that you desire to also share in the sufferings of Christ.

Can you see the difference between these types of Christians and those other Christians who pooh-pooh the Christian faith because they themselves are ever so spiritual?

I had always asked each Jr. Confirmation Candidate for a true affirmation that they were now to speak what they themselves believed because they desired Christian fellowship. I wanted to be assured that they were seeking Christ and His righteousness and were not being confirmed because mom and dad expected it of them. Do they themselves desire the knowledge of Christ’s resurrection or do they like the attention they receive from the parties and gifts? Do they desire the Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper or do they dutifully go to their first communion to drink some wine and eat a cracker only to stay away and later spread their impious conduct to their own children? Do they have the Holy Spirit knowledge of Christ, or do they even want it? To know Christ is to be a fanatic before an unbelieving world; it is not to be an ecumenical I’m OK, and you’re OK, or as the classic Gospel-Rock song testifies, “Jesus is Just Alright with Me”.

Listen to the holy apostle Paul himself who says: “I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” If anyone had self-esteem, it was Paul! Yet all his achievements and all his former works Paul called trash since he came to know Jesus as his Lord. In other words, since he was found by Christ and through faith alone, apart from works, he came to be made by Christ a new creation found to be in a righteous relationship with God. Paul believed it; and so Paul confessed it.

Only one thing is needful in this life: Christ and His righteousness that He has gained for you. Everything else is trash. As Jesus Himself teaches about the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:44-46): “Again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

From this, one thing is clear: If you want to know Christ, you will have to know Him through His cross and suffering. If you don’t want to know Him in this way, then your alternative is to continue puffing yourself up about how worthy you are and how good you are and how you don't want to associate with those hypocrites who confess their sins on a daily basis.

Addressing this attitude, Luther argued against those who claimed him to be a heretic because he believed that “the just shall live by faith alone”:

“He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore, he prefers works to sufferings, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil. These are the people whom the apostle calls ‘enemies of the cross of Christ’ (Philp.3:18), for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works...God can be found only in suffering and the cross...Therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross works are dethroned and the old Adam, who is especially edified by works, is crucified.

“It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he is first deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that his works are not his but God’s. (Luther’s Works, Vol.31, p.53)

Romans 1:17 makes this claim about the Gospel of Christ, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” Therefore, to know Christ is to live by faith in Him, a faith that should be ever growing, a faith which wants you to become more and more like Christ. And that can never happen if you see the process of confirmation in the church as a graduation exercise instead of a continued commencement in your life with Christ in fellowship with His church. That is exactly what St. Paul is speaking of in Philippians 3:12-14, the whole process of pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus because as long as he is in the flesh he has not yet attained to perfection even though Jesus has attained it for him by His resurrection power.

Do you want to know Christ? Then learn from His sufferings. He wasn’t one of those good old boys who went along with the perverted religion of his day. He spoke the truth about works and faith; He spoke the truth about the way to heaven when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” My works, not yours dear fellows, are the only works pleasing to My Father in heaven. And then those good old boys had Him killed.

Each time we consider other things more important than learning about Jesus and worshiping Him, the God of our salvation, then we place ourselves along with those good old boys and whatever faith we had is diminished more and more. We become so complacent with our religion that we no longer want to know Christ. This should be a reminder to us that we should never wait until it is socially acceptable to be seen going to church, to go through the routine of “hatching, matching, and dispatching.” Your own baptisms and confirmations should remind you of your Savior’s love for you, and the testimony the Holy Spirit gives of Christ. Jesus will always be your Elder Brother and friend. Jesus is the friend of sinners who seek God and His righteousness. Jesus is your Brother who was not ashamed to become one with you in human form yet without sin.

There was a certain pastor who received a call to a church but next to nobody showed up for his first sermon. That week he spent his time making visits on all the people that were listed on his church roster. The following Sunday didn’t fare much better in attendance. The pastor therefore took out a notice in the local newspaper announcing the death of a church and invited all to attend the funeral the following Sunday. Morbidly curious, a large crowd gathered for the “funeral.” In front of the pulpit was a closed coffin arrayed with flowers. After a short sermon, the pastor invited the congregation to come forward to pay their last respects for the body, as the lid of the casket was raised. Filled with curiosity as to what was the body of the dead church, everyone eagerly formed a line to look in the coffin. Each mourner peeped into the coffin as they passed by and turned away with a guilty, sheepish look. What they saw in the coffin, tilted at the correct angle, was...a mirror.

Show your respect, love, and friendship to Jesus by becoming closer to Him. Worship Him with your fellow believers, lifting up the cup of Salvation and calling upon His name. Make it your own goal to be able to speak as did St. Paul: “…that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” Amen.

EXAUDI SUNDAY 2020

The phrase: "The Holy Spirit of courage and comfort" connects the dots of the little gallery. Pic #1 is a stark reminder of what will happen to those who steadfastly hold to what Jesus says; Pic #2 comes from an illustration of Fox's Book of Martyrs: This is William Tyndale, the Oxford and Cambridge scholar, who had the courage translate the Bible into English and to call for King Henry VIII to repent. For Tyndale's "crimes" he was thrown out of the Church of England and burned at the stake in 1536. His dying word was that God would open the eyes of the King of England. 
                                                                           

                                                                                        

Pic #3 is rather an interesting woodcut from the 16th century showing the Bohemian Reformer Jan Hus (John Huss) and Martin Luther distributing the Sacrament with both bread and wine, which was just one of the "crimes" that had Hus condemned and burned at the stake in 1415. Luther was known as the German Huss as he stood before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and condemned as a heretic and outlaw in 1521; And, lastly we have the Holy Spirit endowing the faithful with His seven-fold gifts.

