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Christ's Last Will and Testament

3/29/2024

Maundy Thursday
1 Corinthians 11:23-32
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 28, 2024

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night in which He was betrayed took bread.” Nothing was hidden from Christ. He knew in just a few short hours, He would be delivered into the hands of evil men, beaten, crucified, and killed. So, in these last few moments with His disciples, Jesus gives His Last Will and Testament to His disciples, which remains unchanged to the end of the age. Which is why it is important that we the Church consider these solemn words of our Lord, which instituted the Sacrament of the Altar.
“Take eat, this is my body given for you. Take drink, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.” What is it? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. How can we say that bread and wine are Christ’s true body and blood? Because Jesus clearly says so. The Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul record Jesus saying the same thing. None of them record Jesus saying, “this is a symbol” or “this represents my body and blood” or “this is like.” No, He says, “This is.” And Scripture unanimously records Him saying so.
Jesus says that this is His Last Will and Testament. That is what it means when He says that this is the New Testament in His blood. A will and testament cannot be changed once a person has died. These words must remain unchanged. They cannot be interpreted as a figure of speech. When Jesus washed their feet, He immediately explained what He meant by it afterward, that they too were to love one another. He does not explain the Words of Institution as being an example or metaphor.
Yet, how can this be? We can see clearly that it is bread and wine. And Scripture says that Christ ascended to heaven. How can Christ be in heaven and here on earth? How can He be in bread and wine? How can we eat His flesh and drink His blood? Because Christ is true God and true man, so He can do anything. In fact, it is easy for Him to be on many altars at one time. The divine nature and human nature are uniquely joined into a personal union, so that whatever Christ does, He does as both God and man. So, by the power of the Divine, Christ’s human body is present. Where God is, there is Christ, because He is God. And where Christ is, there is both His human and divine natures. For if He were anywhere without His human nature, there He would not be your Savior, who suffered and died for your sins. Those who deny that Christ is present with His body and blood in the Sacrament fundamentally misunderstand the unity of Christ’s human and divine natures.
We do not teach transubstantiation, as the Roman Catholic Church does. Transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine cease to be, and that only the body and blood of Christ remain. However, St. Paul continues to reference the bread and wine, saying, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:27) Transubstantiation only became a theory in the Middle Ages.
We teach that both the bread and wine, and the body and blood of Christ are present in the Sacrament. However, we do not teach consubstantiation, as the Reformed have accused us. Consubstantiation is the teaching that the bread and wine share one substance with the body and blood of Christ, so that as our teeth chew up the bread, so the body of Christ is torn apart in our mouth. We reject that our teeth cause any harm to Christ’s body when we consume the Sacrament. This is why we say it is His true body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. This is a sacramental union. Christ’s body and blood are indeed present in a sacramental mode of presence, so that we can eat and drink His body and blood without causing any harm to His body. Sacramental union simply means that Christ’s body and blood are joined to the bread and wine in an indescribable way, so that the person who eats the bread and drinks the wine indeed eats and drinks Christ’s body and blood, yet without causing any harm.
Christ can be bodily present in more than one way. There is his local mode of presence, whereby He stood before His disciples, ate, and drank with them. There is the way He is present everywhere as God is omnipresent. And there is His mode of presence in the Sacrament, where He can be present with His body and blood while not conforming to the laws of nature. He did this when He exited the tomb on Easter Sunday before the stone was rolled away and when He appeared to His disciples as they hid behind locked doors. We cannot limit Christ’s body by the laws of nature. So, what we receive in the Sacrament is a miracle, which can only be accepted through faith in Christ.
But why should we receive this Sacrament? Because we need it! We are poor sinners doomed to death! Our flesh is corrupt and fights against our new self within us! We live in a world dead-set against our faith in Christ. And the devil prowls around seeking to ruin our faith and hope of salvation. We need help! And the Sacrament offers help.
