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Our Hearts Are Restless until They Find Their Rest in Christ

9/25/2024

Trinity 17
Luke 14:1-11
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 22, 2024

St. Augustine begins his famous work, Confessions with a prayer to God in which He says, “Man, a little piece of Your creation, desires to praise You, a human being ‘bearing his mortality with him (2 Cor. 4:10), carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that You ‘resist the proud’ (1 Peter 5:5). Nevertheless, to praise You is the desire of man, a little piece of Your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising You, because You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Our heart is restless until it finds its rest in the Lord. This truth is fundamental to understanding the Sabbath. Sabbath means rest. Moses records in Genesis 2, “And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:2-3)
God blessed the seventh day and made it a day of rest. Yet, man fell into sin. St. Paul tells us that the Law was added because of transgressions (Gal. 3:19). Moses writes in Exodus 20, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” When man sinned, he fell out of God’s Sabbath. He could not find rest in the Lord on account of his sin. So, God added the Commandment to remember the Sabbath Day, so that His people might find rest in Him. But the Commandment did not give them rest, because of their unbelief. Because of their hardness of heart and rebellion, the Lord says in Psalm 95, “Therefore I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (Psalm 95:11)
Hebrews chapter 4 explains this, “For we who have believed enter that rest, as He has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter My rest,’” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.’ And again, in this passage He said, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again He appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (Hebrews 4:3-10)
The command to rest failed to give the people rest! This is what St. Paul says in Romans 3, “Through works of the Law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” It could be paraphrased, “Through works of the Law no human being finds rest in God, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.” The Law does not grant rest. Rest can only be received through faith, because it is God who accomplishes the work.
This sets us up for our Gospel lesson. A ruler of the Pharisees invited Jesus to dinner on the Sabbath, and they watched Him closely to see whether He would break the Sabbath. A man suffering from dropsy was there. “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” Jesus asks. And they are silent. Their silence shows their ignorance of the Law and of the Sabbath. They think they find Sabbath rest in their works. And they gloat over the possibility that Jesus will fail to find that rest by showing compassion to a suffering man. Their desire for the Sabbath is evil. But Jesus’ desire is good. He heals the man, breaking the Sabbath in the eyes of the Pharisees, but making it holy in the eyes of God.
The man with dropsy is a picture of our sinful condition. Dropsy is known as a rich man’s illness, because it is caused by overindulgence. It causes the body to retain water. The man’s body retains water, so that he is swollen and bloated, yet he cannot quench his thirst. His condition is a result of overindulgence, yet it presses him into further indulgence until he dies. This is the state of sin. We do not find rest in our sin. We do not find rest in our ability to keep the Law. We find rest only in Jesus, who rescues us from our sin.
The man with dropsy is a picture of us. We are heavy laden with our sinful condition. We have consumed too much, and it is killing us. Yet, the disease of sin drives us to keep consuming more and more until we die. We crave that which kills us. We want to be freed from it, but it drives us on and on. We find no rest in our sin, in our lust, hatred, and craving after earthly pleasure. Yet, sin is a slave master, which drives us further on. We need to find rest for our souls. We need to be forgiven and freed from our sin and the guilt which presses upon us because of it. Jesus declares in Matthew 11, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
