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The Evidence of Saving Faith

9/14/2020

James Tissot, The Healing of the Ten Lepers, 1886-94, No Known Copyright Restrictions

Trinity 14
Luke 17:11-19
September 13th, 2020

“Your faith has made you well.”, Jesus says to the cleansed leper from Samaria. How did Jesus know that the leper had faith? Faith is an activity of the heart. You cannot see faith. Only God can look at a man’s heart. So, you would probably answer that Jesus is God, so he is able to look into the heart of the leper and see his faith. And yes, Jesus is God! Yet, Jesus did not need to be God to see the leper’s faith. Anyone standing around with eyes and ears could clearly perceive that the man had deep faith. How could they perceive his faith if they could not look into his heart? Because the man cried out to Jesus for mercy. And when he saw that his leprosy was cleansed, he turned back to Jesus glorifying God with a loud voice and falling on his face at Jesus feet, he gave thanks to God. One would literally need to be blind and deaf to not know that this man had faith!
Faith is invisible. Only God can see faith. And yet, this man’s faith was clearly visible. How is this? Because faith produces fruit. We heard this from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” And of course, this is not an exhaustive list of the fruit of the Spirit, which is the fruit of faith.
We know the leper had faith in Jesus, because his faith caused him to cry out to Jesus for help! He cried, “Have mercy!” along with the other nine lepers. He used his voice to shout praises and thanksgiving to God. Faith starts in the heart, but it does not lie dormant there. It works its way through the mouth. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32) And why St. Paul writes, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:10)
Public worship is evidence of saving faith. When Christians sing the Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy), confess the Creed, sing hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and come to bow before Jesus, they make visible the faith dwells in their hearts, just as apples on an apple tree gives proof that a tree is an apple tree.
Yet, strangely, it is common for those who do not go to church yet identify as Christians to pass judgment on those Christians who do regularly go to Church. They’ll say things like, “I don’t want to go to church, because churches are filled with hypocrites.” And as with many bad ideas, there is a little bit of truth in that. There are hypocrites who go to church. There are people who go to church, not to receive God’s grace through faith, not to worship Christ, but to make a show and to prove how good they are. And Scripture attests to this. Last week we heard the parable from Jesus of how the priest and the Levite, who devoted their lives to public worship, yet proved that they had no faith, because they neglected to love their neighbor lying bloody on the side of the road. And that goes to show that public worship is not the only fruit of faith, but also love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
The fruit of faith is not what saves, but the faith itself is what saves. Yet, fruits are bound to follow. This is what it says in our Lutheran Confessions, “Good works certainly and without doubt follow true faith—if it is not a dead, but a living faith—just as fruit grows on a good tree [Matthew 7:17].” (Epitome of the Formula, IV) And if good works follow a living faith, then it follows that bad works follow unbelief. This is why St. Paul admonishes us, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” He goes on, “The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Works like these make evident a lack of faith. St. Paul even goes on to say that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! This is why our Lutheran Confessions also say, “We also reject and condemn the teaching that faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are not lost by willful sin, but that the saints and elect retain the Holy Spirit even though they fall into adultery and other sins and persist in them.” (Epitome of the Formula, IV)
So, while faith remains an activity of the heart which ultimately only God can see, both unbelief and faith can be made evident by outward actions. This is why Christians should flee from what is evil and cling to what is good. Continuing in sinful behavior without repenting kills saving faith and gives evidence of unbelief. Continued practicing of the fruit of the Spirit, including love, joy and public worship gives evidence of a lively faith and blocks the sinful flesh from accomplishing its evil desires.
What did the leper’s outward expression of faith demonstrate about the faith that dwelt in his heart? When he cried out for mercy, it shows that the leper trusted in Christ to heal him, not based on the leper’s own worthiness, but according to Christ’s own compassion and goodness. Today, we rarely look at a disease as a consequence of sin. Yet, that is very much the way people viewed leprosy at this time. Likely, because the Old Testament frequently connects leprosy and punishment. God punished Miriam the sister of Moses with leprosy for seven days, because she rebelled against Moses. God punished King Uzziah with leprosy on his face, because he offered incense in the temple when he was not authorized to. And clearly, the leprosy on these ten lepers is a symbol of their spiritual uncleanness. Yet, the lepers do not consider their unworthiness. They trust in Jesus to heal them. Their shout for mercy demonstrated the faith in their hearts.
While the other nine lepers did not return to Jesus, this Samaritan did, with shouts of praise to God and thanksgiving as he bowed down at Jesus’ feet. This outward action demonstrated that the leper considered Jesus his God and Savior. Jesus sent the lepers to the temple, to show themselves to the priests. The priests would have performed a ceremony for the lepers for their ceremonial cleansing and would have offered a sin offering to make atonement for them. The temple is where God dwelt. The temple is where God made atonement for sins. Yet, this leper did not go to the temple, he gave glory to God at his feet. At God’s feet! At Jesus’ feet. He demonstrated with his outward actions that he believed in his heart that Jesus is God, his body being the temple where God dwells. He demonstrated with his worship that he believed that Jesus would make atonement for his sins, because he is the fulfillment of all the ceremonies in the temple. By the leper’s outward actions, we see clearly what his faith held to in his heart.
And this is what we do when we come to worship. We confess our sins before a God, we do not see. We do not claim to be worthy, but to be poor miserable sinners, who deserve temporal and eternal punishment. But we pray to God to have mercy and forgive us for the sake of the blood of his Son. We sing, “Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.”, because we believe that we receive all good things of body and soul from the only God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, out of His love for us. We confess the Creed confessed by the whole Christian Church throughout history, which confesses that the Son of God for our sake and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, so that he could suffer and die for our sins. We stand for the reading of the Gospel as we would for our Monarch when he speaks to us. We kneel before bread and wine, believing that this is the body and blood of our Lord, which was given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. We say clearly, “Amen” to every prayer and blessing, because we believe it is true. We sing with joy supplications, praise, and thanksgiving to our God. All these things we do with our bodies, our ears, eyes, and mouths, because that is what is going on in our hearts. Our faith becomes visible and audible when we worship him in Spirit and Truth.
“Your faith has made you well.”, Jesus says. What does Jesus mean by "made you well”? Well, in fact, Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” Bible translators translate the word for save as “made well,” because it can mean made well, and in the context, the leper was healed of his leprosy. Yet, all ten of the lepers were made well, and only one returned to give thanks to God at Jesus feet. To only one did Jesus say, “Your faith has saved you.” after showing disapproval that the other nine did not return to demonstrate such faith.
The nine other lepers went to the temple where the priests would offer a sacrifice to make atonement for them. The one Samaritan leper returned to Jesus, who would make atonement for his sins on the cross. The leper’s faith did not simply heal him. His faith saved him, that is, gave him eternal life.
How did the leper’s faith give him eternal life? Because faith receives what God promises us through Jesus: forgiveness of sins, peace and acceptance from God, and eternal life. Faith is not our work. Faith receives. This is why faith must be an activity of the heart. It by grace, not by our works. Yet, faith receives something that is outside of us: the promise of salvation through Jesus. This is why faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
We come to church to worship Christ, because we have faith. Our faith receives God’s blessing and forgiveness. And our faith cannot help but break through from our heart and into our words and actions. We do not come to church to make a show of our faith or to earn our salvation, yet our public worship does publicly declare the trust we hold in our Savior in our hearts. Our cries of supplication, our confession and singing of glory, all these come from a heart that trusts in the Lord. We come to church to hear our Savior say to us, “Your faith has saved you.” And by hearing this, our faith in our Savior grows. Amen.

