Category: Lent 5

Rejoicing in Abraham's Faith

3/20/2024

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

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

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Jesus the Perfect High Priest and Victim

3/28/2023

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Judica Sunday (Lent 5)
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 26, 2023

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12)

When two nations are at odds, it is common for diplomats from a third, neutral nation to mediate peace. Scripture says that Christ appeared as a High Priest. A priest is a mediator between God and man. He is that third party, who must bring the two other parties, God, and man, together. Yet, this is a huge problem. Who can possibly mediate between God and man? Perhaps an angel? Angels are certainly a third party. They are neither human nor divine. Yet, they are incapable of sympathizing with us humans in our weakness. They are spirits created by God for the purpose of doing God’s work. Psalm 89 states, “Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?” So, even the angels fear God and cannot be compared to Him. So, priests, that is, mediators between God and men, have always been men! And for this reason, priests have always been insufficient mediators.
For one thing, these priests, including the Levitical priests of the Old Covenant, were prevented by death from continuing to serve forever. So, a single priest could not continue to make intercession for the sins of the people. Secondly, these priests themselves were sinners! So, they needed to offer sacrifices to God, first for their own sins, and then for the transgressions of the people (Hebrews 7:27). Such priests themselves could not stand before God to make eternal intercession for the people. Their priesthood was bound to be replaced by a better one!
Yet, it is not only a fault in the priests being sinful men, that makes their priesthood incapable of making eternal peace between God and men, it is their victims, that is, what they offer to God as a sacrifice. In Genesis 22, God told Abraham to sacrifice his own son! Yet, this being a test, He did not permit Abraham to slay his son, but rather provided a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac’s stead. And this pattern of sacrificing an animal in the stead of the son continued throughout the history of Israel. God commanded through Moses that that Levitical priests sacrifice numerous animals, lambs, goats, bulls, and doves to make atonement for the sins of the people. This was necessary, because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22).
Yet, Scripture makes clear, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4). For this reason, millions of lambs, goats, bulls, and doves were sacrificed, but the sacrifices were still required. God gave Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac, yet their still remained a Lamb for God to provide!
This is because our sins are immensely grievous. We heard on Wednesday night from Psalm 130, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Yet, our sins number more than the hairs on our head! (Psalm 40:12) The mediation we need between us and God is not like the mediation between two countries, who may each have legitimate grievances against the other. The conflict between us and God is very one sided. We have sinned against God. He has done nothing wrong. Our sins need to be atoned for. They must be paid for. God, in His righteousness, demands that these sins be punished. Killing innumerable animals isn’t going to cut it.
Humanity is in a crisis. We have convinced ourselves that our sins are not so bad. Yet, we murder. Perhaps not physically, yet in our hearts we hate, which is where all murders start. We speak evil of our neighbors, or at least think evil of them, all the while we expect everyone to look at our words and actions in the most charitable way. Our culture has been so perverted with sexual sins that we expect God to change His standard for chastity based on our opinions. And this gets to the heart of the problem with Jesus’ opponents in John 8. Jesus says to them, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:47)
We disagree with God, and we think it is nothing, as if our opinions are so lofty that God should lay His word aside and listen to us! We deny our own sins, but that doesn’t give us life! What were the Jews so angry with Jesus about? Jesus said that whoever keeps His Word will never see death. They were offended at this. They had rejected Jesus’ words, but they had accepted death! They not only rejected Jesus as the way to salvation, they rejected the idea of salvation all together! And that is all the world can do. When the world argues with Jesus and rejects Him as the Savior from sin and argues with God and tells Him sin isn’t sin, they don’t accomplish anything. They don’t solve the problem that sin places on us. They don’t soothe our guilty conscience and give us peace with God! They just push us into despair!