As Jesus healed the man of dropsy from the condition, which was suffocating his very heart, so Jesus heals us of our sin and lifts the heavy burden off our conscience. Jesus did this by doing the work of re-creation. On the first day, He entered Jerusalem triumphantly to shouts of Hosanna. On the fifth day, He washed His disciples’ feet. On the sixth day, He labored on the cross until His work was done. And on the seventh day, He took His rest in the tomb. And on the first day of a new week, He rose from the dead, having taken all our sins away, so that He might give us a renewed Sabbath in the Lord to be received through faith. The first Sabbath was already holy, but we could not enter it because of our sin and unbelief. So, Jesus came to take away our sins, so that we may enter God’s rest through faith in Him.
God gave the Sabbath commandment, not because He thought we could enter His rest through our own works, but to draw us to faith in Christ, who would win for us true rest. This is why St. Paul writes to the Colossians in chapter 2, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body belongs to Christ.” The body belongs to Christ. The Sabbath regulations of the Old Testament were a shadow. Jesus is the body, which cast the shadow. We no longer need the shadow. We have the body. This is why Christians do not observe the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, including the prohibition to work on Saturday.
However, we do not ignore the commandment. Why did God forbid them to work on Saturday? So that they could not only rest their bodies, but also find rest for their souls by meditating on God’s Word, as Martin Luther writes in his hymn, “And put aside the work you do, so that God may work in you.” And so, we still have use for this commandment today. Martin Luther explains the meaning of this commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.” God still commands us to stop working, so that we may listen to His Word and learn it. To refuse to stop working and take a physical rest is foolish. To refuse to listen to God’s preaching and Word is wicked. Jesus said to those Jews who refused to listen to His preaching, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:47) Yet Jesus makes this wonderful promise to those who gladly hear His Word and preaching, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:23)
But outward observances of the law, even coming to church, does not give you Sabbath rest if you do not have faith. The rest Jesus seeks to give us is not simply physical rest, it is inner spiritual rest. The Lord spoke to Isaiah in chapter 66, “what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? … But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word.” The one who finds rest in Christ is the one who is humble and contrite in spirit, the one who is sorry for his sins and trembles at God’s Word. The one who finds rest in Christ is like the man with dropsy, who is weighed down with a heavy burden, which he cannot lift off himself. The Pharisees, who exulted themselves did not get this. They found rest in themselves, because they thought they had fulfilled the commandment. But their rest was fake, just as the pleasure that the man with dropsy indulged in was fake pleasure, which led him to the point of death.
If your heart is to find true rest in the Lord, you must humble yourself. You must recognize that your works are not good enough, that you have overindulged in the fading pleasures of this world, and that your sin bars you from any true rest. And when you recognize that, you are prepared to find true rest in Christ. Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. He did not come to give rest to those satisfied with themselves, but to those who are heavy-burdened and who seek rest from the Lord.
The Apostles appointed Sunday for the day of worship for two reasons. First, to show that we are free from the shadow of the Old Testament and cannot be judged for not observing the seventh day or any other ceremonial law. Second, because Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, so we should know that we only find true rest in Christ. You should go to church every Sunday, because the Lord commands us to hear His Word. It is a sin to skip church, because it is despising God’s preaching and Word. Yet, much more, you should go to church every Sunday to find rest in Christ. You find rest in the Lord by hearing the words of Christ and believing His promise of forgiveness. We do not come to church to judge one another and see who has kept the Sabbath better. We come to church as dropsied sinners coming to the banquet where Jesus is, so He can heal us and satisfy that one unquenchable craving. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in the Lord. We find that rest today in the words of Jesus. And we believe that we will enjoy that rest in perfect holiness in eternity with Him. Amen.

