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Freedom and the Government

4/22/2024

Sermon for Jubilate Sunday
April 21, 2025
1 Peter 2:11-20
Rev. Rolf Preus

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 1 Peter 2:11-20

Jesus talks about the little whiles, but sometimes the little whiles seem like they’re lasting forever. It seems that life’s not fair. That’s because it’s not. People will despise you, not for doing anything despicable, but for doing your duty as a Christian. Sometimes the arrows come flying at you from fellow Christians. That’s not fair.

Life is not fair, and we need to know why. Fair means just and sin is the opposite of justice. Sin is the reason life is unfair. Where is this sin that makes life unfair? Listen to the apostle, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” “Fleshly lusts” is the sin that lies within every man, woman, and child in this world. Even Christians, who are on their way to heaven, have within themselves a sinful inclination, an unjust, self-centered, downright malicious disposition that is the root cause of every injustice in this world. This sinful flesh lies within us, warring against our souls, seeking to destroy us.

So, what do you do when you are suffering injustice? Repent! But I didn’t deserve it! It was unfair! What do you mean, you didn’t deserve it? Didn’t you learn from your Catechism?

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor on their account deny our prayer; for we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So will we also heartily forgive, and readily do good to, those who sin against us.

St. Peter tells us to “Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against your soul.” That means repent. Repent means you do not intend to go back and do it again. You’re going to pray to God for the strength to avoid the sins of the flesh. When we hear of sins of the flesh, we might think of sexual sins. Sexual sins have become quite fashionable these days, the more perverted, the more celebrated. But the root of all sins of the flesh is the sin of pride. I know better than God how I ought to love, how I ought to live, and what is best for me.

So says the flesh, and the flesh is wrong. One thing my flesh doesn’t want to do is submit to the government, especially when it establishes stupid rules. Have you seen the bumper sticker about the policy of the government? “If it ain’t broke, fix it until it is.” I know better than they what they should be doing! My flesh is an anarchist. He won’t submit. God tells me to. The government is there to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do good. If you think the government is incompetent, greedy, and immoral, you are not thereby acquitted of your duty to follow the law and fulfill your duties as a citizen. When you think of the bad government we suffer in the United States, and think you deserve better, consider the people in Haiti, who have not had a workable government for over two hundred years and suffer the worst poverty and crime of any country in the Western Hemisphere. Even a corrupt government is better than no government at all.

There are practical reasons for obeying the rules. It helps secure law, order, security, safety, and the many blessings we sometimes call civilization. Among the benefits God gives us when we pray for our daily bread is the benefit of good government.

God blesses those who bless Abraham. That’s what he promised Abraham in Genesis 12:3. The Christian church is Abraham’s heir. That’s what the Bible says in Galatians 3:26-29. God blesses those that bless the church. The United States of America has blessed the Christian Church for many years, providing legal protection for the church to carry out her God-given religious duties, including the assembling together around God’s Word and sacrament. It is for the sake of Abraham, for the sake of Christ’s church in America, that God has blessed America, making her a great nation. We are living at a time when that blessing stands in doubt, as many in government seek to deny Christians the right to practice our religion. Christians in business are driven out of business by agencies of the government because they presumed to confess and act on the Christian truth about LGBTQ sins. Be sure of one thing. God will not be mocked. Jerusalem persecuted Christ’s church. God destroyed her. He did the same to the Romans, the Nazis, the Communists, and he will surely destroy America, should America continue to curse Abraham by attacking his faith. God sees when his people suffer persecution, and he will vindicate them. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he shall reap.

So, the next time the government tells us Christians to stop gathering together in order to “flatten the curve,” we’ll tell the government that God tells us to gather together, curve or no curve, virus or no virus, and no government of men can overrule God. After all, they get their authority to rule from God and God gives no government the authority to prevent Christians from gathering together to hear God’s word, receive Christ’s body and blood, sing praises together, and by their bodily presence along side of God’s means of grace to encourage one another.