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God Reveals Himself to Us in Mercy

9/7/2020

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Parable of the Good Samaritan by Balthasar van Cortbemde (1647), Public Domain.

Trinity 13
Luke 10:21-37
September 6, 2020

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

The wise and understanding of this world live by the Law. That isn’t to say they understand its heavenly meaning. No, they make God’s heavenly Law a very earthly thing. They turn God’s Law which reflects the glory of heaven into the Law of the Jungle, where only the strong survive. God’s Law commands you to do. And to the one who does as the Law commands, the Law promises life. So, in order to manage the Law and make it doable, the wise and understanding of this world add laws upon God’s Law. The Pharisees were known to have come up with over 600 laws in addition to the Law God gave to Moses. These laws helped the Jews accomplish what otherwise seemed too difficult.
And this is always how mankind treats laws. When I was in college, a law professor gave a lecture to one of the political science classes to explain what law school would be like. One of the students came out of the lecture hall and said, “Well, I guess I’m not going to be a lawyer. I could never read that much.” And it’s true. To be a lawyer, you have to read a tremendous amount of information; not just the written laws which increase year after year, but also the decisions courts have made concerning those laws. And because there is so much information about each law, the goal of many lawyers is not to seek the truth or serve justice, but to find a way for the law’s many rules to justify their clients and condemn their opponents.
This explains the attitude of the lawyer, who seeks to test Jesus in our Gospel lesson. He is one of those wise and understanding types, who has turned obeying the Law into an art. “What must I do to inherit eternal life.”, he asks. Put aside for a moment that an inheritance is not something you must work to receive, but it is given according to promise. The lawyer asks Jesus a law question, so Jesus gives him a law answer.
“What is written in the Law?”
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and your neighbor as yourself.”
“Correct,” Jesus answers, “Do this and you will live.”
Yet, the simplicity of Jesus’ command makes the Law impossible for the lawyer to fulfill. In order to justify himself, he must add to God’s Law, not to fulfill its heavenly goal, but to make it more attainable here on earth. “Who is my neighbor?”, the lawyer asks. You see, if the lawyer simply took the Law of God at its word, he would have to assume that he must love everyone. That is impossible for a mere man to accomplish. So, the Lawyer desires to add to the Law, not so that he can better love his neighbor, but so that he is not to blame when he doesn’t love his neighbor.
Jesus sees right through the lawyer. So, Jesus tells a parable, which crushes the lawyer’s hope in himself that he can fulfill the Law and which reveals to us God’s mercy, which the Law cannot give.
A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and falls among robbers, who strip him, beat him, and leave him half dead. Down come two men: a priest and a Levite. Yet, both of these men walk by on the other side of the road. They do not help the man lying beat up and bloody. The priest and the Levite represent the Law. Their action teaches us both something about those who trust in their works of the Law and about the Law itself.
First, that the priest and the Levite walk by the bloodied man demonstrates to us that those who seek to justify themselves by their works of the Law are hypocrites. Jesus addresses this when he rebukes the scribes and the Pharisees saying, “Woe to you, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” And in another place, Jesus rebukes those who try to falsely condemn his disciples, saying, “And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”
The reason why those who seek to justify themselves by works of the Law are hypocrites, is because you cannot make your heart pure by your outward works. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. When sinners try by their works to make themselves righteous, they become like white washed tombs. They look good on the outside, but inside they are filled with dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. By portraying the priest and the Levite passing by the bloodied man without helping him, Jesus exposed the odor of sin hiding in their hearts.
The Law can be divided into three parts: The Civil, which refers to laws made by the government; the moral, which refers to what is right and wrong; and the ceremonial, which refers to the regulations of worship. The moral law is summarized in the Ten Commandments. Those who seek to justify themselves according to the moral law do so by trying to put on some outward show of keeping the commandment. The priest and the Levite can justify themselves that they have not broken the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.” because they did not physically assault the poor man. Yet, they showed no love for the man’s body, which is the goal of the Commandment. Likewise, the First Commandment says, “You shall have no other gods.” and people think they keep this commandment by not worshiping idols of gold. Yet, in their hearts they worship other things by loving and trusting in people and money instead of God.