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Where Is Jesus' Compassion Today?

9/18/2024

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Old Testament Reading: 1 Kings 17:17-24
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Gospel: Luke 7:11-17
11 Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Trinity 16
Luke 7:11-17
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 15, 2024

Laugh to scorn the gloomy grave
And at death no longer tremble;
He, the Lord, who came to save
Will at last His own assemble.
They will go their Lord to meet,
Treading death beneath their feet. (LSB 741:7, Otto von Schwerin, Jesus Christ, My Sure Defense)

The woman was a widow. That’s sad. But most married women are widowed eventually. She’s following the coffin of her only son. Now, that’s heartbreaking. Children aren’t supposed to die before their parents. Now, after this woman’s husband has died, death has taken away her only son. She’s alone and will likely need to depend on the charity of others to survive. Our Lord Jesus sees her and he has compassion on her. Yet, what Jesus does with this compassion is what is truly remarkable. He says to the mother of the dead man, “Do not weep,” which certainly would be a pho pas at any other funeral. Surely, at her son’s funeral, a woman is permitted to cry! But Jesus backs up his bold words by touching the coffin and saying to the dead man, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the young man rises from the dead, starts talking, and Jesus returns the man alive and well to his mother.
What wonderful compassion our Lord Jesus has! Would that He would show such compassion today! Do we not have parents in our midst who have held the lifeless body of their child? Who would give all they have to see their child start moving again, open his eyes, and talk? Who would be forever thankful to Jesus if He would give their dead child back to them alive and well! Yes, we have such parents today, such pitiable mothers and fathers, even widows and widowers, who are in need of this comfort. Why doesn’t Jesus raise their dead? Or, could He at least keep them from dying! Where is Jesus’ compassion today?
Scripture only records Jesus raising three people from the dead: Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter in Capernaum, Lazarus of Bethany, and this young man from Nain. Certainly, there were others He raised, along with His disciples (Matthew 10:8). Yet, it is also certain that there were many more Jesus did not raise. Yet, this does not prove a lack of compassion on our Lord’s part, nor a lack of power over death. Rather, to understand this, we must learn that there are three types of death: 1) physical death, from which Jesus raised the young man from Nain; 2) eternal death, which is suffered by all in hell; and 3) spiritual death, into which all are conceived and born, which means they are dead to sin and incapable of choosing or pleasing God. When you recognize all three of these types of death, you realize that the raising of the young man in Nain was the least remarkable and least compassionate resurrection, which Jesus demonstrates in this Gospel lesson. The young man would later die again. Yet, there are worse deaths than physical death, from which Jesus seeks to save us.
The cause of death, whether it is physical, spiritual, or eternal, is all the same: sin. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God told Adam that on the day he disobeyed Him and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). Yet, Adam and Eve did not physically die on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit. However, their physical deaths began. They spiritually died. And had God not converted them through the promise of Christ, they would have died eternally as well in hell. The cause of our spiritual death is sin. We are conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5). St. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2, “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” And to the Romans, he wrote, “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) We die because of sin. If you want to get rid of death, you need to get rid of sin.
And this is where Jesus shows His greatest compassion. We think Jesus was displaying His “human side” when He felt compassion on the mother. But this was not Jesus showing His human nature, but His divine nature. It is God’s nature to show compassion. That we feel compassion reflects our Creator. God showed His greatest compassion when He sent His Son to take all our sin upon Himself, and suffer and die in our place because of it. This is what God declared through the prophet Isaiah, “He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by His stripes, we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6) Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied of his son, declaring that he would “give knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the compassionate mercy of our God.” (Luke 1:77-78) God’s compassion is shown in how He takes away our sins.
And so, when Jesus raised that young man from the dead, He foreshadowed His own resurrection from the dead, when He would forever nail our sins to His cross, sins, which lock us in darkness and in the shadow of death. At Nain, Jesus raised one man from physical death. Yet, with this resurrection, He foreshadowed how He would win salvation from eternal death for all.