“If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus said when Peter refused to let Him wash his feet. Feeding us His body and blood in the Sacrament is one of the ways Jesus washes us. Here Jesus says a very similar thing as He said in John 6, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (vs. 53) Here, He is not referring to the eating of the Sacrament specifically, but of the spiritual eating of Christ through faith in His atoning sacrifice for our sins. Yet, when we faithfully eat Christ’s body and drink His blood in the Sacrament, we also spiritually consume His flesh and blood, so that we have His life in us. By faithfully receiving the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, we have our feet washed by Christ. We share in Christ, as St. Paul writes, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16) St. Peter writes that by His precious and very great promises, “you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires.” (2 Peter 1:4) If we truly believed in the real presence in the Sacrament, we would have confidence that by this Sacrament, we may defeat Satan and all sinful desires.
We receive the Sacrament for the forgiveness of sins. Christ won forgiveness of sins on the cross for us. The celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar is not a perpetuation of Christ’s Sacrifice on the cross. Rather, it is a means by which Christ gives us the fruit of His cross. When you partake of this Sacrament, you know that the forgiveness Christ died to win is given to you personally. This also strengthens your faith, so that you may persevere until you inherit eternal life.
Receiving the Sacrament also increases our love for one another. “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet,” Jesus told His disciples. Jesus washes us by giving us this Sacrament, by loving us and forgiving us. So, by this Sacrament God increases our fervent love toward one another, so that we bear with each other in patience, forgiving each other’s sins, and seeking to serve one another. If Christ, who came to serve and give His life as a ransom for many, now dwells in us, how can we not then serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. By this all will know that we are Christ’s disciples.
That the church should examine communicants before they receive Communion is clear from Scripture, which warns against unworthily eating Christ’s body and blood. And Our Lutheran Confessions emphasize the importance of this ancient practice, saying, “Chrysostom says that the priest stands daily at the altar, inviting some to the Communion and keeping back others.” (AC XXIV) This Sacrament is Christ’s body and blood by power of Christ’s words of institution, whether you believe it or not. So, Christ’s body and blood is eaten both by the worthy and unworthy. Yet, those who receive it unworthily do not eat it for their forgiveness and salvation, but to their own judgment. Many are offended that we do not give Communion to everyone. Yet, by practicing closed Communion, we are faithful to St. Paul’s warning that those who receive it unworthily, eat and drink to their own judgment. It is like a doctor, who gives life-saving medicine to one patient, but does not give it to another, who is not prepared, so as not to cause greater harm. Therefore, we do not give Communion to those who have not been examined, such as little children, to the unbaptized, to those who are in openly unrepentant sin, or those who confess a different faith, because receiving the Sacrament is a confession of unity in faith (1 Cor. 10:16ff).
However, you should take heed that St. Paul says, “Let a man examine himself.” The burden does not lie solely on the pastor to determine who receives the Sacrament worthily, because the pastor can only respond to the public confession of the communicant. But your true worthiness to receive this Sacrament lies in your heart. Therefore, you must examine yourself every time you receive this Sacrament to receive it worthily.
So, how should you examine yourself before you receive Communion? First, by repenting of your sins and seeing your great need for the Sacrament. Your sinful flesh, the wicked world, and Satan, all of which lead you to sin and unbelief, will be harassing you until the day you die. You need this Medicine to strengthen you. Second by confessing what Christ did in order to give this Sacrament of His body and blood to you, namely, He gave Himself for you and shed His blood for you on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Third, that this Sacrament is the true body and blood of Christ, which was crucified and shed for you on the cross, and which rose from the dead. Finally, that you desire, empowered by Christ dwelling in you through faith, to live better. Receiving this Sacrament while still intending to continue in your sins will cause great damage to your soul. Yet, if you desire to be freed from your sins, this Sacrament will grant you great power.
The Sacrament of the Altar is a means by which Christ may frequently give to us the benefits of His cross, so that we may receive the forgiveness of sins through faith, strengthen our faith, persevere unto salvation, and bear good fruits of love in this life. In this Sacrament, Christ washes us, so that we may have a part in Him. May we cherish this Sacrament until by it we are led to eternal life. Amen.

