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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

Reformation Sunday: Justification by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ alone

10/29/2018

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Romans 3:19-28 
October 28, 2018 
 
The law of God is good and wise and sets his will before our eyes. The law of God is good. To say that God’s law is not good is to say that God is not good. The law is quite simply, what God desires to be done. Jesus summarizes the entire law as, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Love. Love is what God desires to be done. The law reveals to us the essence of who God is. God is love.  
The law commands that you conform yourself to be like God. Scripture is very clear that this is the aim of the law. God speaks in Leviticus 19, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” Likewise, our Lord Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) Every one of the Ten Commandments is a command to love. You shall have no other gods. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not comit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. The purpose in all of these commands is for you to love God and your neighbor; put their needs before your own. And if you love perfectly, then you are like God. This is what it means to be righteous. God is righteous. He is the standard for what is right. So, if you want to be righteous you must obey the law and do what it says, as Scripture says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:13) 
Only those who are justified by God, that is declared righteous according to his standard, will enter heaven. And so, it seems clear that if you want to go to heaven, then you must obey the law. It must depend on your works. Yet, we heard in our Epistle lesson, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The law of God is good. We must never blaspheme against it. Yet, the law of God gives you no hope of salvation. Rather, each command, which discloses to you God’s good and holy will, reveals your sin.  
“Now the law came to increase the trespass,” St. Paul writes (Rom. 5:20). This is because we are sinners. Everything we think, say, and do is tainted with sin, as God himself said way back in Genesis 6, “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually.” So, instead of showing the way to righteousness and eternal life, the law brings death. It doesn’t justify; it condemns. It shows that you do not love as you ought. So, because we are sinners, who cannot help but sin, and because the law is holy, righteous and good and exposes sin to be sin, we cannot be justified by the law in God’s sight.  
Yet, what did we just hear? “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, … the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” It is faith, which justifies sinners, not the law! “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” This is great news! This means that we can go to heaven despite our sins.  
But it is important for us to understand what justifying faith is. Faith is not simply historical knowledge; as long as you believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose, then you are saved. No, justifying faith trusts in Jesus. Justifying faith banks on the belief that God is pleased with you on account of Christ’s sacrifice and forgives your sins on account of Christ. Our Lutheran confessions expresses it this way:  
“Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight.” Romans 3-4 (Augsburg Confession IV) 
We are received into favor and our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. This is the faith that justifies. Justifying faith trusts in the fact that God is pleased with you, not because of anything you have done, but for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.  
Justifying faith is by grace alone. Grace is a gift from God, which means that it is not by works. Many believe that we are saved both by faith and by our works. This is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which is the reason the Lutheran Church formed and why we are celebrating Reformation Day today. And many others besides the Roman Church teach that you must do good works in order to be saved. But grace removes your works from the equation, as Romans 11:6 declares, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” And our Epistle lesson says that we are “justified by grace as a gift.”  
You are justified by grace apart from your works, because Christ Jesus has completed all the work that needed to be done. To be saved by grace through faith means to be saved by Jesus. Again, faith is not simply historical knowledge of events. Who doesn’t know that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day? It is one thing to know these events really happened. It is another thing to trust that God is pleased with you because of them.  
The law must be fulfilled. And if the law is not obeyed, God demands punishment. Our God is a just God. He doesn’t simply ignore sin and pass lenient judgments. No, God demands justice be served. So, as St. John says, Jesus took upon himself the sins of the whole world. The Lord laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. And Christ was punished for our sins. The righteous one was punished for the sins of the unrighteous ones. And by Christ’s suffering and death, he made satisfaction for our sins and appeased God’s wrath against all sinners.  
Two people can look at the passion of Christ and see two different things. One can see the law, while the other can see the Gospel. One looks at Jesus suffering and sees God’s anger against sin. It’s a terrifying thought that drives one to hide from God. This is why it is important to recognize that Christ’s death on the cross was for your sake and on account of his sacrifice, God is pleased with you. God is not angry at you because of your sins. Jesus has taken that anger away. In Christ’s resurrection you see that all your sins truly are gone forever, nailed to the cross. This is how you are saved by grace apart from your works. This is the most comforting message in the world, because it gives you confidence that you will go to heaven. You can know for a fact that you are justified before God, because Christ has made atonement for your sins. Your works bring doubt, because they are imperfect and tainted with sin. But Christ’s work gives certainty, because God cannot fail or lie.  
The crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ show that our God is just. He is righteous. Yes, he looks over sins for a time, yet, he demands justice be served. If he didn’t, he would not be loving. God requires love. Hatred must be punished. Yet, in this great act of justice Christ shows perfect love. Jesus demonstrated perfect love throughout his life as he obeyed the commandments, loving God and his neighbor throughout. Yet, nowhere is Christ’s love displayed more fully that in his passion for our sins.  
Jesus obeyed his Father’s will out of love for him. No one took Jesus’ life from him. He laid it down of his own accord and he had authority to take it up again. Jesus’ death was not an accident. Our Lord and brother willingly suffered and died out of love and obedience to his Father. He put his Father’s will before his own, as he himself said at the beginning of his passion, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:41) Jesus perfected his love for his neighbor by bearing the burden of every last human being. He died for all sins. This is not an impersonal task. This is very personal. The wrong you know you have done, that has burdened your conscience, so that your heart sinks into your gut, that is the wrong Jesus has placed upon himself out of love for you. There is nothing more personal than that. There is nothing more loving than that.  
In the crucifixion and death of Christ, we see God’s love on full display. God is love. What does this mean? It means that he sent his only begotten Son to die, so that whoever believes in him might live. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to the be propitiation for our sins. The Gospel is not an overthrowing of the law. The law demands love. The Gospel is the perfection of love. God upholds the law of love forever through the death and resurrection of his Son.  
To be a sinner means that you lack love. But through faith in Christ’s perfect love God only sees love in you. He is totally and perfectly pleased with you. He credits to you for Christ’s sake the perfect love, which his law demands. This is why St. Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We do continue to sin as long as the old Adam hangs around our necks, that is, as long as we live on this sinful earth. Yet, God does not count these sins against us. He only sees Christ’s righteousness shine through our faith.  
Yet, because of the wickedness of unbelief many assume that this means that Christians can therefore go on sinning, since we are saved by faith and not by works. They fail to see, as the Jews did in our Gospel lesson, that those who sin are slaves to sin. The gospel sets us free, not to become slaves again to sin, hatred, and death, but to be free to righteousness, love, and eternal life.  
Scripture says, “We love, because he first loved us.” This means that God’s love for us, which we witness in Christ Jesus and receive through faith, produces love in us. Faith is a living active thing. Through faith we are justified. This means that through faith God makes us into good trees. Good trees bear good fruit! Yes, even now in these sinful bodies, imperfectly, clumsily, with lots of repentance and forgiveness along the way, we love. We seek to please God because we love him. We seek to help our neighbor, because we love our neighbor. How couldn’t we? The same blood shed to wash away our sins was shed to cleanse our neighbor!  
The Lutheran Reformation proclaimed to the whole earth that sinners are justified by faith apart from their works. And for this, we have been slandered and accused of rejecting love. That is nonsense. The Gospel that Jesus Christ saves sinners is a teaching that cannot help but produce love. Let us love with confidence, not fearing that our works are imperfect, but trusting that even our imperfect acts of love are sanctified by the blood of Jesus. Amen.  ​
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Trinity 21: God Speaks; Faith Receives