In the book, War and Peace, there is a wealthy countess who does not love her husband and desires to marry another man. So, she converts from Eastern Orthodox to Roman Catholic and justifies herself by saying that the marriage vows she made before her conversion were invalid. And in a myriad of other ways, people justify themselves by adding to God’s Law, so that it is easier to outwardly perform it. All the while, their hearts remain black with sin.
The ceremonial law refers to the regulations God set in place for sacrifices in the temple. The priest and the Levite are coming down the road, which means they are leaving Jerusalem. They have just performed the ceremonies commanded by God in the temple. Yet, they prove that their performance was just an act. They did not worship God with their heart, otherwise, they would have helped the beaten man, for one cannot love God while he despises his brother.
Likewise, this shows us not to be hypocrites in our worship. It does not please God that you simply show up to church, mouth the liturgy, and ignore the teaching in the sermon. We must worship God in Spirit and truth. This means, we must worship God by receiving his grace through faith. Mere outward actions are not what please God. And when Christians treat others with utter hatred instead of in humility counting others more significant than themselves, they betray the true condition of their heart. You cannot be a Christian while you continue in unrepentant hatred.
Secondly, that the priest and the Levite walk by on the other side demonstrates to us something about the Law itself. The Law isn’t going to help you when you are lying half dead on the side of the road. The Law does not feel compassion for you. The Law commands you to do. The Law doesn’t care if your legs are broken; it will still tell you to run. The Law doesn’t care if you are dead in your sin! It will still command you live without sin! As helpful as the priest and the Levite were to that beaten up man, so helpful is the Law in rescuing you from your sin and eternal damnation.
Then along comes the Good Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews were considered enemies. The Jews at that time were taught, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” (Matthew 5:43) According to the additional rule set up by the wise and understanding of this world, the Samaritan would have been justified in walking past his enemy lying bloody on the side of the road. Yet, the Samaritan had compassion. He loved his enemy and took care of him. He bound up his wounds, poured on wine to kill infection and oil to keep the wounds clean. He carried the man to an inn on his own animal and paid in full all his expenses.
Then Jesus turns the question around on the lawyer. He doesn’t answer his question, “Who is my neighbor.” He asks him rather, “Which one of the three was the neighbor to the one who fell among the robbers?” And when the lawyer answers, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus answers, “You go and do likewise.”
You see, Jesus is the Good Samaritan, who shows mercy. He comes to your aid where the Law offers no help at all. The Law can only tell you to get up and improve yourself. Jesus picks you up and heals you. The Law can only blame you for the terrible situation your foolishness has placed you in. Jesus rescues you from your own folly and sin by forgiving you.
The wise and understanding of the world think that they are in control of the Law. And because of this they are blinded from God’s love and mercy. They cannot see or know the Father. They can only serve themselves. It is only through the revelation of Jesus that you can see God as your heavenly Father. And Jesus reveals himself to you in showing mercy. Jesus is the Good Samaritan, who suffers the loss for your sin, who helped you when you were his enemy, who does for you what the Law could never do, because of your sin.
“Go, and do likewise.”, Jesus says. As God has had mercy on you, have mercy on others. Forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Only those to whom the Father has been revealed through the mercy of his Son can go and do likewise. Only those, who have experienced God’s mercy through faith in Christ, can go and be merciful.
The story of the Good Samaritan is not an example of how you can earn eternal life by your own works, as if the wise and understanding of this world are just off on a few minor details. The story of the Good Samaritan is a story of God’s Grace. It teaches us that the Law is no help to us in our sinful condition. This parable is meant to clear us from the delusion that adding a few of our own rules to God’s Law will somehow make our sin pleasing in God’s sight. This story shows us a Savior, who loves his enemies. Yes, the Samaritan pours wine on the wounds, which stings, so Jesus rebukes our sin, which hurts. Yet, Jesus heals our sin with his own blood. He baptizes us, anointing us children of God. He carries us when we are too weak to walk. By his death and three day stay in the tomb, he gives God the Father a token of payment, so that we are never cast away. In his Church he continues to provide for us, forgiving our sins week after week, day after day. We are assured that his grace will never run out, but whatever expense our sin has incurred, he will pay.
The wise and understanding in this world add laws that chip away the requirement of the Law to love. Yet, we love, because God first loved us and gave his Son to die for us. Christ Jesus is the completion of the Law for righteousness to all who believe. As his love is poured out on us, so his love pours from us to our neighbor. This love is known only through the revelation of God’s mercy in Christ. Amen.