Although Jesus won eternal life for all, not all receive it, because it can only be received through faith. Unless one is risen from spiritual death, which prevents a person from believing in Jesus and being saved, then he goes from physical death into eternal death in hell. So, we learn that not only is eternal death more severe than physical death, but spiritual death is much worse than physical death. For the Christian who suffers from physical death is immediately granted eternal life in Christ and will soon enjoy the resurrection of the body. But the spiritually dead can only expect eternal death and punishment.
And so, we see that Jesus performed an even more compassionate and praiseworthy miracle at that funeral in Nain than He did by raising the man from physical death. What was the response of the people? They praised God and declared that a great prophet had risen among them and that God had visited His people. These are not simply generic praises of God. They are filled with faith and hope in God’s promises.
In Deuteronomy 18, the Lord spoke to Moses, ‘I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I commanded Him.” This was a Messianic Prophecy, meaning, it prophesied of the coming Messiah/Christ. When the crowd declared that God raised up a great prophet from among them, they were confessing that God had fulfilled His promise to Moses and that Jesus was the Christ. Again, the crowd said that God had visited His people. How has God visited His people? Christ Jesus is God! God said through the prophets that He would visit His people when they were in captivity in Babylon, to bring them back to their land (Jeremiah 29:10). Now God visits His people in a greater way. Again, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied of this when he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people, and raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David His servant.” (Luke 1:68-69) This horn of salvation through whom God would visit and redeem His people is Jesus Christ, the Son of David. So, by raising this young man from physical death, Christ brought about that many would be raised from spiritual death by being brought to faith in Christ, and therefore, would be rescued from eternal death in hell.
Only Jesus can raise the dead, because only Jesus can take our sins away. When Jesus raised that young man from Nain from physical death, He demonstrated His power to raise Himself from the dead after taking all our sins away on the cross. And when Jesus converted the crowd to believe that He was their Messiah, He rescued them from eternal death by granting them faith in the only One who can take away their sins.
We cannot bring our loved ones who have physically died to Jesus today for Him to raise them up. Yet, that does not mean that our Lord does not have compassion on us today. Jesus has compassion on us now in the midst of the shadow of death. He can comfort us in a way that no one else can, as St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring to Him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thess. 4:13-14) Christ gives us comfort in death, because He has defeated death by taking away all our sins.
I love Jesus and I have devoted my life to telling people about Jesus, because only Jesus can comfort me when I am oppressed by things beyond my control. Only Jesus can comfort me when I lament my sins, which I cannot undo, because He alone died to take them away. Only Jesus can comfort me in the face of death, because only Christ undoes death. I love Jesus, because He is not only my Savior, but my children’s Savior. He comforts me not only as I face my own death, but as I face the death of my wife and children, regardless whether that precedes my own. Because Christ Jesus is their Savior too, as St. Peter declared in His first Pentecost sermon, “The promise is for you and for your children.”
We cannot bring our physically dead to Jesus for Him to raise them to life for a few more decades. But we can bring our children to Jesus, for them to be raised from spiritual death and to be sustained in spiritual life, so that physical death will lose its sting and eternal death will be completely undone. Christ Jesus shows His compassion today in raising us from spiritual death, so that we may enjoy eternal life without fear of physical death or any of the sorrow associated with it. Jesus shows us this compassion in Baptism, where we are buried with Christ and united to Him in His resurrection (Romans 6:3-5). Jesus shows this compassion through the preaching of the Gospel, where we hear the good news that Christ has taken away all our sins, which is the sting of death. Through the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, we are strengthened in spiritual life, so that eternal death cannot harm us. Christ comforts us today by robbing physical death of its power to gloat over us. Rather, Christ gives us the right to mock death and call it just a little nap, because Christ will raise those who belong to Him from physical death, as a mother wakes her little child up from a nap. And they will enjoy eternal life with Him.
Then take comfort and rejoice,
For His members Christ will cherish.
Fear not, they will hear His voice;
Dying, they will never perish;
For the very grave is stirred
When the trumpet’s blast is heard. (LSB 741:6, Otto von Schwerin, Jesus Christ, My Sure Defense)
Amen.