10/22/2018

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John 4:46-54 
October 21, 2018
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“Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”  
 
Jesus spoke. The man believed what Jesus spoke. And then the man saw that what Jesus spoke was true. This is not the way we normally operate in this world. “I’ll believe it when I see it” is not only an old adage, but it is generally a good rule of thumb. Yet, this is not the way with faith! “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And Jesus spoke to Thomas after he was raised from the dead, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) In the kingdom of heaven, you believe it before you see it!  
Now this can be greatly misunderstood. Faith is not simply blind optimism; you believe that everything will work out for the best. Rather, Jesus spoke and the man believed the word that Jesus spoke. Faith is grounded in the word of God. Faith doesn’t believe what it sees. Rather, faith believes what it hears. It believes before it sees. True faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And it is on this word that faith trusts, even before seeing.  
You cannot have faith apart from the word of God. It is through the proclamation of the Gospel that God creates faith in your heart. Apart from God’s word, you have nothing to rest your faith on. This is important to mark, because God both reveals himself and he hides himself. God reveals himself in his word, where he tells us that he loves us so that he sent his Son to die for our sins and raised him to give us new life. Yet, God also hides himself. We don’t always know what the will of God is. Why is my child sick and at the point of death? Why did my husband have to die? Why is my mother stricken with cancer? How could God let her children be taken from her at such a young age? Why did God let a hurricane destroy the panhandle of Florida, etc. We don’t know. And there are many other things hidden in the mind of God, which are beyond our knowledge and beyond our business.  
Satan wants us to seek the hidden God through speculation and seeking signs and wonders. This leads us to casting judgment on God or making for ourselves a god out of our own image. But when God hides himself, like at times of immense suffering, he does not want you to seek him where he is hidden, but to seek him where he reveals himself. God reveals himself in his word. In his word God gives you answers that your eyes will never find elsewhere no matter how hard you look. In his word God gives you assurance of invisible things that can only be hoped for.  
Through the word of God you find purpose in your suffering. It brings you to repent of your sins and to have faith with patience. It teaches you to trust in God and to look to his promises for comfort.  
Faith must be grounded in God’s word. Otherwise, it is a false faith. Faith does not make anything true. God’s word is not true, because you believe it. It’s true, because it is God’s word. If you believe something false with all your heart, it does not make it true. It just means that you are believing a lie. And this can be frightfully dangerous, if you are believing a lie about God or salvation.  
We use the word faith in two ways: how one believes and what one believes. If I say, “I have a strong faith.” I could mean that I believe very strongly, or I could mean that the faith I believe in is trustworthy. If the faith in which you believe is not true, then it doesn’t matter how strongly you believe. You want both to believe strongly and to have what you believe be true.  
Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead whether you believe it or not. Yet, it is those who believe it that receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice, namely, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Likewise, the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s body and blood whether you believe it or not. Because Jesus said, “This is my body” and “This cup is the New Testament in my blood.” It doesn’t become Christ’s body and blood when you believe that it is, even as Jesus’ death and resurrection did not become true when you believed it. Yet, when you believe the words of Christ, you receive the benefits of what Christ gives you.  
Yet, if you were to go to a church, which denies the bodily presence of Christ in the Supper or changes the words of Jesus, so that they mean something different than what Jesus said, you couldn’t make it Christ’s body and blood by believing really hard. It is Christ’s body and blood, because of the word. But without the word it is not Christ’s body and blood no matter how hard you believe.  
Likewise, if someone were to doubt that the Supper were Christ’s true body and blood where Jesus’ words remain, that would not make it just plain bread and wine. It would remain Christ’s body and blood even if an unbeliever were to eat it. That is why St. Paul warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)  