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Son of a Father: Good Friday Sermon

3/29/2024

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Good Friday
Mark 15:6-15
Christ Crucified in the Place of a Murderer
Pastor James Preus
March 29, 2024

6Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14And Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Barabbas sat in prison with the other criminals, chained securely, so that he could not escape, for he was a dangerous criminal. He had been tried and found guilty of murder and insurrection, having rebelled against the Roman government. Outside, not too many yards away, Roman soldiers had constructed three crosses. Barabbas, as a particularly notorious criminal, would be crucified on the middle cross with a fellow robber crucified on either side of him. When the sun rose, Barabbas would be led out of his cell with the other two criminals and taken to Pilate’s court yard, where he would be flogged, tearing the flesh from his back as a sort of intermediate death, before he would be forced to carry his own cross up the hill of the skull to be nailed to it and hanged until he died a slow, miserable death.
Such was Barabbas’s lot. And he deserved it. He was a rebel. He used political outrage as a pretense to steal and murder. Barabbas was a bad man. No one would be sad to see him die. Even during this high Jewish feast, when the governor was accustomed to release one of the prisoners, he had no hope of being freed. Certainly, they would cry the name of one of the other prisoners, who had committed less heinous crimes. No, when that prison door opened, Barabbas would be led away to die.
The door opened. Light streamed in, blinding the prisoner. Barabbas was led in chains toward Pilate’s courtyard. Yet, he was brought before Pilate himself! Next to Pilate was a beaten-up man, disfigured beyond human semblance (Isaiah 52:14). He heard from a voice in the crowd that this was Jesus of Nazareth, the teacher and miracle worker. Everyone knows that Jesus is no criminal. He is innocent. And before Barabbas could comprehend what was happening, his chains were taken off his wrists and ankles, and Jesus was led away to be crucified in his place.
Barabbas deserved to die. He deserved the pain, misery, and shame of crucifixion. Christ Jesus is innocent. You are Barabbas. Barabbas means son of a father, quite an absurd name. What son doesn’t have a father? Yet, this name describes us perfectly. We are sons of our father Adam. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) Adam was the greatest murderer of the human race, because through his sin he brought death and destruction upon all mankind. Every murder was committed as a result of his sin. Adam was the first great insurrectionist, rebelling against God, attempting to be like God, knowing good and evil. Barabbas’s crimes perfectly depict a son of his father Adam. And so do yours. Not only have you inherited Adam’s sinful inclination, but you have committed the same sins through your hatred and rebellion against God. You have added to your father Adam’s sins and proven yourself a true Barabbas.
Jesus spoke to the Jews who opposed Him, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, because he is a liar, and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) So, with your lies and hatred, you have proven yourself to be even worse than a Bar-Adam. You are a Bar-Devil, that is, a son of the devil. You deserve death and condemnation.
Yet, your chains are loosened from your wrists and ankles and you are told to go free. Instead, Christ goes and bears the wrath of God for your sins. It is as the Prophet Isaiah foretold, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (53:6) He was stricken for the transgression of the people (53:8). He was stricken for your sins.
This was no accident. This was not God giving into the demands of a mob. It was the will of the LORD to crush Him (Is. 53:10). And Christ went willingly (Isaiah 53:7). It is as St. Peter describes, “Christ suffered once for sins, the Righteous One in exchange for the unrighteous ones, so that He might present you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Christ became a curse for us. Christ became sin for us. Christ became guilty for us. Not that He can be a curse or sin or guilty, but He bore all this for our sake to free us from death. This is illustrated no clearer than Barabbas the murderer, insurrectionist, and robber going free, and Christ, the honest, healer and teacher going to death. God exchanged His Son for the life of us sinners. He saved murderers to condemn the only Righteous man ever to live. In Barabbas we see ourselves and all of mankind, guilty, deserving death and hell. And in Christ, we see the one who was condemned in our place. Your spot on the cross has been filled. It is Christ who hangs on the tree instead of you.
And Christ did this, so that you would not longer be a son of Adam or a son of the devil, but a son of God. St. Paul writes in Galatians 4, “But when the fulness of time had come, God sent for His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent for the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:4-7)
We do not know what happened to this historical Barabbas after he was ransomed from death, whether he reformed his life and followed Christ or whether he continued his life of selfish crime. If he continued in his life of sin and crime, then he received an even worse fate than being crucified, he wasted his freedom and would have been better off having been hanged that day.
We too ought to consider this, as each of us is Barabbas, having been ransomed from the futile ways of our fathers, not with silver and gold, but with the holy precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:18-19). So, you too must know that you must not return to your life of sin and crime. Make no mistake, it was evil what the crowd did by crying for Barabbas’s release and for the death of Christ. Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Yet, God used this evil for the greatest good. It was His plan being brought to completion. Yet, the fact remains, it is evil to call for the blood of Christ, as Peter proves by rebuking the crowd in Acts 3, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.” The death of the Author of Life wins for us eternal life. Yet, if we call for his crucifixion again and again by our persistent sin, holding Christ in contempt, then there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment (Hebrews 6:6; 10:26-27).
So, let us live as if we have just left Pilates Praetorium, having been set free, so that Christ could die in our stead, and let us live lives worthy of new life. After having been rescued from the punishment of hell by Christ, we ought to crucify the sinful passions of our flesh as long as we live and live for Christ until we finally inherit eternal life. We should say with St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Christ Jesus has set us free from slavery to sin, death, and hell. Let us not serve our former master, but serve Him who bought us. Through faith in Christ, we are no longer sons of Adam and Satan, but children of God. Let us do the works of our Father always. Amen.