 This brings me to my address for this Sunday morning:

“The Holy Spirit Empowers the Apostles to Preach the Gospel”

Exaudi Sunday 2020 - John 15:26 -16:4 NKJV 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. 16:1 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.” 4 But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

Dear friends in Christ: The meaning of Exaudi Sunday is taken from the first word of the Introit for today and is encapsulated in this word “Hear.” David pleaded with the Lord saying this in Psalm 27:7, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me and answer me.” The ascended Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the tribulations His Apostles will endure, tells them of another Comforter that He will pray the Father to send. The Gospel for today, the week before the Day of Pentecost, is most important, for His disciples will be empowered to go out and preach the truth giving them by the Holy Spirit; and, since the world cannot abide in the truth, the disciples will be dealt with severely, being thrown out of their own synagogues, and will need to have the assured qualities that the Holy Spirit gives, namely, love, courage and perseverance.

In spite of persecution, the perseverance of the faithful and the true spiritual growth of the kingdom of God is often not perceived by those without and within Christendom; as St. Paul wrote young Timothy concerning his bishopric, 2 Timothy 3:12-13 saying, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” It will condemn the heart that is contrary or convert the heart by faith to receive the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, of Whom the Spirit testifies.

There are too many voices within the leadership of Christendom that think they have a handle on this growth process of the kingdom of God and are willing to share its secrets with you and your congregation for a price. But friends, all this is in vain. The numbers game of church membership is merely just that – a numbers game and not indicative of whether faith is being preached into the hearts of the hearers or the message of Christ crucified is being received by faith. The numbers game often entices preachers of the Word to adapt the many and varied doctrines of men and the wisdom of this world in order to increase their membership rosters while the witnessing to Christ crucified for the sins of the world goes untouched. Churches might grow but the kingdom of God is not present.

In St. Luke’s Gospel (Luke 17:20-21), Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God does not come visibly. Why not? Because, as Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” God’s kingdom is established in each believer’s heart wherever Jesus rules and works His righteousness through the working of the Spirit and the Word. God’s invisible kingdom is planted within the believer’s heart by the seed of faith just as Romans 10:17 says, which is the very Word of God. It is that Word of Jesus that creates the faith to believe the one, true, common faith in the hearers of the Good News that brings men out of death into life!

And yet, God’s kingdom growth is imperceptible to the human eye. But it can be perceived at each and every Christian baptism with the eyes of faith that is the promise of the Word of God as the Holy Spirit works through the means of grace: Water is applied even upon an infant born in sin, born after its own father’s image (cf. Genesis 5:3), but now the child is being born-again in the image of God, which according to Ephesians 4:24 is true holiness and righteousness, through baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection. How do we know this for certain? It cannot be perceived by unregenerate mankind.

Jesus told Nicodemus the truth, a man who feared losing his churchly position in the synagogue and so came to Jesus by night, that a man must be born-again (or from above, spiritually) of water and the Spirit. Jesus also claimed that process was also imperceptible to the human eye when He told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Paul told Titus that God saved us through the washing of rebirth, which is regeneration, and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Oh, yes, the Word of God does marvelous things! The Lord through Isaiah also proclaims, “My ways are higher than your ways, My thoughts higher than yours.” Can you grasp the truth of what St. Paul tells the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 1:27, 30?
“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty...But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

The Epitome of the Formula of Concord goes into detail, affirming what the Bible says regarding free will and discrediting all the false teachers that still persist today with their heresies, claiming man’s natural power, who are dead in their sins and trespasses, can accept the Gospel message. Regarding Romans 8:7, that says: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” 

Martin Chemnitz, the second “Martin” of the Reformation, penned these words:
“As little as a corpse can quicken itself to bodily earthly life, so little can man who through sin is spiritually dead raise himself to spiritual life, as it is written, ‘When we were dead through our trespasses, He made us alive in Christ.
“On the other hand, it is correct to say that in conversion, through the attraction of the Holy Spirit, God changes stubborn and unwilling people into willing people, and that after conversion, in the daily exercise of repentance, the reborn will of man is not idle but cooperates in all the works which the Holy Spirit performs through us.”

Our Confessions show these Christian leaders for what they are – spiritual charlatans! Our reliance isn’t on reason or upon our own wisdom; for we have none in spiritual matters. In the matter of eternal salvation, our will does not and CANNOT have a part at all, as John 1:10-13 testifies. Article II of the Epitome states: “Prior to man’s conversion there are only two efficient causes, namely, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God as the Holy Spirit’s instrument whereby He effects conversion.”