Your faith does not make anything true or false. Rather, your faith can receive what is true, if it is a true faith. If it receives what is false, it is a false faith. When you believe the words of Jesus, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” then you receive the Supper of the Lord to your own benefit with the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, an increase of faith toward God and of love toward your fellow Christian. Faith does not make God’s word true, but it does receive the power and benefit of God’s word.  
We believe a lot of things we have not seen. We believe that God the Father almighty made the heavens and the earth. None of us were there when he did it, but Hebrews 11:3 states, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” By the power of the same word, which created the universe out of nothing we believe this truth, although we did not see it. We believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died and was buried, rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven. None of us have seen any of that! Yet, we all believe it, because God’s word says it is true.  
Furthermore, we believe in a Holy Spirit we have never seen. We believe in the Holy Christian Church, that is, the Communion of Saints. Is that what we see? Is the church holy? It seems rather that Christians mingle with the unbelieving world so much, they are indistinguishable from it. They don’t live exceptionally holy lives nor keep themselves from sin. Christians are supposed to love each other, yet, the love of many has grown cold. The Communion of Saints implies that we are actually united in fellowship, yet the Christian church is scattered throughout the world, divided into sects and various denominations. Even the Lutherans, who believe the Bible is God’s word, are not united in doctrine and practice on all fronts. Yet, day after day, week after week we confess the one, holy Christian Church. Because we believe the word of God that he has washed us with the water and the word and presented us holy as Christ’s spotless bride. So, despite our sins and schisms, God has united his own invisible church around his holy word and Sacraments through faith.  
We believe in the forgiveness of sins; just think about that. God, who knows your every secret. He knows the sins you haven’t told your wife or husband. Everything that shames you, that causes your conscience fear and pain, even the sins you’ve forgotten about God knows them full well. And yet, we confess that God forgives all these sins. Because God says so. We are like the father walking home with no evidence that his dying son has recovered, except the word of Jesus, and so do we walk to our deaths confident that we will stand sinless before the throne of God.  
We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting, even though none of us has ever seen a single dead person rise from the dead, nor have we known someone who continues to live without aging. For all of us it’s just a matter of time before we die. Yet, based on God’s word alone, we believe what we have not seen.  
Now the word of God is no fairy tale or compilation of unverifiable events like the Book of Mormon or the visions of Mohamad, which are uncorroborated, baseless claims made up out of thin air. The Bible is not this way. The four Gospels are complementary and corroborating accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus written by men, who saw Jesus in person. Hundreds of people witnessed Jesus alive after his resurrection. The apostles faced beatings, prisons, and death confessing the life and resurrection of Christ with nothing material to gain by it. And the writing of the New Testament, written by ten different individuals are historical proofs of the Scripture’s legitimacy. And there are several writings outside of the bible along with other archeological evidence that supports what both the New and the Old Testaments claim.  
Yet, this is not why we believe that the Bible is true. We believe the Bible is true, because the Holy Spirit caused the Bible to be written and continues to work through the Bible to create faith. The power of the Bible is not that it can be verified by multiple human witnesses, but that it is indeed the word of God. St. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16) God’s word is uniquely powerful to create faith, which we ourselves can see evidence of as millions of people throughout the world and throughout generations continue to confess this same Gospel. And some confess it even in the face of persecution and death! 
St. Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to all who believe. And so, we should continue to hear this word of God, so that our faith becomes stronger. Consider the official in our lesson. He already had faith in Jesus. That is why he went to him for help. Yet, when he heard Jesus’ words his faith increased. The word of God continues to increase your faith even after you believe, so that you not only have a faith that is trustworthy, but have a faith that believes strongly.  
This is why we continue to hear Jesus’ word and receive his pledge of forgiveness from his body and blood given to us. It is so our faith would continue to grow, so that we might believe with confidence those things, which our eyes do not yet see. And by God’s grace we will see what our faith holds dear, as St. John says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) Amen.  ​
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Trinity 20: God Calls and Chooses by Grace