But let’s stop playing games for a minute. We aren’t God. All people put together do not possess the wisdom, knowledge, or power of God. We cannot absolve ourselves of our own sins or tell God that He owes us anything. Yet, we will all stand before Him on Judgment Day to give an account for what we have done in this life. Are you going to defend your idolatry, lust, hatred, gossip, anger, laziness, greed, and pride? How can you stand before the righteous God and argue your cause to Him? (Job 13:3)
So, no. Your excuses and scheming cannot explain away your guilt. Your “good works” cannot earn your peace with God. Not even the blood of countless sacrificial animals commanded by God can take away a single sin. Why then did God command them? To point us to the one true priest and the one true sacrifice for sin: Jesus Christ.
The entire story of Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac teaches of Jesus, the only true Mediator between God and man. God told Abraham to sacrifice his only Son, whom he loved. God gave His only begotten Son, whom He loved to be sacrificed for our sins. Abraham said to His servants, “I and the boy will go over there, and worship and we will come again to you.” Abraham was not lying. He believed that God would raise his son from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). So also, Jesus said that He had authority to lay down His life and authority to take it back again (John 10:18). Isaac carried the wood on which he would be sacrificed up the mountain. So did Jesus bear the wood of His cross to Golgotha. Isaac could have outmuscled his elderly father and saved his own life, but he laid down willingly to be sacrificed. So also, Jesus could knock all His opponents to the ground with a word, but He willingly went to be crucified. Yet, Isaac was not sacrificed. His father received Him back alive. Instead, a ram was sacrificed in Isaac’s stead.
That ram, along with every whole burnt offering, peace offering, guilt offering, and Passover lamb did not actually take away sin, but Jesus did! Why can Jesus do what all these sacrifices failed to do? Because Jesus is true God and true man.
The Jews were angry at Jesus, because Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, he saw it and was glad. They said to Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham.” Jesus responded, “Before Abraham was, I am.” This makes Jesus the perfect Mediator, the perfect Priest! At that time, Jesus was indeed less than fifty years old, having been born of His virgin mother about thirty years earlier. Yet, Jesus is also God, the Son of God the Father. He did not simply exist before Abraham. Before Abraham was, He is. When Moses asked God in the burning bush, “What is your name?” God responded, “I am who I am. Tell the people of Israel that I AM has sent you.” (Exodus 3) So, the people of Israel called God, “HE IS.” By Jesus saying, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” He is in no uncertain terms claiming to be God. Before Abraham was, He is unchanging and eternal. Before Abraham was, He has the name of the only God. Jesus is the Angel of the LORD, who stopped Abraham’s hand from slaughtering his son. Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day through faith, believing that God would provide the true Lamb of God to make atonement for sins.
St. Paul writes to St. Timothy, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6) Jesus Christ is a man, yet He is not an insufficient mediator, because Jesus Christ is true God. He is obedient in our place, able to sympathize with our weakness. He is able to represent us truly as a man, standing before God as the representative of the entire human race. And His death on the cross, laden with the sins of the whole world, is a sufficient price to pay for the sins of every human being once and for all.
We desperately needed a High Priest, a Mediator to make intercession before God on our behalf. No angel could do it. The men who served as priests before Jesus could not do it. The blood of bulls and goats could not pay for our sins. Our smart thinking and cleaver works could not make up for our sins. Only Jesus, the Godman, could stand between us and God and make peace by His own blood.
This is why Jesus can promise us, “Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” To keep Jesus’ word is to believe His promise of forgiveness and salvation and trust in it. Jesus can give us this promise, because He is our great Mediator.
Jesus is your mediator. That means that when you look at God, you look at Him only through Jesus. This means that when you look at God, who see the God who sent His Son to die for your sins and who gladly forgives you for Christ’s sake. Jesus is your mediator. That means that when God looks at you, He does not look at you apart from Jesus. When He looks at you, He sees you washed clean of all your sins and clothed in Christ’s righteousness.
Jesus is our great High Priest. That means Jesus is our Mediator between us and God. And there is no other mediator, who can grant us peace with God. Amen.