It is the Spirit of truth that the Father and the Son sent who testifies of Jesus Christ, as the Historic Gospel for today says. Today’s Gospel also reminds us that Jesus’ disciples will be cast out of the synagogues and killed thinking that such things are a service to God. So, if these things happened then, and are now happening, how can one say that there is church growth if those who are following the doctrines of Christ suffer and are continued to be killed off?

The early Latin Church father, Tertullian, said this in his Apologeticum, a defense of Christianity, to provincial governors of the Roman Empire in 194 AD:
“You say we are just another spin-off of philosophy. Well why don't you persecute your philosophers, then, when they say the gods are fake, or bark against the emperors. Perhaps it is because the name of ‘philosopher’ does not drive out demons like ‘Christian’ does. We are not a new philosophy but a divine revelation. That’s why you can’t just exterminate us; the more you kill the more we are. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. You praise those who endured pain and death - so long as they aren’t Christians! Your cruelties merely prove our innocence of the crimes you charge against us. When you chose recently to hand a Christian girl over to a brothel-keeper rather than to the lions, you showed you knew we counted chastity dearer than life.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ, just where in the Bible do you find that your Christian faith will bring you worldly wealth and possessions? Why do many Christians follow the wealthy, prosperity gospel preachers that demand obedience in giving them your money in order that you receive more money? Are the sheep really that stupid that they will gamble away their souls in hope of becoming wealthy and powerful in this miserable world? Where in the Bible does it say that you have the charismatic gifts of the apostles and those helpers that they laid hands upon? John says to test the spirits (1 John 4.1).

Read, in context, what St. Mark says at the end of his gospel. Note that Jesus is addressing his apostles in His commissioning and not Christianity at large today:
“‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will (not might) recover.’ So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they (the Apostles) went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” Mark 16:15-20

Now for the test: When you come across those who say that they themselves can heal you by placing hands on you, please feel free to believe them and if you aren’t healed simply ask why? Does not today’s Gospel say they will be healed…no maybes, no ifs, and no buts saying that your faith wasn’t strong enough. It is, after all a confirmation of the Word of God that the person laying hands on the sick is conveying. Ask this simple question, namely, did Oral Roberts have the charismatic gifts of the Apostles and those helpers that the Apostles themselves laid hands on? Then why did Oral Roberts have to raise millions of dollars to build his hospital instead of just laying his hands on everyone who came to him and his disciples. The answer is that the Holy Spirit now works through the means of grace, like the now completed written Word of God. As it is explained by Peter himself, in 2 Peter 1:19-2:1 “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

The Word of God, friends, the Word of God will indeed bring you comfort but it will also bring you persecution. Or as Luther says: “What are the specifics of the Holy Spirit’s comfort or consolation? The devil and your own conscience will frighten you because of your sins; the world will hate your confession of the faith, your morals and your piety. That you must expect. But the Holy Spirit comforts us by pointing us to Christ. He won’t make your wallet fat, but He will enable you to say, ‘When I have lost everything—spouse, children, house, possessions, reputation, even my own life—yes, when all that is gone, still Jesus Christ for my sake was made man, died and rose again, and ascended into heaven. He is coming at the last day for me. If God’s Son suffered for me, He will certainly not be my enemy. Since He loves me and has given me such great promises, then I have everything.’”

The Word brings to shame those convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit’s work beginning to prepare them to receive the Good News of Salvation in Christ Jesus…the others? Well, they seem to be even more dead set against Jesus and His righteousness. They seem to be even more dead set against the truth of Christ crucified for the sins of the world as His followers were called to suffer with Him so that they may be glorified with Him. Paul in Romans 8:16-17, writes: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

We pray: Heavenly Father, for Jesus’ sake, work Your Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in and through us for the benefit of bringing Your heavenly rule into the hearts of all people that hear salvation’s story. Let our joy and assurance always be found only in whom the Holy Spirit testifies, Your Son, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

ASCENSION DAY 2020

“The Ascended Christ and this Materialistic, Political, World” - May 21^st 2020

Mark 16:15, 19-20 NKJV

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

My Christian friends: Some American Christian churches are quickly learning that the Good News of salvation in the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ has absolutely nothing to do with the Stock Market or Federal Reserve Bank, the Covid-19 pandemic, nor politics. There is no variant text worthy of calling it the Word of God that commands Christians to “Go into all the world and fight for social justice and financial equality”.

Christ’s Church here on earth needs to hear God’s Word, once again, as it clearly distinguishes itself from our earthly estate. Your concerns should be with those priorities that St. Paul exhorts the church at Colosse, namely, to seek those things which are above. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind (affection KJV) on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)

Paul encourages the Christian to do truly good works, being moved by the power of the Holy Spirit after Christ’s resurrection. That resurrection, as it is apprehended by faith, will no doubt show itself in the things you say and do. You can feel Christ’s resurrection power and may become aware of it working through you. And, just as Christ’s resurrection can only be apprehended by faith, so the things which Paul speaks of as holy living will be manifest, and still not comprehended by the world. It is just as true the Christian himself may not always perceive the resurrection life which he is living right now.

See then that St. Paul states, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” St. Paul expresses the same thing as he gives his personal witness to the Galatians (2:20): “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” But did Paul mean this metaphorically or as a mystical reality through faith?  Was Christ removed from Paul and only now at the Right Hand of the Father in heaven, or was Christ, in reality, with and in Paul?