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The Letter Kills, but The Spirit Gives Life

9/1/2020

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Moses with the Ten Commandments, Rembrandt, 1659, Public Domain

Trinity 12
2 Corinthians 3:4-11
August 30, 2020

St. Paul tells us that ministers of the new covenant are made competent by God. God makes them sufficient by the message that he gives them to preach. This is commonly misunderstood today. I’ve preached much on the importance of judging one’s pastor. It’s not because I think people are reticent to judge, but rather, because Jesus commands us to judge with right judgment and beware of false prophets. But Jesus does not command us to judge our pastors based on whether we like their personality or style or whether we agree with what he is preaching or not. Jesus commands us to judge whether the preacher is preaching the truth according to Christ’s word.
This is what makes a preacher sufficient; not how flashy or entertaining he is; not how elegant his speech is; not that you like everything he says. Pastors are not sufficient in themselves at all. Their sufficiency is from God, who has sent them to proclaim the saving Gospel. So, it is important that every Christian make this distinction when judging whether you should or should not believe what the pastor preaches. Judge not whether you like what is said. Judge whether it is the truth. And judge whether your pastor is a minister of the covenant of the letter or whether he is a minister of the covenant of the Spirit.
The covenant of the letter kills. It does not save. The letter is the Law, which was engraved in letters on stone. This Law, which was given to Moses, was glorious. It was so glorious that Moses needed to cover his face so as not to frighten the Israelites, because his face shone with the reflected glory of God’s Law. The Law of God is good and wise and sets God’s will before our eyes. Just listen to God’s Law:
You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Can you find anything wrong with these commandments? Of course not! They are holy and good. If we actually lived according to these commandments, there would be less crime in the world, less heart break, less senseless deaths, less suffering. Those who devote their lives to these commandments do find some glory in this life, for a time. In fact, most religions in the world are devoted in some way or another to living according to these commands in order to acquire glory. Most religions in the world teach that you reach the glories of heaven by living a good life and doing good.
Yet, St. Paul says that this ministry of the letter brings death! How can this be? He explains it in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans. “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”
So, St. Paul maintains that the Law is good, yet the Law kills. Why is that? It’s not because the Law is bad. It’s because we’re bad. We are sinners. So, when the Law shows us what we ought to do to be good, instead of it glorifying us and giving us eternal life, it shows us our sin and that we deserve to be punished, as Romans 3:20 says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through the Law comes knowledge of sin.”
This is why God calls his ministers, ministers of the new covenant of the Spirit, not of the letter. God wants his ministers to proclaim the words of eternal life. Only the ministry of the Spirit gives life. The ministry of the letter kills. Those ministers who preach only the letter, who give you hope only in your own works for your salvation are ministers of death. There is no set of rules that you can perfect that will earn you eternal life.
Yet, that does not mean that ministers of the Spirit should not preach the Law! In fact, ministers of the Spirit are required to preach the Law precisely because it kills. The letter must serve the Spirit, so that the Spirit can bring the dead back to life! St. Paul goes on in Romans chapter 7, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”
The Law, these commandments of God do not give life, but rather they expose the sinner to be sinful beyond measure. Now why would God want his ministers to do this? Why would he want people’s sins to “become sinful beyond measure”? It is so that he can save them by grace! St. Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, “But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
The Letter imprisons everyone under sin, so that no one can deny the reality of his sin. If you can’t escape the reality of your sin, what can you do? All you can do is ask God for mercy. That is the condition a sinner must be in in order to receive the gospel. If you think that you can overcome your sins yourself or that they are not a big deal, you will not accept the Gospel.
This is why faithful pastors must preach the Law. The Letter must do its work and kill, so that souls may be saved on the Last Day. This is why it is of the utmost importance that when the Law is preached to you and your conscience is pricked and you don’t like what it says, that you do not try to resist the preaching of the Law, but confess yourself to be a sinner, so that God may have mercy on you.
The letter serves the ministry of the Spirit. The ministry of the Spirit is the ministry of the Gospel. Now, it is not as some imagine, that the Spirit comes apart from the words of Holy Scripture. Rather, the Gospel of the Spirit is proclaimed in the Holy Scriptures.
The Gospel is that Jesus Christ is true God and true man. He was born without sin. He is the only man to never sin. He fulfilled the Law perfectly. The letter had no right to kill him. Yet, Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, took upon himself our sins. Scripture says, “God made him who knew no sin to become sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) And St. Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (1 Peter 3:18) Christ is the righteous one, who died in exchange for the unrighteous ones.
This is the message of the Gospel. Christ Jesus has taken away the power of the letter to kill us, by himself dying in our stead! He takes away our sin, which gave the Law the power to slay us! Jesus is our life, which is given to us not by our works, but through faith.
The letter demands works; the Spirit produces faith. This is the difference. The reason the Law cannot save you, is because you cannot save yourself. The Law simply demands works, but gives you no power to accomplish them. The Gospel saves, because it does not require works, but rather gives you the gift of life to be received by faith.
The Gospel must predominate a preacher’s sermon if he is to be a minister of the Spirit. This does not mean that a preacher preaches lots of Gospel and only a little Law. Rather, it means that the Law serves the purpose of the Gospel and not the other way around. It is important for sinners to hear that they should not worship other gods; that they should put aside their work and pleasure and hear and learn God’s Word; that they should obey authority; love their neighbor; be chaste and not fornicate; not steal, and not covet. It is important for sinners to hear this, so that they can beware of their sin and repent. It is important for the Law to kill you now, so that you are not sentenced to eternal death on the Last Day.
The Gospel predominates by responding to the killing of the Law by bringing sinners to life. Are you guilty of loving other things more than God and neglecting to worship and serve him? Have you been disobedient or lazy? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you been unchaste? Greedy? Have you been dishonest? Have you coveted what does not belong to you? Has the Law exposed you to be sinful beyond measure? Then repent and believe in the Gospel! Jesus forgives your sins. He paid for them with his blood. He died for the idolater, the sloth, the rebel and criminal, for the fornicator, homosexual, and adulterer, he died for liars and covets and thieves. Jesus’ blood makes atonement for all sins. Repent of your sins; don’t cling to them or defend them. Cling to Jesus, who forgives and saves.
The ministry of the Spirit makes alive. Obviously, that means that the Gospel gives eternal salvation to all who believe it. Yet, the Gospel makes you alive today. St. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God has done all that for those who believe in the Gospel. You see, the Law commands you to do, but does not give you the power to do it. The Gospel calls you to believe something that has already been accomplished and also gives you the power to believe it! To be made alive by the Spirit is be given faith in Christ!
And this new life that you receive through the Gospel produces good fruits now in this life. We are not called to continue in our sin, but to die to sin and to live to Christ. The Spirit who dwells in you through faith, also empowers you to love, to be merciful, patient, and forgiving. The Spirit accomplishes in this life, what the Law cannot because of sin. Even more, the Spirit gives us the promise of eternal life, which was denied us by the Law. This eternal life has been given to us as a gift from the Father by the Spirit through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Trust in the Lord

8/24/2020

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The Pharisee and the Publican, James Tissot, 1886-94, brooklynmuseum.org, No Known Copy Right Restriction