10/15/2018

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Matthew 22:1-14 
October 14, 2018 
 
In this Parable Jesus gives an historical commentary of the nation of Israel, revealing that the kingdom of heaven is not far off but here and now. God sent numerous prophets to his chosen people of Israel. But for the most part they rejected the prophets. Not even against Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, were they afraid to speak against him. And many they threatened and imprisoned and beat and killed. They were not afraid of the prophets, because they didn’t come to them with swords or clubs or chariots. They came armed only with words. And the people despised their words. It didn’t matter which words they spoke, Law or Gospel, the people despised them. If God’s prophets threatened punishment for their idolatry, the people gladly listened to false prophets, who told them what they wanted to hear. When God’s prophets promised that God would rescue them, God’s people sold themselves to foreign nations and trusted in their armies rather than the hosts of heaven.  
And so, as Jesus tells us in the parable, God the King sent his soldiers to punish the murderers of his prophets and those who refused to listen to the invitation to the wedding banquet. They did not fear the prophets armed with words, so God sent them men to fear, armed with swords and spears. Time and again God permitted Israel’s enemies to rout them. Yet, even in the New Testament Israel continued to reject God’s apostles, until in 70 AD Roman forces surrounded Jerusalem and burned their city. And having found those invited by the prophets and apostles unworthy, God sent his apostles and preachers into the roads and gather all whom they found, both good and bad, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations, languages, and skin colors.  
God predicted that this would happen as we heard God speak to the Christ in our Old Testament lesson, “Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.” (Isaiah 55:5) This is a marvelous thing God has done, that through the disobedience of his people he has brought many more people into his kingdom. Yet, we Gentiles must not be arrogant. If the natural branches could be lopped off by their disobedience to the word, the disobedience of us wild branches, who have been grafted in can certainly cause us too to be removed from Christ. And indeed, this is the case. The Gentiles are not more faithful than the Jews. People continue to reject and despise the servants of God, who proclaim that the feast is now ready. While most simply ignore the preaching of God’s word and occupy themselves, one to his farm, and another to his business, others become hostile to God’s word and to those who preach it.  
People don’t ignore those, whom they perceive speak with power. You wouldn’t dare ignore a police officer, if he speaks to you, or ignore a notice from the IRS or a call from your boss. These are perceived to have power in this world. They have guns and authority over your money. But those who speak God’s word are often ignored. Few are afraid to dismiss their message or even to speak against it. This is because the word of God itself is despised. Jesus says, “He who rejects you rejects me and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16) People fear swords and clubs, guns and human authority, but God’s authority is despised. And for this, God threatens the same punishment that he did against those of Israel, who did not believe. Not only pestilence and war, but condemnation and the removal of his word and Spirit from them.  
This is truly a tragic thing, because the Word of God is such a pleasant thing. It’s an invitation to a banquet that no money can buy. Jesus says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Yet, they reply, “I don’t need your rest. I want to labor under my own load.” And that’s what people do. Even here in the Land of the Free, most people slave away, serving that which perishes until they return to the ground.  
Yes, it’s true that God’s word is often harsh. He convicts us of our sins, showing us where we’ve failed, hurt our neighbors and neglected our God. He tells us things that make us uncomfortable about ourselves, makes us face problems we’d rather not deal with and to take a hard, narrow road, which loses us friends and family. Yet, God is always slow to anger and quick to forgive. He does not always chide, nor does his anger remain, but he disciplines us as a loving father and forgives us more richly than we could possibly imagine. Our rejection of God’s word, because we find it too harsh or condescending or out of touch is like the rebellion of a teenager, who rejects his father’s wise words, so that he can embrace the lies of scoundrels and thugs.  