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Rejoice, Jerusalem, Your King Is Coming to You

3/28/2024

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Palm Sunday
Zechariah 9:9-12 (Matthew 21:1-9)
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 24, 2024

When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, He fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Zechariah 550 years earlier in chapter 9 of his book. So, let us examine what the Holy Spirit caused Zechariah to write, which Christ fulfilled.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!” Jerusalem and Zion are the same. The prophet tells the inhabitants of Jerusalem to rejoice. Why? Because their king is coming to them! This indeed is reason to rejoice. In 587 BC the last king of Judah in Jerusalem, King Zedekiah was taken in chains to Babylon after all his sons were slaughtered before him. Over six hundred years later, Jerusalem still had not had another son of David sit on his throne. Yet, now the crowds are crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” After over six hundred years, their King had returned! Jesus is indeed the son of David, the rightful heir of the throne in Jerusalem. Although King Zedekiah’s line was ended by King Nebuchadnezzar, God preserved David’s lineage through King Jehoiachin, whom Matthew calls Jechoniah (Matthew 1:11-12), who reigned as king in Jerusalem before Zedekiah, but was taken to Babylon as a captive (2 Kings 24-25).
Jesus is the Son of David, the rightful King in Jerusalem. Yet, He does not come to be an earthly king in Jerusalem. His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). Jesus is that Son of David, of whom David in the Spirit spoke in Psalm 110, “The LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I place Your enemies under Your feet.” Jesus is not only David’s son, but He is David’s Lord! So, yes, Jerusalem, your King is coming to you. But not as you may think! This is your heavenly King, who comes to rescue you from a greater enemy than the king of Babylon or the emperor of Rome. He comes to rescue you from sin, death, and hell! This means that he comes not only into the earthly Jerusalem, the city of the Jews. He comes into the spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem, His Holy Christian Church, to whom He brings righteousness and salvation.
Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He. What does this mean, righteous? Scripture uses the word so often, that we sometimes don’t stop to ask what righteousness means. Some define righteousness as a synonym for salvation or to mean, “way of salvation,” because of how frequently righteousness is paired with salvation in Scripture. However, righteousness is also frequently paired with judgment! David declares in Psalm 1 “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,” indicating that only the righteous will stand at God’s judgment.” Psalm 143 makes it even clearer, “Enter not into judgment with your servant (O LORD), for no one living is righteous before you.” (vs. 2)
According to the Law, the righteous are those who live according to God’s commandments. Yet, there is a problem. The preacher declares in Ecclesiastes 7, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” (vs 20) And St. Paul declares in Romans 1, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” and later concludes in chapter 3, “None is righteous, no, not one.” (vs 10; Psalm 14:3)
Then how can Jesus the King from heaven come into Jerusalem bringing both righteousness and salvation when according to the Law of God, God’s righteousness brings judgment upon the unrighteous, and everyone living is unrighteous? St. Paul explains in Romans 3, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (vss 21-25a)
Christ Jesus brings righteousness and salvation, because He Himself is our righteousness! He obeyed the Law in our place and is the one and only righteous man ever to live. Then He went as a spotless Lamb to slaughter and made atonement for all our sins by bearing them on the cross. The righteousness Christ brings into Jerusalem is His own righteousness, which He gives to us as a gift to be received by faith. St. Paul writes in Philippians 3, “For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” (vss. 8b-9)
Christ brings righteousness with salvation, because He comes humble, riding on a donkey. He who was in the form of God, not considering it robbery to be equal to God, emptied Himself into the form of a servant. And in this way, He became the perfect Lamb of God. On the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, the Jews were choosing their sacrificial Passover lambs, which they would bind until they were sacrificed four days later. Their lambs had to be without blemish and meet all the specifications of Scripture. This indeed describes Christ Jesus, who is without sin, true man, yet true God, the perfect High Priest and the only Victim, who can forever pacify God’s wrath against sin.