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Serve the Better God

9/13/2024

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Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Trinity 15/ Matthew 6:24-34/ Pastor James Preus/ Trinity Lutheran Church/ September 8, 2024
Jesus instructs us that we cannot serve two masters, therefore, we cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is earthly wealth. You will either love and cling to God and hate and despise Mammon, or you will love and cling to Mammon and hate and despise God. So, you have a choice of which god you will serve. Will you serve mammon, the god of earthly wealth? Or will you serve God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth? Jesus presents us with a perfectly logical argument why God is the better Master to serve and why we should stop serving the false god Mammon.
First, how do you serve Mammon? You serve Mammon by being anxious, that is, by caring for the things of this life. In other words, by worrying. But Jesus tells us not to worry, not to be anxious, because our heavenly Father cares for all our needs without us offering incense to Mammon with our worrying. He begins by using the logical argument, that if the greater is true, so is the lesser. Consider the birds of the air. They do not toil as you do. They don’t stay up at night worrying. Yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Of how much more value are you than they? Study the lilies of the field. They do not spin nor sow, but your Father in heaven clothes them more majestically than Solomon the Great. Is it not self-evident that God cares more for you than the grass of the field which is gone tomorrow?
Did God create the birds in His own image? Did He give them dominion over the earth? Did God take on the flesh and nature of birds to become their Redeemer? Did He send His Son to die for the flowers in the field? No. But He has done that for you! God the Son took on our human flesh and blood, lived under the Law for our sake, and was crucified for our sins! How much more does God care for you than for birds and grass! And yet, your Father in heaven does not fail to care for these lesser creatures. How much more will He provide for you!
In that same vein, God has given us much greater blessings than food for the belly and clothing for the body. St. Paul employs this same logical argument of Christ’s when he writes to the Romans in chapter 8, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (vs. 32) If God did not withhold His own Son from bitter pain and death for your sake, would He hold back from you any good thing? Would He deprive you of food and drink, shoes, and clothing? If God has remembered you from before the foundation of the earth, will He forget you today? If God chose you in Christ from before He created the earth for eternal life, will He fail to keep your life today? He who offers the Holy Spirit without measure for drink for your soul (John 3:34; 7:37-39), will He fail to give you water to drink for your body? He who offers His own Son as food and drink for our souls and invites you to an eternal wedding banquet, will He fail to feed your body today? He who has clothed your soul in a robe of righteousness and gave you Christ Himself as a holy garment (Isaiah 61:10; Gal. 3:27), will He fail to clothe your body today?
And so, you see, if you truly believed the Gospel of Christ, you would put away all worrying and anxiety. If God gives you much more than you desire for the soul, He will not fail to give you the lesser things for the body. If He cares for that which is of lesser value in His eyes, He will certainly care for you, who are the apple of His eye. This is why Jesus repeatedly calls God our Father. Even an earthly father will give good gifts to his children, even though he is evil and weak in his nature (Luke 11:13). How much more will your heavenly Father, who is good and all-powerful give you what you ask for?
So, you see that your heavenly Father is a much better God than that imposter Mammon. While Mammon demands that you worry, yet promises nothing in return, your heavenly Father bids you to stop worrying and to cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). It is God, who provides for all you need in this life. Yes, He commands you to work, but not to worry. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for He gives to His beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127) Do not think that your work has given you all that you have. There are many who have worked much harder than you and have had less. And there are those who have worked far less and have more. It is God who provides according to His own generosity at His discretion and according to His purpose.
Finally, Christ crushes the false worship you offer Mammon by pointing out that it is utterly useless. Who, by worrying, ever added an hour to his life or a cubit to his stature? Yet, those who put away worry do not lack any good thing. Jesus wins us over to worship the true God with the comforting words, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” Mammon promises nothing, but forces you to worry. The Father promises you everything, and tells you not to worry.