We are free. We are children of God. We put to silence the ignorance of foolish men by obeying the rules. But God rules over the rules. And the freedom we enjoy is the freedom that God grants us here in church. This is a church because Christians gather here. But you can have a Christian gathering that is not the church, like a church softball league or social club. This is a church because we are gathered here to receive from God his gospel, his absolution, the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, all of which establish, sustain, and strengthen faith. Faith is freedom. The true faith sets us free from reliance on every human regulation. We aren’t free by obeying the rules. We are free because Jesus has paid the debt God’s law demanded of us. Jesus has suffered the punishment our sins required. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He not only did it; he gives it. Jesus speaks to us, by his Spirit, the word that conveys this life-giving, freedom-giving forgiveness. We are here. Here our God sets us free and keeps us free.

When you’re free, you can’t be bound by anyone. When you’re a bondservant of God, you belong to no other. So, honor all people, even those who are not your brothers and sisters in Christ. Who knows? You may make a friend who will turn to you someday for what you, as a Christian, can provide. Love the brotherhood. We share the same freedom. We do not live under the judgment of the law. We live under God’s grace, his undeserved love. We share that love with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Fear God. “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Honor the king, or whoever is the boss.

And when you’re working for the man, the man will often know less about your work than you do, but since he’s the boss, he’ll let you know he knows more than you do. So, what do you do? You do as you’re told. You may think it’s fair to be taken to task for messing up, but when you’re right and the boss is wrong, well that’s a different matter. Yes, it is. And when you submit to the boss when he’s wrong, without complaint, without badmouthing him behind his back, but out of love for the Lord who has set you free, that is what is called a good work. Putting up with things. Not making your pride the principle on which to die.

St. Peter says that “when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” God sees it. That makes all the difference. God sees and knows and understands. The work you do for others, sometime not very pleasant others, you do for God.

One of Martin Luther’s many memorable statements comes from his tract on the freedom of the Christian. “A Christian is a perfectly free lord, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.” We are perfectly free lords in Christ because he is the Lord over the law, sin, and death. He is our Lord. We are taught to confess that this means that he has redeemed us. Redemption is freedom. When the ransom has been paid, the prisoner is free. It’s as simple as that. The law cannot condemn us. Jesus took away its condemnation. Our sins cannot claim us. Jesus washed them away by his blood. We have no fear of death because we died and rose from the dead when we were baptized. We have eternal life. God has in store for us lives of perfect justice in heaven, where we will live in glorified bodies that cannot sin, suffer, or die.

So, why not serve? Why not humble yourself before others, even those who don’t deserve it? What have you got to prove? Nothing. The God who laid our sin on Jesus to set us free from them, will surely vindicate our freedom before all creation at the time of his visitation, when he returns, when all knees shall bow, and all tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen

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The Uniquely Qualified Shepherd

4/17/2024

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Miscericordias Domini Sunday (Easter 3)
John 10:11-16
Pastor James Preus
April 14, 2024