Trinity 11
Luke 18:9-14
August 23, 2020

When Jesus saw that some were confident in themselves that they were righteous and held others in contempt, he taught a parable to show who really is righteous before God and who is not. And to the surprise of his listeners, it was not the Pharisee, but the tax collector who went down to his house justified, that is, declared righteous by God! It was a surprise that the Pharisee did not go down to his house justified, because Pharisees were known to be good outstanding citizens. We heard it from the Pharisee himself. He didn’t cheat, steal, or commit adultery. He gave a tenth of all that he received to the LORD. He was a good pious man. Yet, God did not find him righteous.
And it is common to relate this story to our time and place to find out who is the Pharisee among us. In Martin Luther’s day it was the pope, the priests, and the monks, whom everyone thought were the most righteous men on earth and closest to God. Families would actually send one of their sons to the monastery to become a monk, so that his extra good works could be counted in their favor, so confident were people in the righteousness of these monks.
Who would be the Pharisees in our day? Perhaps the leaders of the church, the preachers and teachers, who seem good on the outside, but probably have some hidden sin? Maybe those Christians who are always at church helping out, making others look bad? Of course, there are a lot of self-righteous celebrities, who lecture people on how they can live a better life. Yet, the reason Jesus chose the Pharisee as the one who was not righteous was because he was the last person they would expect to be unrighteous. So, who is the last person you would expect to be unrighteous?
Is it you? Do you, like the Pharisee, justify yourself, so that you never admit you’ve done wrong? Do you hold others in contempt for not being as righteous as you think you are or because you perceive them to be self-righteous? You see, the point of Jesus’ parable is not for you to determine whether other people are hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisees, but rather whether you are righteous before God or not. To be declared righteous by God is a very personal thing. It doesn’t regard others. It’s between you and God. You can’t prove yourself righteous before God by tearing others down. When you hear Jesus speak of the self-righteous Pharisee, you should ask yourself whether you are the Pharisee.
The Pharisee was not righteous, because he trusted in his own righteousness instead of the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. He did not humble himself before God. He did not repent of any sin. He thought God should accept him because of how good he was. He was self-righteous. And you don’t need to be a religious big shot to be self-righteous. To be self-righteous means that you think you are righteous before God and you do not need to repent of any wrong doing. Have you refused to admit doing wrong? Have you brushed it off when a fellow Christian has confronted you with your own sin? Do you make excuses for everything, so that the blame falls on anyone else but you? That is what the Pharisee did. You must not be like the Pharisee, or you will never be righteous before God. You must be like the tax-collector.
The tax-collector was an unlikely character to be found righteous before God. Tax collectors were known to be cheats, who enriched themselves by collecting more money than was required of them. Jesus couldn’t have picked a more unlikeable character than a tax collector. Yet, again, the point of Jesus’ parable is not for you to look at how bad the tax collector is as if he’s worse than you. The point of Jesus’ parable is for you to identify yourself with the tax collector. Do you think you are more worthy than the tax collector to stand before God and look up to heaven? No, we must do as the tax collector did. Do not focus an anyone else’s sins. Rather, confess to God that you are the sinner. And pray for mercy.
It’s hard to imagine a greater contrast than the prayer of the tax collector and that of the Pharisee. The Pharisee used many words glorifying himself. The tax collector simply called himself a sinner. Yet, the most important distinction between the Pharisee and the tax collector is that the tax collector had faith and the Pharisee did not.
We know that the tax collector had faith, not only because he admitted that he was a sinner and showed himself to be sorry, but because he trusted in God to show him mercy. And the tax collector did not simply ask for mercy. The word he used means, “Be propitiated.” He prayed that God would be propitiated to him. To be propitiated means that God’s wrath is taken away. It means to be appeased, to be satisfied. God no longer demands anything from you. It is sacrificial language. God is propitiated by sacrifice. The men are in the temple where lambs and other beasts are sacrificed and their blood is poured on the altar. The tax collector knows that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Yet, he also knows that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. The sacrifices in the temple point to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That sacrifice is the basis by which the tax collector asks God to be propitiated to him.