Yet, there are some of you who think you do not serve Mammon, because you do not worry. You have enough food and drink and clothing. You sleep like a baby at night after telling your soul that you have goods stored up for many years, so relax, eat, drink, and be merry (Luke 12:19). Yet, do not think that you are not worshiping Mammon with this attitude. While Mammon tortures most of its followers with anxiety and worry that they will not have enough, it drugs others into a complacent stupor with the riches and pleasures of this life until it finally chokes out the word of God from their hearts (Luke 8:14). Remember, that word for be anxious does not simply mean to worry. It means to care for.
So, what do you care for? What do you serve? The true God or mammon? Are you more concerned with increasing your earthly possessions than storing up treasures in heaven? Do set your mind more on that next vacation, that next vehicle, that next financial milestone, than you do in your own sanctification? Do you plan more for your children’s financial future, for their worldly education, future career, or even their hobbies and sports than you do for their eternal salvation? You could leave your children and grandchildren millions of dollars, yet leave them in the greatest poverty without the kingdom of heaven. Do you take salvation for granted and serve the things that are perishing instead fighting the good fight of faith (2 Timothy 4:7)? Remember Jesus’ solemn warning, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
It is easy to strive after earthly riches. And you will have much company doing it. That is why no one bats an eye when you set aside worship and God’s Word to pursue the pleasures of this life. Yet, that broad way leads to destruction. But the narrow hard way involves crucifying your flesh, repenting of your covetousness and love of earthly riches, and to seek after the heavenly treasure Christ has won for you. It is hard, because it involves daily repentance. It is narrow, because only through faith in Christ may you enter it. Yet, it is the only way that leads to everlasting life.
Many, by striving after riches, have wandered away from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10). It is hard to confront your love of money and riches. It is difficult to tear yourself away from service to Mammon. Yet, when you turn from it, you have the certainty of eternal riches in heaven. Jesus warned earlier in His Sermon on the Mount not to store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up your treasure in heaven where it is safe, concluding, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
And this is what Jesus is teaching us about: The service of your heart. You may have nothing, but in your heart are the riches of this world as you worry and long after them. You may be rich like King David, yet call yourself poor and needy (Psalm 70:5). That’s what it means to be poor in spirit and so possess the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). You may not worry, because you think you have everything you need in earthly possessions. Yet everything you love will be taken from you. And since you filled your heart with these perishable treasures, you will be locked out of the true riches in heaven. If you sow after that which is perishable, you will reap corruption.
This is why Jesus concludes, “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, and the rest will be added unto you.” He is speaking about your service in your heart. Do not set your heart on the riches of this world. God gives them to whom He pleases. They will not satisfy you. They will eventually leave you. Yet, your service to them will lock you out of heaven. Rather, set your heart on the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and the rest will be added unto you. Here, Jesus concludes His logical argument of “if the greater is true, so is the lesser.” If you seek from God that which is greater, His kingdom and righteousness, then He will certainly add the rest of these lesser things to you.
Yet, how do you seek God’s kingdom? By seeking His righteousness. God reveals His righteousness through faith in the Gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16-17). Through faith in Christ, you receive the righteousness of God, which gives you access and ownership of the greatest riches in heaven: the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, eternal life, adoption as God’s children, heirs of Christ. Christ won this righteousness for you through His bitter sufferings and death on the cross, when He died hungry, thirsty, and naked, foregoing the earthly riches we so long for. And Jesus gives this righteousness to us through His Word and Sacraments. Here, He feeds us with heavenly food for our souls and clothes us with a heavenly robe of righteousness. We eat this heavenly food and clothe ourselves with this heavenly garment through faith, when we believe and trust in the promise God attaches to these means of grace. This is the greater food and greater clothing, which if you have, you will not worry about the lesser. The kingdom of heaven is before you in Christ’s Word and Sacrament. So, seek after this with all your heart. And God will not neglect to add to you whatever you need for each day. Amen.