The world can neither understand the significance of the ascended Lord nor be able to understand the Christian’s life because those of the world cannot and do not wish to seek these transcendent, spiritual truths. These matters are spiritually discerned. And so, all that the nominal worldly Christian can preach and teach is a social gospel regarding the things of this world that involves the church in the politics of socialism.

But Luther emphasized Christ’s rule this way:

We must regard the ascension of Christ as an efficacious, powerful, act which is in continuous and ceaseless operation. We must not just imagine that Christ has ascended into heaven and left us here on earth to be ruled in other ways. On the contrary, He has ascended into heaven because He can achieve most and rule most effectively by that act. (SL.XI.940.24-25)

And how should these Christians ever seek the things above since their preachers and churches are only concerned with the things below?

Jesus, upon His physical ascension into heaven, told His disciples to preach the gospel to every creature. It is a grave misunderstanding of the Gospel that has brought about such things as “liberation theology” and “social justice” and so forth ad infinitum. The Gospel that our Lord had told us to preach was not a social gospel, neither was it a Black nationalist’s gospel or White nationalist’s gospel, nor any political gospel which is the only so-called gospel discussed by the innumerable ministerial fellowships in America.

The real biblical Gospel Christians are to herald, is the reconciliation between God and sinners by the incarnation of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the physical resurrection of Christ, and, as we celebrate this day, the physical ascension into heaven of Jesus Christ.  All this was done for you. In Mark 1:15, after John the Baptist was imprisoned, it is written that Jesus began His ministry in Galilee with these words: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. REPENT, and believe in the gospel.” This is what we are to preach to you and to all people everywhere. The world itself, however, makes an effective roadblock for mankind in his life in Christ by making the person a victim rather than the perpetrator of sin against God. 1 John 2:15 simply warns us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

You cannot seek those things that are above if your pastor doesn’t preach and teach the common faith held by Christendom. Our youth should be allowed to grow up from infancy hearing the teachings of the Word of God; hearing the two great teachings of the Bible, namely, Law and Gospel. They need to understand that man is not basically spiritual, as many Christian churches mislead them, but rather carnal, dead in trespasses and sin. They need to hear how God so loved them that He left His throne in glory to be humiliated in His sufferings and dying the death on that old rugged cross of Calvary for them. They need to know that Jesus lowered Himself because His thoughts were set on the heavenly things for them. And having been trained in these heavenly teachings, you need to demonstrate these spiritual matters, by Christ’s resurrection power.                                  

By the power of the Holy Spirit, you are to put away the works of the flesh with all its lusts and boastings. Martin Luther, in a sermon for Easter Wednesday, had this to say about putting to death what is earthly in you: “You must be dead to a worldly life of this sort; a life striven after the heathen, who disregard God’s Word and allow the devil to have his way with them. You must prove the resurrection of Christ in you to be something more than vain words. You must show there is a living power manifest in you because you are risen, a power which makes you live a different life, one in obedience to the Word and the will of God, and called the divine, heavenly life. Here this change does not take place, it is a sign that you are not yet Christians but are deceiving yourselves with vain fancies.”

I know that there are pastors in this world who would take issue with St. Paul and Luther. Luther, indeed, would be called a legalist because he dares to say that some Christians might be deceiving themselves with vain fancies. If you feel that my words are a little bit fanatical for a Lutheran pastor, I say that Luther himself would not be welcomed into the Evangelical Church in America, the church body called after his namesake. For many of today’s churches have no comprehension why Christ ascended into the heavens to fill all things. Jesus, indeed, transcends this material world in which the church called by His name wishes with all its life to hang on to!

Listen and understand that the world wishes to circumvent the Word of God and make excuses for its transgressions saying that God is all loving and would not condemn anyone because they are weak in their humanity. The world would love to have Christians always say that same thing; the world would have Christians reduce everything to the Gospel message of “Smile, God loves you” or God has declared the entire world justified and made righteous in Christ without faith.

But because Christians know God’s Law to be holy and wise, as well as given for their benefit although not able to save a single soul since it condemns all, Christians establish the Law through faith in their Savior, and for this reason the world hates and mistreats them. Yes, because the Christian acknowledges both the teachings of Law and Gospel the Christian stands condemned by the world. The world will hate Christians, as our Lord teaches in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Oh yes, Christians should be hated by the world because we are indeed joint heirs with Christ in His heavenly possession as Paul says in Romans 8:7 “…if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified.” But if you disguise the teachings of our Savior with humanitarian philosophies and Christian Psychologies, and politics, you mix your faith with the goals of the world and you stand against the will of our heavenly Father who calls us to “fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.” The social gospel, for example, pretends to follow God’s will and yet makes man dependent upon earthly governments, usually in a form of socialism or communism, that purports to be wiser than the counsel that God Himself gives us in His Bible. God sets His goals for us to follow yet we continue to ignore His counsel in our youth, into adolescence, adulthood and even into old age. Then in old age you might feel that you are just too set in your ways to think on these heavenly matters and your eternal life.