“I am the Good Shepherd,” declares Jesus. Well, what is Jesus declaring about Himself? Who is the Good Shepherd? Throughout Scripture it is the LORD God, who is declared to be the Good Shepherd. King David declares in Psalm 23, “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” And again, in Psalm 80, the psalmist prays, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.” And we just heard from the Prophet Ezekiel, chapter 34, “I Myself will be the shepherd of My sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.” (vs. 15) Yet, the LORD spoke through Ezekiel just a few verses later, “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.” Well, which is it? Is the LORD the shepherd or is David? Both. This David of course, is not the shepherd boy turned king of Israel who died several hundred years before Ezekiel prophesied. This David is the Son of David, the shoot from Jesse, Jesus Christ. Ezekiel calls Him David, because He is descended from David and takes David’s throne. He is the son of David and the Son of God. The LORD is the Shepherd of Israel. David is the one Shepherd of Israel. The LORD and David are one Shepherd. Christ Jesus is true God and true man. This is why Jesus later says, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
All of Scripture has built up to this moment. The LORD is the shepherd of His people. Yet, all the patriarchs were shepherds and served as types of Christ, from Abel to David. Shepherd-boy David even rescuing sheep from the mouths of lions and bears. Then Micah prophesies that the Christ will be born in Bethlehem, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days, and that He will “shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.” (Micah 5:2-4) For Jesus to call Himself the Good Shepherd is to claim to be the promised Christ, true God and true man.
What does the Good Shepherd do? He lays down His life for His sheep. This too was prophesied long ago. ‘“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered,’” prophesied Zechariah. And Isaiah prophesied, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5) Jesus is uniquely qualified to lay down His life for the sheep. If anyone else were to lay down his life for the sheep, he would not be able to take it up again. But Christ has the authority to lay down His life and to take it up again. This is because He is both God and man in one person. As a man, He can suffer and die for sin, and as God He is able to bear the weight of all the worlds sins, and wash them away in His blood. This is why St. Peter writes, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) Only the blood of Jesus could ransom you from your sins, because He is true God and true man. The Shepherd became a lamb and was slaughtered for the flock. God became a man and died to rescue His human sheep.
Only Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There is no other Good Shepherd. Only Jesus is true God and true man. Only Jesus suffered and died to take your sins away. And so, only Jesus can gather His sheep into His one flock, the Holy Christian Church. This leads us to the second thing the Good Shepherd does. He calls and gathers His sheep. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28) After laying down His life and taking it up again, ransoming His sheep from sin, death, and hell, Christ sent out His apostles to the whole world to preach the Gospel with the promise of the Holy Spirit. They all preached the same Christ with the same Holy Spirit working with them.
This is important for us to remember today, as the Church appears so divided into sects, some saying one thing and others another. And what is most alarming, is that many, in an attempt to bring unity, try to cast out Jesus the one true Shepherd and His sacrifice for our sins. You’ll notice that there is often talk about God without any talk about Jesus. Most people believe in a god. So, as long as we do not specify which god we are talking about, we can have the veneer of unity. And when they do talk about Jesus, they try not to talk about what He did for us, namely, lay down His life, so that He may take it up again. Instead, people would rather limit Jesus to vague teachings about love and acceptance. But that is not the Jesus we know from Holy Scripture. The Jesus we know from Scripture, is the only Good Shepherd, true God and true man, who laid down His life for us.
It has become increasingly popular for people claiming to be Christians, to claim that Jesus is not the only way to heaven, that people can be saved without faith in Jesus. But Jesus makes it abundantly clear that He is the only Shepherd and that there is only one flock. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And He says, “Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)