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Giving Thanks for Salvation

9/5/2024

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Trinity 14
Luke 17:11-19
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
September 1, 2024

In the Small Catechism, Luther explains the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” with these words, “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Now, some might wonder, what is so great about thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is important, because it is the fruit of an active saving faith. Where there is active saving faith, there is thanksgiving. And where there is true thanksgiving, there is an active saving faith. This is what Jesus teaches us when He said to the one cleansed leper, who gave thanks, “Your faith has saved you.” Ten lepers were healed of their leprosy. This cleansed leper, who gave thanks, was saved through the faith, which brought forth his thanksgiving.
And it is not inconsequential whether you give thanks or not. Jesus asked with complete seriousness, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” Jesus expected all ten to return to give thanks to God. Yet, only one returned. Such is the case with our fallen race. We are ungrateful to our Creator, who provides us with everything we need to support this body and life. God cares for all people, even those who hate Him. He performs miracles like the cleansing of the lepers every day, healing thousands from their diseases, many millions more he clothes and feeds. Yet, few return to give God thanks for what He has done. If all God gave us was our daily bread, food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, devout spouse and children and good government; it would be incumbent on us to give thanks always. As the pagans sacrificed to their gods for sending them rain, so we should regularly worship the true God for taking care of our bodily needs.
Yet, Jesus teaches us that we have much more to give thanks for than our daily bread. Jesus teaches us to give thanks to God for salvation. Christ has rescued us from the leprosy of our sin, on account of which we were separated from God and soon would be sent to hell. As leprosy causes the skin to die, so our sin caused our very hearts to die and resist God. As leprosy restricted the voice from crying out without pain, so our sin made us mute to God’s praise. Yet, by His blood, Christ took all our sins away, rescued us from the jaws of hell, and opened to us the gates of eternal life. So, how much more ought we to always give thanks?
And since thanksgiving is so important to saving faith, I would like to teach you three things about true thanksgiving. First, thanksgiving requires true faith. The man glorified God with a loud voice, fell upon his face at His feet giving Him thanks. Whose feet? To whom did He give thanks and praise? God’s feet. He gave thanks and praised God. Yet, God does not have feet. True, according to His divine nature, God is spirit and does not have a body. Yet, Jesus is God. Jesus is a man with feet. So, His feet are God’s feet. When the man worshipped Jesus at Jesus’ feet, He was worshipping God. True faith recognizes Jesus as God. So, to give thanks to God means to give thanks to Jesus and to acknowledge what Jesus has done.
This corrects a major misunderstanding popular in our generation. People will often speak of being thankful. To whom are they thankful, that is anyone’s guess. They talk about going out into the woods or in nature and connecting to God or nature. They speak of Jesus, Moses, Mohammad, and Buddha as if they are all equal holy men. They speak of the LORD, Allah, the universe, and the many other deities people worship as if they are all the same God. Being Christian is equal to being Muslim or Hindu, or spiritual, they say. Just so long as you are thankful in your heart. But this is not true. Mohammad and Buddha were false teachers. Allah is a false god. The only true God is the God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for our sins. True thanksgiving involves giving thanks to Him. And so, true faith is trusting in the God, who sent Jesus to be our Savior, and trusting in Him for forgiveness and salvation.
Having true faith in Christ leads us to the second thing we need to know about thanksgiving. Thanksgiving requires true worship. What is true worship? True worship is service that flows from faith in Christ. The devil manipulates people like this: “Faith is an invisible thing in the heart; therefore, worship also is invisible. One cannot say that one way of worship is true or false or better than another.” But this is a clever lie of Satan. If there is true faith, then there is also true worship. True worship responds to true faith. The leper returned to give thanks to Jesus, because he had faith that Jesus was his God, who saved him. Before, he cried out with the nine, “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!” That word for master is different than the word for Lord. He did not yet know Jesus as His Lord and God (John 20:28). But after he was healed, he returned to worship Jesus properly as His God.
People repeat another clever lie of the devil. They say, “Well, God is everywhere, so why go to church to worship God? I can worship Him in my garden or out in the woods with nature.” It is true that God is everywhere. It is also true that water vapor is in the air we breathe. Yet, when you are thirsty, you don’t say, “There is water everywhere! I don’t need to get a drink of water.” Yes, God is everywhere. But He is not everywhere in the same way. When God comes to you with His grace, you should meet Him where His grace is offered. The Samaritan would have been a fool, if he had worshiped God at the foot of a tree instead of at God’s very feet, which are Jesus’s feet. When Jesus is there, you worship Him! And so, we today worship Jesus where He promises to be: in His Word and Sacrament.