When the Jews would bring their Passover lambs to be sacrificed, they would chant Psalms 113 through 118 responsively with the priests, the people responding with Hallelujah after each line. This song was known as the Hallel. The cry of the people as Jesus entered Jerusalem, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosana in the highest!” is part of the Hallel, from Psalm 118:25-26. Yet, if you keep reading the Psalm you get to this line, “Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!” (vs. 27) This certainly was fitting when bringing their bound Passover lambs to be sacrificed, yet it is even more fitting when describing Christ Jesus, who humbly rides upon a donkey into Jerusalem, where He will be sacrificed for our sins. Later, he will be bound by the guards of the chief priests and again by Pilate’s soldiers, but He is already bound here by His love to go uncomplaining forth to bear our sins.
“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off and He shall speak peace to the nations.” Jerusalem is the City of Peace. Salem means peace. Jesus’ many-great-grandfather Solomon, who also rode into Jerusalem on a beast of burden when He was made king, his name means peace. We call today Palm Sunday, because St. John records in chapter 12 that they took palm branches to wave before Christ. Yet, Matthew records that they took tree branches. Having come from the Mount of Olives, it is very likely that the crowd cut olive branches down as well as palm branches to lay before Christ and to wave in the air before Him. Olive branches are an ancient symbol of peace. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is filled with symbols of peace. Yet, none as profound as the reason He comes to this city: not to wield a sword against His enemies, but to lay down His life for His friends. The Prophet Isaiah foretold, “Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) And after having been delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25), Jesus declared God’s peace to His disciples (John 20:19), which is received through faith (Romans 5:1; John 20:29). And this peace Christ has spread throughout the whole earth through the preaching of the Gospel, so that His kingdom stretches from sea to sea, even to the end of the earth.
“Also you, because of the blood of your covenant, I will set free your prisoners from the waterless pit.” In Exodus 24, Moses sacrificed oxen on an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai. Half the blood he poured against the altar. The other half, he threw on the people saying, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (vs. 8) Yet, this covenant failed to give them peace or rescue them from their sins. Christ Jesus comes to shed His own blood to enact a New Covenant, which will rescue all who believe in Him from the waterless pit of hell. The Jews who cried for Jesus’ crucifixion said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” (Matt. 27:25) They meant it derisively, because they were not afraid of the guilt of killing Jesus. Yet, we pray it fervently, knowing that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7) May His blood ever be on us and on our children through faith in Him!
So, we take comfort that God caused His prophet to declare 550 years before Christ shed His blood, that by this blood God will rescue us from the pit of hell. In Nehemiah 9, the Levites say to God, “You have kept your promise, for You are righteous.” (vs. 8) We are called unrighteous when we do not do according to God’s Word. God is called righteous, because He always does according to His word. He always keeps His promises. He says He will rescue us by the blood of the covenant, which He cut with us when He shed Jesus’ blood on the cross, and He will surely do it!
This is why we hearken to His invitation when He says, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope!” We return to the stronghold of the Holy Christian Church, where Christ’s blood is sprinkled on us through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. We were prisoners of despair, but now we are prisoners of hope. To be a prisoner of hope means to be a prisoner of Christ. It means to be set free from sin, guilt, shame, despair, and the fear of death. May we ever be captivated by the hope of Christ, who has died for us and restored to us double what we had lost by our sin.
Holy Week, when Christ rode into Jerusalem to be betrayed, beaten, and crucified for our sin before rising from the dead is the most important week in human history. All the prophets looked forward to this week. And the Apostles and Evangelists constantly point us back to it. This is the week Christ our King fulfilled all of Scripture for us, rescuing us from the pit of hell and declaring peace from God to us. So, this week we refocus the attention of the Church on her most sacred task: to strip ourselves of our pride and individualism and lay it all down before Christ, so that He may enter through the gates of our hearts, as the crowd stripped themselves of their garments and laid them before Christ. Christ enters the gates of Jerusalem as our King of Peace today through the preaching of the Gospel and in the Sacrament of His body and blood. Through faith in Christ, you are the daughters of Zion, the eternal inhabitants of Jerusalem. Rejoice greatly, your King has come to you. Amen.