The nation of Israel is currently embroiled in a war against Hamas after the horrifying attack last October. As with most wars, there are protesters on both sides, accusing the other side of atrocities. Those who criticize Israel are quickly called antisemitic. And to avoid the charge of antisemitism, many Christians have gone so far as to say that the Jewish people will be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. This is a horrendous teaching, which is contrary to what Jesus taught and does no favor to the Jewish people. Jesus came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. All His Apostles and most of His first followers were Jewish. The promise of forgiveness and salvation through faith, which Jesus proclaimed He first proclaimed to the Jewish people. Yet, Jesus also said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” It is you Gentiles, who are those other sheep, which He has called to join His one flock. Christ did not set up a separate flock of Gentiles to be saved by faith in Him, while a separate flock of Jews were saved apart from faith in Him. Rather, St. Paul affirms, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
It is not antisemitic to pray for the conversion of the Jewish people. Christ’s Church on earth has been praying for the conversion of the Jewish people from the very beginning. They were the first believers and Christians, and many have been grafted back into Christ’s Church over the millennia. We should continue to pray for the conversion of the Jews and when given the opportunity, confession Jesus as the Messiah to them. Jesus shed His precious blood for them. And He stretches out His arms to them as a hen trying to gather her chicks under her wings.
So, if Christ is the Good Shepherd, true God and true man, who lays down His life for His sheep, what does that make you? It makes you a sheep, who has gone astray! “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) This is another error people accept today. They think it is a good thing to go their own way. But it is not. We are sinners. When we go our own way, we follow our sins and flee from Christ. But it is time for you to return to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, Christ Jesus. Repent of going your own way, satisfying your own lusts and pride, pleasing your own ignorance, and worshipping your own identity. Christ has called you to come to Him and be part of His fold, to learn from Him, to listen to His voice, to be fed and nurtured by Him.
You need to be forgiven. Like a sheep trapped in the mouth of a lion, you need your Good Shepherd to pull you out, or you will be devoured by the jaws of death and hell. You need to be led, which means you need to listen to the voice of your Shepherd. And Jesus is still leading and guiding His sheep. He has given us the Holy Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel, and His Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He has commanded His ministers to feed and tend His sheep (John 21:15-19). St. Paul told the pastors in Ephesus, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28) And this charge remains on all ministers of the Word.
Christ did not abandon His flock when He ascended to heaven. Rather, He promises that He is with us always, where His Gospel is preached and where His Sacraments are administered in remembrance of Him. There is no excuse for going your own way, for ignoring Christ’s voice. We hear Christ’s voice today, when we listen to His Word preached. And Christ says that His sheep know His voice and follow Him. It is not only a sin to stay away from Christ’s preaching, it is remarkably foolish. It is to wander into the wilderness where there are devouring thorn bushes, lions, and bears. We are sinners, who have gone astray. And we stray frequently. So, we must return frequently to where our Good Shepherd has promised to be.
And what does our Good Shepherd give us? Eternal life. The only one qualified to lay down His life and take it up again, because He is both God and man, is also the only one qualified to give you eternal life. And He does. He forgives you, strengthens you, and leads you. He brings you to green pastures and quiet waters, that is He preaches His Word to you. The word for shepherd comes from the word to pasture. To pasture means to feed. Jesus commanded Peter and all His pastors to feed His sheep. Pastor means shepherd. Pastors feed Jesus’ sheep by preaching the Word. This is what it means that He makes you to lie down in green pastures. This right here is your green pasture, where you are strengthened in faith and given eternal life. He who feasts on these pastures will live forever. Amen.