Jesus told the lepers to go show themselves to the priests to prove that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. The priests could not heal a leper, but they could declare a healed leper ceremonially clean. Moses describes how a priest would do this in Leviticus 14. He would take two doves, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. He would kill one of the birds and drain its blood in a vessel of fresh water. He would then dip the live bird with the cedarwood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop in the vessel filled with the bloody water and let the bird go free. Then on the eighth day, the priest would offer a lamb for a guilt offering and smear some of its blood on the cleansed leper. Now, this might sound gruesome, but it clearly foreshadows the Sacrament of Baptism, which Christ Jesus instituted. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who smears us with His blood. As the bird is dunked into the blood of the sacrificial bird and then flies free, so we are washed in Jesus’ blood and cleansed from all our sin in Baptism.
God instituted the Levitical rite of cleansing lepers to foreshadow Christ and Baptism. He forbad manmade forms of worship. He even forbad them from worshipping Him on the high places under the trees, because He commanded them to worship Him in Jerusalem, where He promised to dwell in His temple. So, today, we worship Jesus, who is greater than the temple in the manner He instituted for us. When you were baptized, you were brought to Jesus and washed by Him with His blood. That was when you first worshipped Jesus. Yet, it is not enough to begin as a Christian. God cares more how your Christian pilgrimage ends than how it began. Judas too was baptized and even preached the Gospel, cast out demons, and healed the sick. Yet, he fell away and went to hell. Yet, Paul, who was a persecutor of the Church repented, fought the good fight of faith, and finally obtained the crown of righteousness that was waiting for him (2 Timothy 4:8).
What good was it that those nine lepers were healed if they did not continue to worship Christ? Likewise, what good is it for you if you were once cleansed in Baptism, but you do not continue in your Baptism? So, you see that it is not enough that you once worshiped Christ. You must continue to worship Christ.
The greatest worship you can offer Christ is to receive in faith the grace He offers you. When you believe in Christ’s promise, you not only receive salvation, as Jesus promises, you glorify Christ. This is why you come to hear His Word. Jesus promises, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:31) St. Paul reminds us that saving faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) So, when you listen to Christ’s Word, as sheep listen to the voice of their shepherd and follow him, you are worshipping Christ as He teaches you to worship Him. And you are blessed with an increase of faith, so that you may continue to give thanks to Him.
The Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood is called the Eucharist. Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. Christ gave thanks when He gave us His body and blood to eat and to drink. And we give thanks whenever we gather to eat and drink it for our forgiveness and salvation. And as the cleansed leper bowed down at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks, the Sacrament of the Altar gives us an opportunity to bow down and worship Jesus where He is. Yes, Jesus is everywhere. But in the Sacrament, He is there for us to forgive our sins and strengthen us in faith. When we receive the Sacrament in faith, we proclaim that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus is with us bodily.
Finally, thanksgiving continues in our works. Just as it is not right to be baptized and then forsake the Word of God, as the nine ignored Christ after being cleansed, so also, it is not right to worship Jesus at His feet, hear His Word and eat His body and blood in the Sacrament, and then live lives unworthy of your call. St. Paul admonishes us to walk by the Spirit, so that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh, which work against the Spirit. Those who continue in fornication, uncleanness, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like those, will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so, your thanksgiving does not end when you leave church. Your worship does not end. Rather, having been filled with the Spirit through the preaching of Christ and His Sacraments, you should conform yourself to the Spirit and walk in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. As you acknowledge that Christ is present in His Word and Sacraments, so that you worship Him there, so also acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is present in you, who have received Christ’s Word and Sacraments in faith. And walk by the Spirit.
Christ instructs us to give thanks to God for our salvation, which we have received through faith. And so, we should never cease to give thanks to God. Our faith should always be active, because only our faith can save us. We should trust in and always confess the truth of Christ our Savior. We should regularly worship Him by paying attention to His Word and faithfully going to Church to worship Him in person, where He promises to be, and we should conduct our lives as if Christ is with us all the way, because He is. We should not be like the ungrateful nine, who failed to return to worship Christ. We should with thankfulness to God shun sin and pursue love and righteousness.
Faith produces thanksgiving. Thanksgiving strengthens and protects faith. So, let us give thanks to God for Jesus’ sake until our faith finally obtains our salvation. Amen.

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