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Rejoicing in Abraham's Faith

3/20/2024

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Judica Sunday
John 8:46-59
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 17, 2024

Our Gospel lesson today is a portion of one of the most contentious arguments Jesus ever had with the Jewish leaders. They call Him a Samaritan and say that He has a demon, while they claim to be Abraham’s children and that God is their Father. Jesus claims God Himself as His Father and that He is Abraham’s friend, while He calls them children of their father the devil! A conversation cannot get much more heated than that! Yet, both Jesus and His opponents claim Moses, Abraham, and God to be on their side! They both claim the Holy Scriptures written by Moses and the Prophets, Abraham, of whom Moses wrote, and God, who they say caused Holy Scripture to be written. How is it then that they are so diametrically opposed to each other, that they claim the other to be on Satan’s side?
It has to do with the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. There are two main teachings in Scripture: the Law and the Gospel. The Law is what God commands of you. The Gospel is what God does for you through Christ. The Law demands works. The Gospel is a free gift. The Law condemns the lawbreaker to death and hell. The Gospel offers forgiveness and eternal life to the lawbreaker, who believes in Christ. These Jews believed that the Holy Scriptures were only Law, that is, that they were only commandments for them to do. And they thought that they inherited eternal life by doing the commandments! They did not recognize that the main teaching of the Holy Scriptures is that God would send the Christ to take away sin and grant eternal life to all who believe in Him.
Jesus says to the Jews earlier in John chapter 5, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness of Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40) and a little later He says, “There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.” (John 5:45-46) This does not mean that Christ rejects the commandments of the Law. Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) And Jesus warns, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34) Jesus came to earth as an enemy of sin. He comes to rescue us from our sins. He does not abolish the commandments of God, but he puts them in their proper place. The commandments indeed hem us in and enclose us under condemnation, so that Christ may come and liberate us by grace (Romans 11:32; Galatians 3:22).
The Old Testament is not just a list of commandments. And if you think that all the Bible is, is a bunch of commandments, then you will inevitably add your own rules in an attempt to make God’s commandments more doable. That’s what legalists do. They add their own rules to God’s Law, so that they can convince themselves that they are fulfilling God’s Law by obeying their own rules. Yet, man’s commandments do not liberate you from God’s Law. Rather, they further enslave you to sin! This is why Jesus speaks so harshly to these legalists. They claim to listen to Moses and to be children of Abraham, but they do not listen to Moses or behave like Abraham’s children.
At the time of this argument, the Jews were celebrating the Feast of Booths or the Festival of Tabernacles (John 7:2). Every fall for seven days the children of Israel would live in tents, while offering special sacrifices to the Lord. They did this, so that they would remember that they had lived in temporary shelters in the wilderness when God brought them out of the Land of Egypt, as Moses writes in Leviticus 23 (:33-43). Yet, this is not the only reason to observe this festival. When Israel was dwelling in tents in the wilderness, Moses constructed the Tabernacle, a large tent where God Himself dwelt. So, when the people of Israel celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles by living in tents for seven days, they also remembered that at that time God began to dwell with His people in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle foreshadows Christ, God’s own Son, who would come to dwell with His people in human flesh and walk among them.
Jesus is the fulfillment of that Tabernacle. He is the Word made flesh, which tabernacled among the people of Israel (John 1:14). This is why Jesus told them, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Just as God existed before He dwelt in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, so He existed before He dwelt in human flesh as Jesus Christ. But now, the greater Tabernacle is here, the great promise of all Scripture, Christ, our God dwelling with us in human flesh! Yet, these poor students of Moses do not recognize it.