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The Faith of Abraham

3/22/2021

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Rembrandt, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1635, Public Domain.

Judica Sunday (Lent 5)
Genesis 22:1-14

Pastor James Preus
March 21, 2021

The Jews, who argued with Jesus in our Gospel lesson called Abraham their father. But Jesus pointed out to them that they are not Abraham’s children, because they do not do the works of Abraham. St. Paul in his epistles to the Romans (chapters 4 and 9) and to the Galatians (chapter 3) teaches that it is not the physical descendants of Abraham, who are his children, but those who have the faith of Abraham, both Jews and Gentiles, who are Abraham’s children. But what does it mean to have the faith of Abraham? When we speak of the faith of someone, we usually speak of one of two things. The faith which that person believes and the faith by which that person believes. The faith, which a person believes is what the person believes. What is the content of his faith? What is his confession? For example, the Apostles’ Creed. The faith by which a person believes is how that person believes and trusts in God.
Let us first examine the faith which Abraham believed. What did Abraham trust in? Abraham trusted in the promise God made to him that he would give him a son of promise and that through that son he would make a great nation, to whom he would give the land of Canaan, and that through his offspring all nations of the earth would be blessed. We learned about this last week when Abraham sent away the slave woman Hagar and her son Ishmael, because Ishmael was born of the flesh and only the son of promise would inherit. It was Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, who was the son of promise through whom God would fulfill his promise to Abraham and through whom all peoples would be blessed.
Yet, in our Old Testament lesson, God tells Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on a mountain he would designate. This was to test Abraham’s faith, but it was written down for the sake of our faith, because this episode proclaims the faith which saves both Abraham and us.
God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. You can imagine the horror Abraham felt! How could he kill his own son! Yet, added to this was the fact that Isaac was the son of promise, the son he waited decades to receive, the son born to him in his old age by his 90-year-old barren wife, the son on whose account he cast out his son Ishmael and his mother, so that this child of promise could be the heir without persecution from a rival. How could God tell him to kill this boy? Was God canceling his promise to Abraham? No. Abraham continued to believe that God could fulfill his promise, even if he sacrificed Isaac. The promise was dependent on Isaac living and having children, so Abraham believed God could even raise Isaac from the dead, as the book of Hebrews tells us (11:19).
And this teaches us about our Savior Jesus, who is a descendent of Abraham and Isaac according to the flesh. Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, whom he loves. Out of love for us and out of faithfulness to his promise, God sent his only Son Jesus to be sacrificed for the sins of the people.
For three days Abraham journeyed to that mountain on which he would sacrifice his son. For three days he was tormented by the task ahead of him. For three days he mourned his son’s death hoping for the resurrection of the dead. Likewise, Christ’s heavenly Father watched Jesus be sacrificed on the cross and laid dead in a tomb. For three days our heavenly Father watched his Son’s cold dead clay lie in the tomb as he longed to fulfill the resurrection of the dead.
When they got to the mountain, Isaac carried on his back the wood, which would be used to burn his flesh on the altar. Likewise, our Lord Jesus carried the wood of his cross up Mount Calvary to the place of his execution.
Isaac was a strapping young man at this point in his life. He was strong enough to carry a large load of wood on his back up a mountain. He father on the other hand was extremely old, well over one hundred years. There’s not a chance the geriatric Abraham could out muscle the young Isaac. Yet, Isaac did not fight back when his father stretched out his hand with the knife to kill him. Isaac had asked his father where the lamb was for the burnt offering. His father simply responded that the Lord would provide the lamb. Isaac wasn’t dumb. He figured out what was happening. And he wasn’t weak. He was strong enough to fight back and rescue himself from being sacrificed. But instead, he trusted his father and the promise of his heavenly father, and he laid down his own life.
Likewise, Jesus was not weak, although he came in the form of weakness. He had the power to avoid the cross. With a word he knocked down the entire mob who came to arrest him in the garden. No one took Jesus’ life from him, but he willingly laid it down of his own accord. Jesus prayed in the Garden,
“Father, not my will, but thine be done.”, rather than refuse the cup of woe and death.
And in these ways, Isaac serves as a type of Christ. His sacrifice proclaims the future sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Yet, here is where the difference comes. Isaac is not sacrificed. Before Abraham can do the deed, the Angel of the Lord calls out to Abraham to not harm the boy. Abraham had passed the test of faith and God renewed his promise to him. Instead of Isaac, Abraham sacrificed a ram caught by its horns in a thicket, provided by God. This ram rescued Isaac by being sacrificed in his stead, but that ram does not rescue us, neither did it give Isaac eternal life. Yet, that ram pointed to the Lamb of God, who would be sacrificed in all our place in order to save us.