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 3, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” It is through faith in the blood of Jesus, which propitiates, that is reconciles God to us that makes us righteous in God’s sight. The Pharisee did not trust in the blood of Christ. The tax collector did. That is the great difference.
In our Old Testament lesson, we heard how Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices to the Lord, but God did not accept Cain’s offering of fruit from the ground, but God did accept Abel’s offering of the firstborn of his flock and its fat portions. Now, this is often understood that Cain didn’t offer the best crops he had and that is why God did not accept his offering. But that is not what the text says. And it would hardly make sense for Cain to be upset at God for not accepting his offering of rotten vegetables and bruised fruits. Much more likely is that Cain offered the best he had, yet God did not accept it. That’s what made Cain so mad that murder arose in his heart!
So, why didn’t God accept Cain’s offering, if Cain offered his best? Because Cain had no faith. He offered his best to God just like the Pharisee, thinking God should accept his offering, because of how good it was. Yet, St. Paul teaches us to consider all we have as rubbish, so that we can be found not having a righteousness of our own, but one that comes through faith in Christ. Abel had faith. He offered the first fruit of his flock and its fat portions, because he believed that God would send his Firstborn to shed his blood for his sins, as God promised his parents in the Garden after they sinned. This is why Hebrews 11:4 says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.”
God was propitiated to Abel through the blood of Christ, which makes propitiation for all sins. This is the only way to be found righteous by God. St. John writes, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” To be justified by God means to be forgiven. Only by being forgiven of your sins can you be found righteous before God. And only Jesus by his suffering and death can forgive you.
You might have noticed that the Scripture says that Jesus is the propitiation not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. Indeed, Jesus died for all people and for all sins. This is why the tax collector could be so bold as to pray that God would be propitiated to him. He knew the promise. There is no one whose sin is so great that Jesus’ blood does not wash it all away.
This also shows the great tragedy for the Pharisee. Jesus shed his blood for the Pharisee too. Jesus made atonement for his sins. God is propitiated to the Pharisee by the blood of Christ! God loves the Pharisee! Yet, the Pharisee will not receive this forgiveness. He doesn’t want God’s righteousness as a gift. He traded in God's righteousness through faith for his own righteousness, which was rubbish. This is the danger of unbelief. It throws away a gift that God has won for all people.
The Pharisee’s righteousness fell short. And it showed. He held others in contempt. This is the fruit of self-righteousness: hatred. If you trust in yourself to be righteous, your righteousness will lead to hating others. You will try to make others seem worse than you in your own mind. You will despise those whom you think are worse than you and you will malign those, whom you fear are better than you. But the fruit of the righteousness through faith in Jesus is love. Because Jesus’ righteousness is given to those who in humility repent of their sins and consider others more significant than themselves. Faith in Christ means that you recognize that all people like you are in need of Jesus’ righteousness and that Jesus indeed died to save all people. And the righteousness that you receive through faith in Christ is real righteousness. Through faith, Jesus dwells in you. God now works in you to do works of love. This is why Jesus says, “They will know that you are my disciples, by how you love one another.”
This parable might look like it is about the Pharisee and the tax collector, those who are self-righteous and those who in faith repent of their sins and ask for forgiveness. But this parable is primarily about God and his great mercy for us in Christ Jesus. God is more willing to hear than we are to pray. He is more willing to forgive than we are to ask for mercy. God’s desire is for you to be righteous in his sight through faith in his Son. God is ready to exalt those who humble themselves, even as he is ready to humble those who exalt themselves. Jesus sacrificial death, which propitiates God to us gives us the courage to ask God for the greatest things imaginable, even eternal peace with him, no matter how terribly we’ve sinned against him. May we learn from the tax collector to be confident in our God’s mercy. Do not be afraid to confess your sins and humble yourself before God. By the merits of Christ, God will raise you up. For Christ’s sake you are righteous in God’s sight. Do not trust in yourself that you are righteous. Trust in God that you are righteous for Christ’s sake. Amen.