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The Risen Christ Dwells with His Church

4/10/2024

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Quasimodo Geniti (Easter 2)
John 20:19-31
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
April 7, 2024

In 1 Timothy 3:15, St. Paul calls the Church the Household of God. Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church (Hebrews 3:6). When Christ rose from the dead, He did not appear to Pontious Pilate or Caiaphas the chief priest to say, “Hey, look what I did! Boy, were you wrong.” No, Christ appeared to His Church, the household of God, His holy believers and lambs, who gather to listen to His Word. On the Sunday on which He rose from the dead, Christ went to be with His disciples who listen to His Word. He went to be with them the next Sunday as well. And every Sunday since, the Church gathers to hear the Words of Christ and Jesus gathers with them. In our Gospel lesson for this Sunday, we learn about the risen Christ’s activity in His Church on earth.
First, the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, yet Jesus came and stood among them anyway. Jesus is always with His Church. He is her head. She is His body. A head and body cannot be separated from each other but are one flesh. So is Christ with His Church. Wherever the Church is, there is Christ in her midst. This is why He said at the Great Commission before He ascended into heaven, “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) How do we know that Christ is with us? He promises to be where His Word is taught and where His Sacraments are administered. The promise, “I am with you always,” followed His instruction to make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them. Likewise, Jesus said in Matthew 18, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” We take comfort that when we gather to worship in Christ’s name, hearing His Word and receiving His Sacraments, Christ is with us. When a person is baptized, Christ Himself is there.
But how is He there? Is His divinity there, while His human body is far away? Is he present with His Spirit, but His body is far away from us? No. Christ is here with us, body and soul, flesh and bone! If He is here only as God, then He is not here as our crucified one, which is a terrifying thought. Then He is not here as our Savior! Though we cannot see Him, Christ is with us. This is why we confess that Christ’s body and blood are present in the Sacrament of the Altar. “That’s impossible,” people say. Well, it is also impossible for a man to appear in a locked room, yet there Jesus is, flesh and bones and all.
Christ showed His disciples His hands and His side where the nails and spear left the marks of His crucifixion. This teaches us that in the Church, the crucified and risen Christ is always preached. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1, “But we preach Christ crucified!” When Christ was raised from the dead, His body was glorified. While remaining human, His body was no longer in a state of humility, but He had entered His exaltation. Yet, the marks of the nails and spear remained in His body, so that He may always be proclaimed as the crucified one. This is the message of the Christian Church for all eternity. Christ Jesus, who was crucified to saves sinners is risen from the dead. All who believe in Him have eternal life.
“Peace be with you,” Jesus said to His disciples. Having paid for the sins of the world, and proven the payment was made by rising from the dead, He proclaims God’s peace to His Church. In the Church of Christ, which is the Household of God on earth, there is constant peace with God, because our sins are forgiven, and we are justified by Jesus’ blood.
“As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you,” Jesus told them. By doing this, Christ instituted the Office of the Ministry. The Office of the Ministry is the way by which Christ distributes the fruit of His cross to His Church. “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4. By dying on the cross, Christ won forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and eternal salvation to all who believe. He has given all this to His Church. Yet, for His lambs to receive what He has won for them, He created this office and put men in it. No one should assume the duties of the Office of the Ministry without a rightly ordered call, as St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “How can they preach unless they are sent.” (vs. 15)
Ministers are stewards. They deal with that which is not theirs. Christ won salvation and He tells His ministers to give it to His people through preaching, teaching, and administering the Sacraments. As Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, so pastors give to Christ’s sheep what He has prepared for them. This is what St. Paul told the pastors of Ephesus in Acts 20, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the Church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.” (vs. 28)
This is why Jesus said to His disciples, “The one who hears you hears me. The one who rejects you rejects me.” (Luke 10:16) When ministers baptize, forgive sins, administer the Lord’s Supper, and preach God’s Word, the hearers should consider that it is Christ Himself speaking. Faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ. Proclaiming the Word of Christ is the purpose of the Office of the Ministry. Where the Church is, there is the Office of the Ministry with pastors doing the work of their Chief Shepherd.
“Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says. With these words, Jesus teaches us that the Church is the field in which the Holy Spirit works. Those in the Office of the Ministry are charged with proclaiming Christ’s Word and administering Christ’s Sacraments. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit works to create faith where and when it pleases God. This is why we say in the Creed, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins...” It is within the Holy Christian Church, which is the community of holy people, set apart by God, that the Holy Spirit forgives sins by creating and sustaining faith in the Gospel. When children are baptized, when the pastor absolves sinners, when the Gospel is preached, when the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood is administered, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of hearers to believe the promises and receive forgiveness and salvation through faith. On the Last Day, this same Holy Spirit will raise all the dead and give eternal life to all believers in Christ.
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” With these words, Jesus gave His Church the Office of the Keys, which is that special authority to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant, as long as they do not repent. This is the greatest power on earth. To have your sins forgiven, means that the kingdom of heaven and eternal life is opened to you. To have your sins bound to you because you will not repent, means to have the kingdom of heaven and eternal life closed to you. This tremendous power Christ has given to His Church. So, you should believe that when the minister of Christ, who exercises this power, deals with you by his divine command, in particular when he excludes openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation, and absolves those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain even in heaven as if Christ our dear Lord delt with us Himself. While the binding key angers those who cling to their sins, the absolution proclaimed by the pastor grants the believer great comfort and peace knowing that God Himself has forgiven all your sins. The Office of the Keys summarizes the entire mission of the Church, to proclaim God’s wrath against sin, but free forgiveness and salvation to all who repent and believe in the Gospel.
In the Church of Christ, Jesus rebukes unbelief. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus said to Thomas, who had doubted His resurrection before he saw Him. Yet, this statement about believing without seeing is misunderstood. Many think that this means that faith is just blindly believing something without any witnesses to its truth. They think faith is just trusting your feelings. But saving faith is not trusting your feelings any more than it is trusting your reason or your sight, which corrupted by your sinful nature can lead you astray. You shouldn’t trust your feelings, but the clear Word of God. Scripture says that every truth should be established by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15; John 8:17). Thomas sinned, because He did not believe the testimony of the ten disciples, who saw Jesus risen from the dead! He also didn’t believe Jesus’ own words that He would rise from the dead. Saving faith is not simply believing without seeing. Saving faith is believing the trustworthy testimony of Scripture, which is the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20).
Our faith cannot be compared to that of the Muslims or Mormons, who blindly follow Mohamad or Joseph Smith. Mohamad was one man, who wrote the entire Koran. Joseph Smith likewise was just one man, who claimed that an angel spoke to him and gave him a book. No one else saw what Mohamad and Joseph Smith claimed to have seen. But Jesus’ resurrection was witnessed by hundreds of people, recorded by nearly a dozen more, and predicted by dozens of prophets in the Old Testament. St. John wrote, “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name.” And John’s testimony is not alone. He witnesses with all the Apostles, the women, the five-hundred, and all of Scripture.
So, the Church is not built on feelings. Our faith is founded on the trustworthy testimony of Holy Scripture, written by the Apostles and Prophets, and inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. John writes, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.” Holy Scripture is God’s testimony that Jesus Christ His Son, the crucified and risen one, is our Savior. On this testimony the Church is built.
Finally, Thomas confessed Jesus to be His God and Lord. This is his creed. And it is our creed too. In the Church, we confess the creed in unity. Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men, I too will confess before My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32) And Ephesians 4 states, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We confess together the one faith. That is why we confess the creed together today.
All this Christ gave to His Church on earth when He rose from the dead: His abiding presence, the preaching of the Gospel, God’s peace, the Office of the Ministry, the Holy Spirit, the Office of the Keys, the testimony of Holy Scripture, and His approval of the Church’s Creed. For all these reasons, we believe although we do not see Him, that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, our God and Lord is with us His Church here today. Amen.