The faith of Abraham is our faith. The faith of the Old Testament is the faith of the New Testament. Yet, while the cross of Christ was hidden in Old Testament prophecies, it is revealed plainly in the proclamation of the New Testament. So, the means of proclaiming the Gospel of the future Christ needed to be more involved. The sacrifice of this ram proclaims the crucifixion of Christ Jesus. The ram was caught by its horns in the thicket. The horns of a ram represent the power of the ram. Horns are a symbol of power. So, this sacrifice is caught by its power. Likewise, Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, is caught by his power: his love. Out of love for us and for his Father, he cannot but offer himself as a sacrifice for all sins. Even the thicket around the ram’s horns foreshadows the crown of thorns, which would adorn Christ’s head.
Abraham named that place “The Lord will provide,” and it continued to be said, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” And indeed, the Lord did provide. Right near that same mountain where that ram was sacrificed in Isaac’s place, the Lamb of God was sacrificed in our place and became a blessing for all nations of the earth.
And the Angel of the Lord, who stayed Abraham’s hand, he was the pre-incarnate Christ, that is, he was God the Son before he took on human flesh. So, it is as if the Angel of the Lord said, “Do not sacrifice your son. Here is a ram to sacrifice in his stead. And may this ram be a token that I myself will come as your own offspring in human flesh and will sacrifice myself for the sins of the whole world.
This is the faith, which Abraham trusted. This is why Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. Abraham believed in the promise that the Christ would ransom us from our sins. We hold the faith of Abraham by trusting in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. Jesus is the Angel of the Lord, who is the LORD, who is before Abraham, yet has come after Abraham as Abraham’s son. We have the faith of Abraham by having faith in Jesus and in this way, we are Abraham’s children and heirs of the promise given to Abraham.
Yet, there is the other way of speaking of the faith of Abraham. The faith by which Abraham believed. Now, while there is only one saving faith, which you can believe, as Scripture says, “One Lord, one faith, one Baptism,” every person has his own faith by which he believes. What I mean is, we each have our own personal faith, even if we confess the same creed. I cannot believe for you and you cannot believe for me. The faith by which we believe is personal to each individual.
Yet, the faith by which Abraham believed had a particular character that is common to all who believe in Christ. Abraham was not offended by God’s Word. He was told to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved and through whom God promised to bless the whole world. And Abraham obeyed the word of the Lord. Yet, these Jews who were debating with Jesus did not have this character of faith. Not only did they not have the faith which Abraham believed (they rejected Christ), they did not have the faith by which Abraham believed (they were offended by Jesus’ words). When Jesus told them that whoever keeps his word would never see death, they said he had a demon for insinuating that he was better than Abraham. When Jesus told them that Abraham rejoiced at seeing his day, they ridiculed the young man Jesus. When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”, they picked-up stones to throw at him.
They were offended at Jesus’ words, because they did not abide in Jesus’ Word. They didn’t trust in the promise, so they found Jesus’ claims offensive. But a faith, which believes in the promise of Christ will not be offended by the words of Christ.
Some are offended that Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”, because they think Baptism is nothing but water. Some are offended that Christ bids us to eat his own body and blood or that a man claims to have authority from God to forgive sins. Yet, when you trust in God’s Word above your own reason or feelings, you find great comfort in these words. It’s offensive to be told that you are a poor miserable sinner. Yet, when you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Abraham not only teaches us what to believe, but how to believe. He does not judge God for how he carries out his promise or for the words he says. Rather, Abraham believes the word of the Lord against the objection of his emotions or reason. Above all, Abraham puts his trust in God’s promise above everything. What gave him courage to obey God’s contradictory command? He believed that all things were possible with God and that not even the death of the promised child could prevent God from fulfilling his promise.
So, how do you follow Abraham’s example in how to believe? By trusting in the word of God despite what the devil or this world throws at you. Does God’s word hurt your feelings or confound your reason? Remember that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and that all things work together for good for those who love God. Does your current experience make you feel like God will not fulfill his promise to you? Remember that nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Do your sins make you doubt whether God can forgive you? Remember that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who have such faith as Abraham will never see death or be put to shame. Amen.