We learn in the Third Commandment that we should “fear and love God, so that we do not despise God’s preaching and word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” There is no sin so devastating as the despising of God’s word. Murder, adultery and fornication, theft, and drunkenness are all dangerous sins that will lead you away from God and salvation. But none of these compares to despising and rejecting God’s word, because, it is only through God’s word that you can have any relationship with God. God will not speak to you in your dreams or come to you as you work in your garden or as you meditate on your own thoughts or any other new-age, recycled spiritualistic fad. God desires only to come to you through his word. That is how you know what he desires from you. And that is how you know what God promises you. Apart from God’s word you cannot know that God is merciful, you cannot know Christ and his forgiveness, and you cannot receive the Holy Spirit, who comforts sinners in their distress.  
When we think of the kingdom of heaven, we often think of the end of the world. It is a far-off thing. You have plenty of time to accept God’s invitation to his banquet. But you don’t. The kingdom of heaven is here and now. The Prophet says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” You do not know how many chances you will get to accept the Lord’s invitation. The soul of the rich fool is demanded of him as he sleeps and the Son of Man will return as a thief in the night. What you do know is that you are being invited now. The invitation is the Gospel that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. You accept this invitation by believing and trusting in the Christ Jesus.  
The king does not tell his messengers that the dinner will be ready 70 years from now or 50 or 20. He says, “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!” God invites you to feast now, today. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” and “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:35, 51) God does not invite you to a future wedding feast, but a present one for you to enjoy now in faith.  
If you do not feast on Christ today in faith, you will not feast with him in eternity. But what a wonderful feast Christ has prepared for us today. Christ feeds us with words that well up into eternal life in us. Although, we sin daily and deserve nothing but punishment, God forgives us for the sake of the precious suffering and death that Christ endured on his body and soul. All your sins are washed away and as certainly as Christ is risen from the dead, God has promised you eternal life. Christ promises to be with his people when they gather around his word. The almighty God and Savior of our race is with us now, here at this very moment! By the miraculous power of Jesus’ body and blood we are joined in a unity that no family, husband, or wife can enjoy as we join with each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord. Here, we get a foretaste of the feast to come. Dining here with our ears and mouths we have confidence that our seat is saved for us in heaven.  
It troubles many that the king casts out the man not wearing the wedding garment into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Yet, there is an important reason why Jesus includes it in his parable. Jesus notes that the servants gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. This means that in Christ’s Church on earth there are mixed both true believers and hypocrites. This means that the church is invisible, because we cannot see into people’s hearts. Only God can. And just because you go through the motions or are a member of a Lutheran Church, does not mean that you will be saved.  
So, what does it mean that the man was not wearing the wedding garment? It means that he relied on his own efforts and righteousness instead of in God’s free grace. The king invited everyone to his banquet for free. He wasn’t selling anything. Isaiah writes, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Yet, many still try to enter God’s banquet hall on their own merits. They think they will go to heaven, because they are basically good, or at least better than others. But that is not the way that it works. You enter God’s wedding banquet only by the merits of Jesus, his death and resurrection. You cannot by your own reason or strength enter God’s hall.  
This is a strict warning to those, who rely on themselves and refuse to listen to God’s word and instead rely on their own wisdom. But for us, who fear our sins and regret them, this is wonderful news. Your sins will not prevent you from sitting at God’s table! God invites you by grace! He’s not selling you anything. He’s giving you a gift! God has prepared his dinner. He has sent his Son to take on our human flesh, to be sacrificed for us on the cross. Christ Jesus is prepared for us to be our Savior. You are invited only to come and eat. Feast on Jesus today in faith and be certain that you will be joined to him in eternity. Through the message of the Gospel and in Baptism, God himself clothes you with the wedding robe, as Isaiah proclaims in chapter 61, “For God has clothed me with the garment of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” Through faith in Christ Jesus and in him alone do you have confidence that you will sit at the Lord’s table in heaven and will never be cast out. Amen. ​
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    Rev. James Preus

    Rev. Preus is the pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ottumwa, IA. These are audio and text of the sermons he preaches at Trinity according to the Historical Lectionary. 

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