It was Robert Browning, over a century ago who penned: “Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be; the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times our in His hands (here a reflection on Psalm 31:14-15) who saith, ‘A whole I planned, youth shows but half. Trust God; see all, nor be afraid.’” Don’t worry about injustices in the world, for injustices will always be in the world. The same Law which condemns the heathen will also condemn the righteous man who turns to iniquity. Jesus died so that the wrath of God the Father might be turned away from the sinner, but if the sinner does not confess his sin God’s wrath will surely stay on him. The penitent sinner will look forward to the Day when Jesus comes again, or even the day of the fullness of his redemption when the Christian is taken from this life of sin and sees his high-minded goals established within his heavenly home forever.

Also, while our world appears to be in the grip of the on-going pandemic, take the example of Cyprian, the 3rd Century bishop of Carthage, during a deadly pestilence, thought upon his sins while maintaining his thoughts above, to be forever with Christ. In a sermon Cyprian said: “Ceaselessly and with care and sorrow, we fight against carnal desires, against the allurements of the world. The spirit of man is compassed about and besieged by the assaults of the devil and can hardly meet, hardly withstand them all. If avarice is overthrown, lust arises; if lust is put down, ambition takes its place; if ambition is despised, then anger grows bitter, pride puffs itself up, drunkenness assails, hatred breaks the bonds of concord, envy destroys friendship. You must curse, though God has forbidden it; you must swear, though it is wrong. So many persecutions must the spirit of man endure, so many perils must the heart expect; and shall we still be glad to abide here long among the devil's swords? We should rather long and pray that sudden death may help us haste to Christ.”

There is great truth in what Cyprian says, for the Christian who loves the Word of the Lord and constantly sees his lost estate in this present world. Many times we may know the answer to the wrong we all do, but if we refuse to put to death that which is earthly in us, then the New Man is not being put on, that New Man which is created for and in us by the Spirit of God for Jesus’ sake. Romans 8:5 is very explicit: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”

The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ shows that he not only possesses heaven but He possesses all things and is over all things, seen and unseen. Let us pray the final stanza of the Ascension hymn “We Thank Thee, Jesus, Dearest Friend” translated by Matthias Loy: “Through Him we heirs of heaven are made; O Brother, Christ, extend Thine aid. That we may firmly trust in Thee and through Thee live eternally. Hallelujah” Amen.

ROGATE SUNDAY 2020

"Times of Prayer" encapsulates the little gallery at the bottom: Pic #1 portrays Luther as a man of prayer as he entreats his Father for a little girl on her deathbed. Luther had two daughters: Elisabeth died in infancy and Magdalena died later in childhood; Pic #2 shows a soldier about to do his duty for his country and takes the time to pray; Pic #3 is well-known to everyone as the old man giving thanks for what he has to eat; Pic #4 shows Paul praying as he awaits his execution. The subscript reads, :I have kept the faith" from 2 Timothy 4:7; and, lastly, in Pic #5 we is Luther once more telling the head of the household to make the sign of the cross and give this morning prayer. This brings me to my morning address for Cantate Sunday:

“Prayers are Efficacious in Jesus’ Name”

Text - John 16:23-24. “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” NKJV

My Christian friends: Our text reads, “In that day.” That was a formula you heard about in last Sunday’s Old Testament sermon. This Rogate (command to pray) Sunday may perplex you as it probably did the disciples. “In that day” here means to say in the day of Jesus’ ascending into heaven, which we will remember this coming Thursday.

He and the Father, on that day, promises to send forth the Holy Spirit to give His disciples knowledge of all things, since the Holy Spirit will testify of Jesus. They no longer would need to ask Jesus the spiritual things of which they have inquiry at the present time. However, being full of knowledge, by the Holy Spirit, does not mean to say that they would not be in need. They would, indeed, have needs as do all of you today. Therefore, the disciples are commanded to ask the Father in Jesus’ name. Hence, they are commanded by Jesus to present their requests to the Father for things needful in this life by praying in His name, trusting in the meritorious work of their Savior.

The efficacy of prayer comes about when the human spirit struggles against those things that try to prevent them from asking God the Father for anything. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:12 that “the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force.” Luther explained this passage this way, namely, “For prayer in my opinion is a constant violent action of the spirit as it is lifted up to God, as a ship is driven upward against the power of the storm.”

Your prayer must be importune if it is to be efficacious: Take that opportunity for prayer. As it says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” In other words, you should remember that prayer is your opportunity to seek something of the Lord, and it is at all times that you should be knocking on heaven’s door with your requests. St. Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.” And “in everything” means just that. “In everything” assumes all needs and assumes all hours of the day or night for the Lord wishes to hear and answer your requests.

There is still much confusion about prayer; however, Jesus gives us insight with today’s gospel text: The person who wishes to know how to pray needs to study prayer in light of Holy Scripture. Jesus, here, tells us, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” Therefore, prayer is simply asking or begging. In other places prayer is defined as calling, such as, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” Psalm 50:15. That alone should move Christians to pray.

Luther explains this very well in his introduction to the Lord’s Prayer in his Large Catechism: Therefore we have rightly rejected the prayers of monks and priests, who howl and growl frightfully day and night; not one of them thinks of asking for the least thing. If we gathered all the churches together, with all their clergy, they would have to confess that they never prayed wholeheartedly for so much as a drop of wine. None of them has ever undertaken to pray out of obedience to God and faith in His promise, or out of consideration for his own needs. They only thought, at best, of doing a good work as a payment to God, not willing to receive anything from Him, but only to give Him something.