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Christ the Firstfruits, Then the Harvest

4/3/2024

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Easter Sunday
Mark 16:1-7
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 31, 2024

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” asked the women as they went to Jesus’ tomb to anoint His dead body with spices. This large stone meant to keep Jesus’ dead body trapped inside the tomb is symbolic of an even larger stone, an immovable stone, which mankind has failed ever to move. This immovable stone is death. Perhaps, if the women found a couple of strong men with a lever, they could move the stone from Jesus’ tomb. But no one can move the immovable stone of death. And you all know this. All of you who have ever looked in the face of your dead loved one, father, mother, husband, wife, or child, know this. There’s nothing you can do. I’m amazed by what modern medicine can do. People, I was certain were going to die, get better through surgery or medical intervention. There is now talk that through computers, we may soon see those born blind given sight and the paralyzed with severed spinal cords walk again. Remarkable. But no medical or computer advancements can raise the dead. You stare at the dead in the face. The doctors are as helpless as you are. You put your dead in the grave and visit the grave, but they stay underground.
Death is an immovable stone, because it is the fruit of sin. “The wages of sin is death,” St. Paul writes in Romans 6 (vs. 23), “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law,” he writes again in 1 Corinthians 15 (vs. 56). Can you remove your sin? So could you remove your death. But we can’t remove our sins. Once they are done the guilt remains. And death is a constant reminder of the guilt that hangs over our heads. Unless sin can be removed from us, the stone of death will remain in place.
Yet, when the women arrive at Jesus’ tomb, the stone is removed! Jesus’ body is gone. And an angel announces to them that Christ has risen, just as He said He would! As the stone before Jesus’ tomb has been moved, so the immovable stone which kept all of us in the grave has been lifted. Jesus has removed it by removing our sins. Christ is true God and true man. The sins of the whole world were laid upon Him as He went to the cross, and He paid for all of them with His blood. How do you know that He paid for all of them and not some of them or none of them? Because Christ was raised from the dead. St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 4, “Jesus Christ our Lord was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (vs. 25) He was delivered up to death for our sins, as the Prophet Isaiah prophesied, “The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) Not some of the sins of the world, but all the sins of the world, as the Apostle John later writes, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
Jesus suffered for all sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world. And He was raised from the dead. The fact that He is risen proves that your sins are gone. If a single sin remained unpaid, then Christ would not have risen. This is how you know that you have forgiveness of sins in Christ.
So, what does this mean for us? It means that we too will rise from the dead! Mary and the other women must have laughed at themselves later. They were going to Jesus’ grave to anoint his body with spices. Why were they going to do that? Because they believed in the Resurrection of the dead. They prayed in the Psalter, “The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 115:17-18) How can they bless and praise the LORD forevermore, if they’re dead? They can’t. So, they believed from Scripture that they would rise from the dead. So, they wanted to honor Jesus’ dead body as a confession that His body would rise, as would all bodies. Yet, they were surprised that Jesus’ body rose! Well, how did they think the resurrection from the dead would take place? Christ must rise first!
The Feast of Firstfruits coincided with the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread. (In that part of the world, they begin their harvest in the spring). In Leviticus 23, God instructed the people to bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest to the priest for him to wave it before the LORD on the day after the Sabbath (vss. 10-11) of the Passover. So, on this day after the Sabbath when Christ was raised from the dead, the Chief Priest would have been waving the sheaf of the firstfruits before the LORD in the temple. They could not bring in the rest of the harvest until they first waved the sheaf of the firstfruits before the LORD. And they could not expect God to bless any future harvests, if they did not bring their firstfruits before God. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.” (vss. 20-23)
When Christ rose from the dead, He fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits by making possible our harvest. In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus compares the Last Day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead to a harvest, when He will send out His angels to gather the grain into barns, but the chaff, He will burn in the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For us to enjoy the Resurrection of the Dead, Christ must first rise as the Firstfruits of them from the dead.
Yet, there is more. For us to enjoy the resurrection of the dead, we must be joined to Christ. St. Paul writes in Romans 5, “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (vs. 17) Yet, you’ll notice that he says, “those who receive...” Everybody will rise from the dead on the Last Day. But not all will enter the Resurrection into eternal life. Others will be raised to the resurrection of judgment, when they will be condemned and cast into the everlasting punishment. They would rather never rise from the dead, but let their graves forever cover them than to rise to judgment. But Scripture is clear that after death comes judgement. And on the Last Day, while the righteous will be gathered into paradise, the unrighteous will be condemned.
This is why St. Paul writes to the Philippians in chapter 3, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 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—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (vss. 8-11)
Jesus was raised for our justification. Justification is being declared righteous. Jesus justified the whole world in His resurrection, because He died for the sins of the whole world. Yet, this justification, this righteousness can only be received through faith. This means that the resurrection to eternal life can only be received through faith. It does not depend on our works, but on faith, which receives Christ’s righteousness as a gift.
Yet, notice how seriously the Apostle Paul takes attaining the resurrection from the dead. He counts all his accomplishments as rubbish. He shares in Christ’s suffering, so that he may become like Him in death. That means that he crucifies his sinful flesh by repenting of his sins every day, crucifying his pride, his lusts, his anger, his passions, and is willing to be maligned for his confession of Christ. As he was buried with Christ in Baptism, so that he might rise with Him through the glory of the Father, so he buries himself with Christ everyday through repentance, that he might walk in newness of life in Christ each day (Romans 6).
If we lose our faith in Christ, we lose Christ’s righteousness and so the resurrection to eternal life. Yet, it is not in our power to have faith in Christ. It must be given to us by God as a gift. For us to enjoy the resurrection of the body, God must raise us spiritually today and every day, so that we have faith in His Son. He does this through the proclamation of the Gospel. He does this through Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar. In Baptism you put on Christ. And through faithfully receiving the preaching of the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper, you keep Christ on as a holy garment.
Scripture says that Christ is the head of His body the Church (Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:29-30). If The head rises from the dead, so will the body. How can the head rise and leave its members dead? So, the Church will rise with Christ, because she is His body. But outside of the Church, that is, outside of that marital union with Christ through faith, you are not part of His body and will not rise with Him, but will rather experience the resurrection of judgment.
So, we should with St. Paul count all our things, our money, jobs, pride, lusts, grudges, and everything else that we cling to in sin, as rubbish, that we may be found in Christ with a righteousness from God, which depends on faith in Christ. We should not treasure anything in this world, because it can and will all be taken away. Rather, we should treasure Christ, who removed the immovable stone from our tomb and was waved as the Firstfruits from the dead before God, so that we too might be harvested and gathered into His barn. In Christ’s resurrection, we find everything we need: forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. Through His Word and Sacraments, Christ keeps us joined to His body the Church, which cannot fail to rise with Him on the Last Day. Christ has removed the immovable stone from our graves, so that we may live with Him forever.
Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.

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