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God Dwells with His Church

8/17/2020

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Jesus casting out the money changers at the temple, Carl Bloch, 19c. Public Domain

Trinity 10
Luke 19:41-48
August 16, 2020

Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple was one of his most controversial prophesies. It filled his disciples with wonder and his enemies with ire. The idea that the temple would be destroyed was offensive to the religious elites, because the temple was what set apart the Jewish people from all other nations. God dwelt in the temple. To say that the temple would be destroyed was tantamount to claiming that God would abandon Israel. Jerusalem was God’s holy city! And the temple was God’s chosen dwelling place, above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.
Yet, Jesus prophesied that the city of Jerusalem along with the temple would be destroyed. How can this be? Did not God command that the temple be built? And did he not meticulously instruct the priests on how to perform sacrifices and services to him in the temple? Did he not promise the people of Israel that he would be their God and dwell with them in the temple and accept sacrifices from them?
Yes, indeed God did all these things. Yet, his dwelling in the temple was not the end. Rather, God’s dwelling in the temple and the sacrifices that took place in the temple were shadows of what was to come. Christ Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophesy. In him dwells the full Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ, true God in human flesh is the fulfillment of the temple. And Christ’s self-sacrifice on the cross was the fulfillment of all the sacrifices performed in the temple. When Jesus fulfilled the prophesy, there was no longer any need for the shadow. The substance had arrived.
Also, God’s presence was not restricted to the temple against his will, as if God had been caged in a building of stone built by men. Rather, God blessed the people of Israel with his presence through the Gospel, which can only be received through faith. The sacrifices in the temple were meant to be a proclamation of the Gospel, which can only benefit those who believe. Performing rituals is not enough. Without faith, God will not abide. This is what the Prophet Isaiah wrote,
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2) God makes clear that a temple will not benefit the people if they do not repent of their sins and listen to his word with proper fear. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Proverbs 9:10) God dwells with those who fear his name.
Isaiah goes on,
“He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.’” (Isaiah 66:3-4)
These are remarkable words from the Prophet Isaiah. He basically runs through the book of Leviticus and condemns those who perform the ceremonies commanded by God through Moses! How can this be? How can God be displeased with sacrifices, which he himself commanded? Because they did them as their soul delighted in abominations. They had no faith in the God of Israel. They thought God would be pleased simply by outward acts. Meanwhile, they went and worshipped other gods, committed adultery, slander, and theft. They followed their own hearts and did not fear the LORD. So, God did not accept their offerings. He regarded them as he did Cain’s. It is exactly as King David said in Psalm 51, “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
And these words from the prophets and our Lord should teach us Christians today how we should regard our church buildings and outward religious actions. It is really easy to become infatuated with a church building. Because Christians desire to present their best to the Lord, many church buildings are beautiful and show magnificent architectural skill. And when you add on the emotional pull, when you are married in a church building, when your children are baptized in it, when your parents were married there and your children, and so forth, the building becomes more special. Church-goers are known to worship the building instead of the God to whom the building is dedicated. If God warned through his prophets to not worship the temple or trust in it, which was a much more magnificent building than any church you’ve ever seen, then we too should take heed not to worship this or any other church building.
Likewise, we should pay attention to our worship. Simply showing up to church and carrying out the motions is not what makes one a Christian. It is faith in Christ. God saw the priests and the people come to the temple and perform the ceremonies he commanded. Yet, he saw in their hearts that they were far from him. They did not listen to his word or trust in him. When we come to church to worship, we should keep in mind that we come to worship Christ, to receive forgiveness and salvation from him, and to learn from him.
Jesus said, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” Obviously, we can see the connection between those who sell in the temple and robbers. These sellers were cheats. They took advantage of pilgrims traveling to perform their vows to the Lord. They overpriced their goods. Besides, the temple was no place to carry out such business, let alone a place to cheat and steal! Yet, the greatest robbery was not the unfair prices of doves and sheep or dishonest exchange rates for currency. The greatest robbery was performed by the priests and Pharisees, who taught lies to the people and left them ignorant of the Gospel.