Now it is that prayer is to be offered “in the name of Jesus,” that is, believing on His name, on His meritorious work. And because Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father, our prayers are to be addressed in His name, not some generic god, not to Allah, not to the Great Spirit, not to Mother Earth, neither Mother Mary, nor to any of the numerous saints, but in Jesus’ name only. It is for this reason, namely, that in Jesus and through Jesus only we become children of the heavenly Father. That is why Jesus taught us to address God as “Our Father who art in heaven.” Again, take notice that Jesus tells us, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name.” It is alone through Jesus, the only intercessor between God and man, that His Father has become our Father. God has no other sons than those who love His Son, Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Father manifested in the world.

Any prayer offered while not believing on God’s only-begotten Son, no matter how beautiful; no matter how sweet; no matter how touching; no matter how earnest; and, no matter how sincere it is, is not a prayer that is heard of the Father but rather a prayer which is sinful. That is why, in 1984, as a Missouri Synod pastor in the South-eastern District, when Charlotte’s City Council asked me to give the invocation before they began their business, I specifically mentioned the name of Jesus, which brought some really weird sounds from those in attendance. That was very important because the council and Mayor pro-tem, had demanded that my invocation be in a generic god’s name only (which I never agreed to do), so that the non-Christians assembled would not be offended. You can imagine why they never wanted me to pray for them anymore once I invoked the Holy Trinity.

So it was that, long before this Coronavirus pandemic, a visitor to the Nation’s Capital was accompanied by his young son. As they watched from the gallery, the House was brought to order. “Why did the minister pray for all those people, daddy?” “He didn’t,” replied the father, “he looked them over and prayed for the country.” The prayers offered at the opening of every meeting of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives are rarely offered in faith believing that Jesus is true God and true Man.

What does Jesus Himself say of these matters? Matthew 8:32-33 records His words: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in heaven.” And conversely, “But whoever denies Me before men, him I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Another reason for offering our prayers in Jesus' name is that by His intercession before the Father you are given power to become the sons of God and you remain as God’s children, washed and cleansed in Jesus’ own blood once and for all shed for your sins and the sins of the whole world upon Calvary’s old, rugged cross.

This is a very important matter to remember since it is because of Jesus’ sacrifice that you have God’s favor and blessing. But the person who prays only out of turmoil, or the prayer of doubt, “God, if you are really, really there, please help me!” is a horrible, blasphemous prayer. James 1:6-8, plainly states, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not a man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Thus, faith must be centered, must be anchored firmly in Christ. Prayers therefore are humble requests made to the heavenly Father, faithfully trusting that they will be answered for Jesus’ sake.

Now what great benefits or power does prayer give you? The Bible states, as you heard in last Sunday’s epistle regarding James 1:17, that all good and perfect gifts are from the Father of heavenly lights. Jesus puts it this way, “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

It is written, “The effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And it is so. Think of the great men and women of the Bible who, through much turmoil and pain, came to the realization that they needed the Savior. Think of Solomon, who prayed for wisdom in order to rule the children of God and was given it. Think of Moses who knew that he could not achieve what God called him to do unless God’s own hand was extended to help him. Think of Ruth, who lost her husband, denied her gods and learned, in faith, to trust in the God of Naomi, and received her kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, who begot Obed by Ruth, Obed, who in turn begot Jesse who, in turn, begot King David, through whose ancestry eventually begot Jesus the Savior of all who believe in His name! Think of the benefits gained by men like Luther, Chemnitz, and others who stressed the necessity of faith: These pastors and all men of faith took joy, even in the midst of trouble because they were given the understanding by God to discern the Spirit of truth in the Word of God.

It is true that the church, the community of believers, also prays together as people of God. It is also equally true that infants, when they are brought to the waters of baptism, are included in God’s promise of redemption which Christ has brought to them by his passion, death, and resurrection. But is it just a thing to do, by tradition, to have prayers for the infant at its baptism? Do we take the rite of baptism seriously and reverently or as just a family thing to do in society like christening a ship on its maiden voyage? Do we sometimes feel that we are just breaking a bottle of champagne on the rear end of the baby and sending it on its voyage with its doting parents and sponsors?

Many of those baptisms within our churches, even though efficacious because of the Word and command of the Lord, have turned badly for the baptized infant because we, as Christ’s church, have not taken what we have vowed to do seriously.

Luther, in his Order of Baptism of 1523 called attention to the importance of all believers witnessing a specific baptism join in intercessory prayer for the baptized. Luther said: “For here, in the words of these prayers, you hear how meekly and earnestly the Christian church concerns itself about the little child and how it confesses before God in plain undoubting words that he is possessed by the devil and is a child of wrath, and prays very diligently for aid and grace through baptism that he may become a child of God…Remember, too, that it is very necessary to aid the poor child with all your heart and strong faith, earnestly to intercede for him that God, in accordance with this prayer, would not only free him from the power of the devil, but also strengthen him, so that he may n0obly resist the devil in life and death. And I suspect that people turn out so badly after baptism because our concern for them has been so cold and careless; we, at their baptism, interceded for them without zeal.” (Luther’s Werke 1883, WA 47.)