Moses wrote of Abraham, whose children they claimed to be. “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,” Jesus told them. Abraham lived before Scripture was written, but God spoke to him directly. It was Christ, the Word of God, who spoke to Abraham and told Him to sacrifice his only beloved son Isaac. Isaac was not only Abraham’s son by blood, but through faith in the promise. Although he was in the vigor of youth and could have overpowered his elderly father, he willingly carried the wood of the offering up the mountain, permitted his father to bind him and lay him upon the wood, and waited patiently as a lamb to the slaughter as his father reached for his knife. It was Christ, the Angel of the LORD, who is the LORD, who called out to Abraham to do no harm to his son. He then provided Abraham a ram to sacrifice in place of his son. Isaac and that ram are types, which prefigure Christ Jesus, God’s beloved only begotten Son, who willingly bore the wood of His cross and was sacrificed on it for our sins. God did as Abraham prophesied, and provided a Lamb on the mount of the LORD. And Christ did what He told Abraham He would do, by blessing all nations of the earth in his offspring.
This is how Abraham was able to rejoice to see Jesus’ day. He saw Jesus’ day through faith in the promised Christ, who is before him from eternity. The Jews were offended that Jesus, clearly not yet fifty years old by His human nature, claimed to know Abraham, who had died eighteen centuries earlier. Yet, even in this claim they showed their ignorance of Abraham’s faith. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32). This is what Abraham and Isaac trusted as they climbed the mount of the LORD. Hebrews 11 states, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘through Isaac should your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” (Hebrews 11:17-19) Abraham believed in the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of all flesh before Scripture had even been written. And all of Scripture is written to proclaim this faith of Abraham.
This message of grace, forgiveness, and eternal life through Christ infuriated the Jewish leaders, who claimed Moses, Abraham, and God on their side. And so, it always is for those who reject Christ’s Word. Those who reject Christ’s Word hate Christ. And as the treatment of Christ’s prophets and apostles attests, they also hate those who openly confess Christ’s Word. Jesus told them, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” Those who do not listen to God’s Word, particularly, those who ignore God’s message of forgiveness and salvation through the work of Christ Jesus will hate Christ and his Christians and will try to silence the preaching of the Gospel.
Jesus preached both the Law and the Gospel. He told sinners to repent and warned against lust, hatred, greed, and hypocrisy. Yet, He was willing to forgive even the most loathsome sinner. By His preaching, He brought the greatest outcasts and those in the deepest pit of sin and despair back into Christ’s fold, so that even the Gentiles glorified the God of Israel. Jesus faithfully taught every dot and tittle of Scripture, leaving no word out, so that He could not be accurately accused of abandoning Moses or any of the Scriptures. Rather, He opened the eyes of the lost, so that they could clearly perceive the teaching of God. And for all this, these legalists hated Him and accused Him of having a demon.
This is what becomes of rejecting Christ’s Word and ignoring the message of Scripture: hatred, unbelief, and slavery to sin. But those who hear Christ’s Word and hold fast to it never taste death. Rather, they live forever. The same thing that infuriates Jesus’ opponents gives us the greatest joy and comfort. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” How can Christ offer eternal life to all who believe in Him? Because before Abraham was, Christ is. Christ is the eternal God, who spoke to Abraham, promising to bless the world through his offspring, who spoke to Moses in the burning bush and at the Tent of Meeting, promising to come and dwell with His people as their brother. And it is this Christ, who offers Himself as a sacrifice more pure and holy than Isaac, to pay for that which that ram and every other bloody offering of sheep and cattle could never pay.
God’s own blood was shed on the cross for us. Christ our God died to pay the debt incurred by our sin (Romans 6:23). This means that no sin, however great or many, can surpass the price Christ paid to make atonement for us. Death comes through sin. Christ bore all sins in His body on the tree. So, yes. Christ can promise eternal life to all who believe in Him, and He can give it as well.
The Jews were right to search the Scriptures to find eternal life. But their searching was in vain, because they would not listen to God’s promise of grace through Christ. But Abraham, Moses, and all of Scripture bear witness of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. Let us rejoice with Abraham to know this, so that we too will never see eternal death. Amen.