Jesus quoted Jeremiah chapter 7, where God warned against the deceptive words of the priests who promised that God was pleased with the people, saying, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” even as they made offerings to Baal, stole, murdered, and slandered. God said they spoke, “deceptive words” and then accused them of turning his house into a den of robbers. That is the robbery that God is most concerned with. The robbery of God’s word from the ears and hearts of the people. And this is demonstrated by Jesus, who cleansed the temple not simply by turning over a few tables, but by daily teaching the people in the temple.
Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2: 19) The temple made of stones was destroyed in 70 AD and has not been rebuilt. But Jesus did not mean the temple made by human hands. He meant his own body, which was torn down and buried in a tomb. After three days Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus did not abandon his human flesh, but forever the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ Jesus our brother and our Savior. How can we doubt God’s love for us when he forever shares our flesh and blood having redeemed us with his own blood!
Yet, we cannot ascend to heaven to see Jesus. He must descend to us. And he does so through his word. God now dwells in the hearts of believers, who hang on Jesus’ words, just as they did when Jesus taught in the temple. That is what Jesus taught us by teaching in the temple. The building of the temple is gone, but Jesus’ words are still spoken. So, where Jesus’ Christians gather to hear his word, there God makes his dwelling place.
St. Paul teaches us in Ephesians chapter 3 that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. In fact, he teaches us that through the knowledge of the love of God in Christ Jesus, the whole fulness of God fills us. We are the very temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6). The dwelling place of God on earth is in the hearts of believers, who fear his name, hear his Word, and believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. This body of Christ is called the Holy Christian Church. It is invisible, because only God can see the faith in the heart of a believer. And an unbeliever is not going to believe that God dwells in a Christian. His eyes cannot see it. This is why it depends on faith. This is why we confess it in the Creed, “I believe in one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church.” We confess our faith in the one Church of Christ just as we confess that Christ himself sits at the right hand of God the Father, although we cannot see it.
The Church is invisible, but that does not mean that you cannot find it. Many Christians have been fooled into believing that you do not need to go to church to be a Christian, because after all, God does not dwell in buildings made by human hands and the church is invisible. Jesus dwells within my heart. Yet, Jesus does not dwell in your heart apart from hearing the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” And “If you abide in my words, you are my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” The church was gathered in the temple where Jesus was teaching his people. And the Church always gathers where Christ’s words are spoken.
So, although we rightly say that the Church is invisible and that God dwells invisibly in the hearts of believers, we also rightly say that the Church is where the word of God is taught in its truth and purity and where the Sacraments are rightly administered. Where Jesus is proclaimed as crucified for the sins of all people and raised for the justification of all; where people are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in order to be reborn as a child of God; where Christ’s body and blood are fed to his Christians in the Sacrament of the Altar; that is where Christ’s Church is. Because that is where Jesus promises to be even until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
So, the message of Jesus today is not that we should not go to church buildings to worship, but rather that we should worship God instead of the buildings. And church buildings used for the gathering of Christ’s church should be frequently cleansed. All idolatry and worldly lust should be swept out of them, and the pure Gospel of Christ Jesus should be taught, so that God may dwell in the hearts of his people through faith. The purpose of churches is not to give practical advice on how to live a moral or successful life in this world. No, the purpose of churches is for Christ Jesus to be proclaimed as crucified, so that sinners may know that they have a gracious God, who forgives them. Churches exist so that Christians may depart with Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith; so that Christ Jesus may live in them and through them as they pour out the love of God to their family and neighbors. Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah, who said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” This prophecy is fulfilled by the preaching of the Gospel, which has spread to all nations, so that wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, people lift up acceptable prayers to God. May God dwell in all your hearts through faith in the Gospel, so that this house may always be a house of prayer. And may its walls crumble and fall before the Gospel ceases to be preached in it. Amen.

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

The Evidence of Saving Faith

God Reveals Himself to Us in Mercy

The Letter Kills, but The Spirit Gives Life

Trust in the Lord

God Dwells with His Church

Rev. James Preus

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