Whenever we have the opportunity to baptize little ones, let us take that opportunity as a Christian church to bring up such children as the children of God and not leave them to the devil. For, as Martin Luther once said that “the true church has been founded for the purpose of praying.”

Listen, isn’t it recorded in the Acts of the Apostles that the first thing Paul did after he was converted was to pray? In Acts 9, the Lord, in a vision, told Ananias of Damascus to inquire about Saul of Tarsus. And Jesus said to Ananias, “Behold, he (Paul) is praying” (Acts 9:11). The great benefits received through prayer are essentially those by which you can forgive and be forgiven by those whom you have been striving against.

When we have this understanding, given by the Lord, those other things, namely, those good gifts we ask for such as food, shelter, clothing, family, good friends and government, etc. are of smaller importance than honoring the Giver of the gifts by offering our prayers to Him through Jesus Christ. All these things we ask for in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And as Luther explains: “What does this mean?” “God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Luther continues, “What is meant by daily bread?” [Daily bread is] “Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

With all the great benefits prayer gives to you, all of you who claim the name “Christian,” need to accustom yourselves to pray upon rising in the morning, at the dinner table, and upon retiring at night either as a family or individually, so that, when tribulations of these latter days shake you, you will be able to pray in faith to the One who has promised to deliver you. The power of prayer leads you to the peace of God which passes all human understanding, the peace that calms your hearts in the hour of utmost need. Friends, give your heart to the true and tried, old certainty of the testimonies in Scripture that you will be content to pray at all times, even for all people, so that Jesus may not be a stranger to you either in the times of trouble…or times of prosperity. Amen.

CANTATE SUNDAY 2020

The phrase "Sing praise to the Trinity of the Hebrews" summarizes the little gallery below for Cantate (Sing) Sunday. Pic #1 shows Luther and Melanchton with the open Bible in which the Trinity is seen in the name of God at the top. the dove as the Holy Spirit, and the crucified Son; Pic #2 is Ras Tafari, who ruled Ethiopia and took the name of Haile Selassie which means "Might of the Trinity" at his coronation. He was worshiped by his followers as the messiah; Pic #3 is the Tetragrammaton (4 letters, here with vowel pointing) that is on one of the lecterns at the University of Wittenberg is Yahweh (יַהְוֶה), Jehovah; and Pic #4 is the symbolic icon of the Trinitarian Jehovah. This brings me to my address for this morning:

“The Lord Jehovah Is My Strength and My Song; and Is My Salvation”

Isaiah 12:1-2 KJV And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

My Christian friends: Cantate Sunday is a special day during the Paschaltide of Easter. Cantate is the imperative form of Canto and Cantare is the infinitive form “to sing”. And what is the Christian commanded to sing? Simply this, namely, that salvation belongs to God.

Scripture warns us that many will come in the name of the Lord pretending to be the Messiah. If you recall the Rastafarian cult, it creates images in your mind of the charismatic, Jamaican, reggae musician Bob Marley and his headful of dreadlocks. Marley is a Rastafari icon, but there is a greater man whose namesake was at the heart of this Jamaican movement. His name was Ras Tafari. For Rastafarians, who was acclaimed Ras Tafari as Yah incarnate – the savior/messiah, was the birth name of Ethiopia’s last emperor, who was born in 1892.

Ras Tafari, who ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 allegedly traced his line back to Menelik I, who was credited with being the child of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and took the regal name of Haile Selassie when he was crowned, which translated means “Might of the Trinity.” But, even though there were many other cults that laid claim to the moniker Yah; there was only one Yah that was the one, true, God in the Hebrew: Yahweh, translated Jehovah. It was He who was the deliverer of Israel that, in the last days, showed Himself, as the Mighty Trinity, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God.

Our text this morning begins with a recurrent phrase in both Old and New Testaments: “And in that day.” The day referred to in the previous chapter of Isaiah, the time of the Messiah, was when the effects of His reign shall be seen everywhere. The duty of praising Yahweh, however, in such language as to make it applicable to the event predicted in the former part of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 10; the delivering of the nation from the invasion of Sennacherib, as well as the more glorious event on which the prophet fixed his eye (cf. Isaiah 11) - the coming and reign of the Messiah. The language of this song of praise would be appropriate to both these events. In that Day is repetitive: Isaiah 11:10-11

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,

Who shall stand as a banner to the people;

For the Gentiles shall seek Him,

And His resting place shall be glorious.

It shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time

To recover the remnant of His people who are left…”.

The Lord Yahweh, is the great author of this intervention. I will praise You, though You were angry with me. If this language is applied to the Jews, and supposed to be used by them in regard to the invasion of Sennacherib (King of Assyria), it means, that the Lord allowed their land to be invaded. The Assyrian king’s sins were no greater than the idol worship that was found in Samaria and Jerusalem, and to be subjected to such calamities because of their sins (Isa 10:5-12). If it were to be applied to the time of the Messiah, then it is a language which every redeemed sinner may use, namely, that God was angry with us, but that his anger was turned away. As it is applied to you, the redeemed, it is an acknowledgement which you all should feel, that you have no claim to his mercy, and that His goodness in Jesus Christ lays the foundation for unceasing praise that His anger is turned away by the salvation Jesus won for all in His death on the cross.