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Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King

3/13/2024

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Laetare Sunday (Lent 4)
John 6:1-15
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 10, 2024

“When the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!’” What did the people mean by this? They were referring to the prophesy of Moses found in Deuteronomy 18, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to Him you shall listen.” So, the people of Israel had been waiting for a prophet like Moses. Through Moses, God fed the people of Israel bread from heaven in the wilderness. Here in the wilderness, Jesus fed five thousand men of Israel, plus their wives and children with only five loaves and two fish. That’s a pretty good comparison!
So, the people were right that Jesus is the prophet foretold by Moses, but they were wrong in what type of prophet He is. They thought He was a prophet like those of old. But Jesus is much more than that. This prophecy from Deuteronomy 18 is a Messianic Prophesy, which means it is a prophesy about the Messiah. The title Messiah comes from the Hebrew word for Anointed One. Christ comes from the Greek word for Anointed One. Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Throughout the Old Testament, God promised an Anointed One, the promised Messiah, the Christ. In the Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with holy oil to consecrate them into their office. So, throughout Scripture, the Christ is promised and revealed to us as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
That Jesus is the prophet like Moses, who has arisen among the brothers of Israel, means that He is the Christ. Which means that He is a prophet like no other prophet. A prophet speaks God’s Word. God spoke to the prophets, and the prophets in turn spoke to the people. Yet, this is different for Jesus, because Christ is God. God did not simply put His word in the mouth of a mortal, but the very Word of God became flesh (John 1:14)! St. John records, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) Christ Jesus does not simply relay a message from God. He is the very Word of God made flesh!
The book of Hebrews begins, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) The prophets never instituted anything of themselves. They spoke as the Holy Spirit carried them (2 Peter 1:21). Moses did not institute circumcision. God gave it to Abraham. Moses didn’t institute the Passover. God instructed Moses. Moses did not institute any of the sacrifices, festivals, or sabbaths. God told Moses to tell the people.
But Christ has instituted Baptism. Baptism is not just plain water, but water joined to Christ’s Word and promise. And so, through Baptism, Christ our Prophet speaks to us today (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16). Christ instituted the Office of the Keys, saying to His disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” (John 20:22-23) So, when you hear the Absolution, you know that Christ the Prophet speaks through your pastor. Our Prophet speaks through the Gospel message, He sent to be proclaimed to the whole world (Mark 16:16; Luke 24:44-47). None of the prophets of the Old Testament could have done any of these things. But Christ, the Word made flesh has done it.
Christ is greater than the prophets of old, so that He can say that the one who keeps His Words will live forever (John 8:51). Shortly after this feeding of the five thousand, Peter confesses Jesus to be this great Prophet when he says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (John 6:68-69)
But the crowd did not recognize what kind of Prophet Jesus is. They wanted to make Him their king, so that He would keep feeding them bread all their lives until they died. What silliness! Jesus was already their King! That evening in the wilderness was not the first time He fed these people. He had been feeding them every day of their lives since they were born. In fact, the eyes of all look to Christ and He gives them their food in due season (Psalm 145:15). Yes, Christ gives it to them. Christ is God. Through Him all things were made. St. Paul writes in Colossians 1, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (vss. 15-17) The greater miracle than feeding the five thousand is that He feeds every living thing every day throughout the history of the world!
Christ was already their King! He didn’t need them to make Him King to feed them. He already fed them, clothed them, and cared for their little ones. Yet, He has a greater kingdom He desires to bring them into. Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This is the kind of King Christ desires to be for us. One who gives His people bread, that if they eat of it, they will never die! (John 6:35)
Christ’s kingdom by which He cares for the physical needs of every living thing, including you, is His kingdom of power. But Christ wants to be your King in His kingdom of grace, where He rules your heart through faith. It is on the cross where Christ reigned as your King, conquering sin, death, and hell for you. And if you trust in this King, He will not only take care of your body, but your soul. And though your body will die, He will raise your body to new life to live in His kingdom of glory in heaven.
This is the kind of King the Old Testament prophesied of when it spoke of the Christ. King David, from whom God promised the Christ would descend, said, “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.’” (Psalm 110) King David called his son his Lord, because his son is God, the Messianic King, who conquers Satan, sin, death, and hell for us.
Jesus tested Philip saying, “where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” But Jesus already knew what He was going to do. Does Jesus not test you in this same way? How often have you asked yourself, “How are we going to pay for this? How are we going to get this done?” And yet, Christ already knows what He is going to do! So, why does Christ test us in this way, so that we wonder when and how He will provide for us? The same reason He tested the people of Israel in the wilderness when He did not permit them to sow or reap, but made them trust that He would send bread down from heaven each morning. “That He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3) This is what Jesus said to the people when they caught up with Him later, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” This food is Christ’s own flesh and blood, which He gives through His Word, that is, through the Gospel.
Finally, Jesus is our Priest. A priest is one who mediates between God and the people by offering sacrifices. John tells us that the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Soon, crowds of Jews would bring their lambs to the temple to be sacrificed. The Passover was a memorial meal, which reminded the children of Israel how the angel of death had passed over the houses, which had the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts. The Passover was a type of peace offering. Those who ate of it participated in fellowship with God. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament, including the Passover lambs, foreshadow Christ Jesus. Christ is our High Priest. St. Paul writes, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) Yet, Christ is not only the High Priest, who offers a sacrifice to mediate between God and the people. Christ is the Sacrifice itself! Hebrews 9 states, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” (vss 11-12) And St. Paul explicitly writes, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7) Christ’s blood causes death to pass over us, and when we feast on Christ through faith, we have fellowship with God.
So, that Christ is the Prophet, who is the very Word of God, and that Christ is the King, who has power to save both your body and your soul, means that Christ is also our High Priest, who offers Himself as the perfect and final Sacrifice to end all sacrifices (Hebrews 9:26). And so, He also invites us to eat from His altar a fellowship meal of His own body and blood.
Jesus feeding the five thousand in the wilderness points us to a much greater feeding our Prophet, Priest, and King offers to us. Later in this same chapter, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) Here, Jesus clearly teaches that we feast on His flesh and blood through faith, when we hear and believe the Gospel. And just as Jesus was able to feed the five thousand with just five loaves of bread, and had there been many more people, it would not have made a difference, He could have fed the whole world with just those five loaves of bread, so also, Christ is able to spiritually feed the entire world with His flesh and blood. Jesus never runs out of forgiveness and grace from His cross. There is always more Jesus to go around to feed hungry souls.
And we Christians have a regular reminder of this truth in the Sacrament of the Altar. Christ feeds us His true body and blood in the Sacrament. Everyone who eats it receives Christ’s body and blood, whether he believes or not, which is why you should examine your faith lest you eat it to your own judgment. But all who eat Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament with repentant hearts and in true faith, receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through it. And although, Christ has distributed His body and blood to His Church for nearly two thousand years, there is no less of Him than when He first instituted this Sacrament. There is always more. Amen.

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