As to the expression, “Is my strength and my song.” The same phrase occurs in the hymn that Moses composed after the passage of the Red Sea, which this song in our text is composed; Exodus 15:2: “The Lord is my strength and my song, And He is become my salvation.”

The word “strength” means, that God is the source of might and power, and implies that all who are redeemed are willing to acknowledge that they have no strength in themselves but that which resides in God. As Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed regarding the Holy Spirit and sanctification: “I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

The word “song” implies that God alone is the proper object of praise; it is to celebrate His praise that is the cause of this song’s being composed. “He also has become my salvation.” This is also found in the song of Moses in Exodus 15:2. It means that God had become or was the author of the Hebrews’ salvation. It is by his hand that the deliverance has been affected, and to him should be the praise.

How many times in the Old Testament does it say that Salvation is of God and His name is to be praised. This is exactly what the term Hallelujah means; Praise Yah, shortened form of Yahweh, for His salvation. Even so it was before the prophet Jonah was spewed out of the great fish’s mouth onto the shores of Nineveh that Jonah prayed (Jonah 2:8-9): “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” And, as Deuteronomy 6:4 explains, “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” using the word echad for “one” that denotes the uniqueness of God. Yahweh (Jehovah) is united as One and not being as a singular one alone. Therefore, Father is God and Lord, the Son is also God and Lord, and the Holy Spirit is God and Lord; namely, only one (echad) God and one (echad) Lord.

Do you recognize this one God of your salvation? Has His salvation been declared to you in Jesus’ death and His resurrection? John the evangelist states plainly that Jesus proclaimed, “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

Jesus had shown that He alone is your salvation when He, who was without sin, took on the sins of the whole world and nailed them with His body to that old rugged cross. It was there where HE was heard to cry out, “It is finished!” That is to mean that all was done for your salvation since salvation belongs to God. And yet He descended into hell to proclaim that He triumphed over all His enemies that hate Him; who put themselves above Him; who are now forever consigned to an eternity in hell. But for you who believe in His name, God the Father was satisfied with the payment God the Son paid and showed it in His resurrection from the dead to a newness of life for your justification! For all that, your responses are continued this Eastertide with songs of Hallelujah! Praise Yahweh, the Lord God!

Yes, you must see that salvation belongs to God, God the Son, who for our sakes suffered humiliation, torture, and death on a cross in His person that consisted of both human and divine natures. It was not just a man who suffered all these things but the very Son of God. In that way it is stated, in so many ways, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that salvation is of God. Regarding, therefore, the person of Christ it is stated in our Confessions, Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article XIII: “Dr. Luther states in his treatise Concerning the Councils and the Church: ‘We Christians must know that unless God is in the balance and throws in weight as a counterbalance, we shall sink to the bottom with our scale. I mean that this way: If it is not true that God died for us, but only a man died, we are lost. But if God’s death and God dead lie in the opposite scale, then his side goes down and we go upward like a light and empty pan. Of course, he can also go up again or jump out of his pan. But he could never have sat in the pan unless he had become a man like us, so that it could be said: God dead, God’s passion, God’s blood, God’s death. According to his nature God cannot die, but since God and man are united in one person, it is correct to talk about God’s death when that man dies who is one thing or one person with God.’ So far Luther.”

St. Augustine said, “God crowns His gifts in us.” Mercy (that is Grace) and faith are correlatives, having a mutual relation, as John 3:35-36 says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” It is as Scriptures say, Mankind is saved by grace through the means of faith alone. If you try by works or even by your love to gain salvation, let it be known that you have rejected the mercy of God that He offered for your salvation. Paul states it this way: Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”

So, it should be that the heavenly Father took the sacrifice of Jesus, who was both priest and sacrifice, and declared it as righteousness for all who believe. As St. Paul said in Romans 4:20-5:1, “ He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here, any child is able to understand that no one can be made righteous in Christ without faith; and yet many great and mighty theologians persist in saying that God has declared the entire world forgiven and made righteous in Christ prior to having been brought to faith.

James 1:17-18, which is found in the Epistle for this Sunday, shines a light upon whom is justified and whom is that receives the perfect gifts of salvation. Commenting on James 1:18 “Of his own will begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures” Luther says: “By this statement James makes a far-reaching thrust at all factions and sects. They also have a word and boast much of their doctrine, but theirs is not the Word of truth whereby men are made children of God. But we have a Word whereby, as we are assured, God makes us his beloved children and justifies us, IF WE BELIEVE in that Word.”

Over the years many people have followed many fake messiahs, who live like kings upon this earth. Many of cultic personalities have laid claim to wealth, power, and the wisdom of this world; but only the one true God can offer you all good and perfect gifts, as well as true righteousness, that cannot be attained except through faith.

This faith, which also is a gift through the hearing of the Word of God, grabs hold of its Giver through Word and Sacrament, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, this is “that day”, the day when Jesus burst through the prison gates of death and lives forever. It therefore can be declared to you that this day you have the continual Easter joy and life everlasting! Hallelujah! Amen.