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Whoever is of God

3/28/2020

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The Jews Took Up Rocks to Stone Jesus, James Tissot, 1886-96, brooklynmuseum.org, No Known Copyright Restrictions

Judica (Lent 5)
John 8:46-59
March 29, 2020

St. John speaks of the Jews as Jesus’ opponents in our Gospel lesson. That doesn’t sit right with our 21st century ears. It’s not politically-correct. St. John makes the Jews sound like bad guys. And, indeed, in recent decades the Gospel of John has been accused of antisemitism. Of course, St. John was not an anti-Semite. St. John himself was a Jew. All of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish. Jesus is a Jew. In fact, everyone in our Gospel lesson, including the author is Jewish. Yet, the author John uses the title “Jews” to refer to those Jews, who followed the Jewish religious leaders. It’s a figure of speech called synecdoche in which a part is referred to as a whole or vice versa. For example, Kansas City won the Super Bowl. Obviously, not everyone who lives in Kansas City won the Super Bowl, but the players for the team, which represents Kansas City won the Super Bowl. So, St. John calls those who follow the Jewish religious elite, Jews, even though he is not speaking of everyone of Jewish descent.
He does this a bit ironically. The term “Jew” refers to those descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel: God’s chosen people! Yet, these Jews are Jews in name only. How can that be? Because not everyone who has Jewish blood is a child of Abraham and son of God. But rather, those who believe the words of God are true children of God and members of the House of Israel, as St. Paul, another Jew wrote in Romans chapter 9, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’” (vss. 6-7) And again this Jewish Apostle wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (vss. 7-9)
These Jews, who opposed Jesus, were proud to be Jews. They called themselves sons of Abraham, even sons of God! They thought they were children of Abraham and that God was their Father, because they were born to Jewish parents. Yet, as Jesus pointed out, they did not do the works of Abraham or listen to God’s word. “Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” Jesus says. Because they did not listen to Jesus’ words, Jesus rightly concluded that these Jews were Jews in name only, and were rightly called children of the devil (John 8:44).
What a contrast. They accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan (meaning a non-Jewish foreigner), who has a demon. Jesus claims rather to be the Son of God. They claim to be true children of Abraham with God as their Father. Yet, Jesus accuses them of being children of the devil, who do his evil will. What Jesus says is true. What these Jews in name only say is false. Jesus is the true Son of God, the promised Seed of Abraham, who is a blessing to all peoples. These Jews, who reject Jesus’ word are children of the devil like the rest of mankind, who reject God’s Word.
Children of God are not born according to the flesh. Children of God are born only according to the Spirit. It does not matter who your parents are. It does not matter what nation you belong to, what color skin you have, what language you speak. Not even your membership at a local congregation determines whether you are a child of God. You are only a child of God when you hear and believe the words of God. Jesus says earlier in this chapter, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” If you do not abide in Jesus’ word, then you are not of God.
There is no neutral ground. You are either of God or you are of the devil. All mankind is born bound to Satan. We were children of wrath. That is why we baptize babies. If you are not with God, you are against God. If you are not a child of God, then you are a slave of Satan.
This isn’t just rhetoric. This is reality. Those who do not believe the words of God work against God. They deny the divinity of Christ. They deny his power to give eternal life to whomever believes in him. They reject the command to repent of sins and trust in God’s mercy.
So, it is important that we examine ourselves and ask, “Am I a Christian in name only.” These Jews were children of Abraham only in name, but not in reality. They did not listen to the God Abraham trusted in, otherwise they would have recognized Jesus as the promised Christ. And many are Christians in name only. They call themselves Christians. They call God their Father. But they do not hear the words of God. They do not abide in the words of Christ.
This certainly is an indictment against Christians who neglect hearing and learning God’s Word. There is a commonly repeated phrase that has caused much harm to the souls of many Christians: You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. Now, at a very shallow level, this statement is true. Many of Satan’s lies have a smattering of truth. You don’t have to go to a church building and worship God there in order to be a Christian. Look at us! Are we taking a break from being Christians, because we are kept from gathering at the church? Certainly not! We still trust in our Savior Jesus and gladly hear and learn his word as we are able. Likewise, our homebound members and those in the hospital or deployed overseas or otherwise unable physically to go to a church building are still Christians, as long as they have faith in Christ and gladly hear his words.
But the statement, “You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian” is not used to mean that you don’t need to go to a church building to be a Christian. No one believes that you do. Rather, this statement is used to excuse not hearing and learning God’s Word. Yet, Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28) What else is the church other than Jesus’ sheep? What else does it mean to gather as the church other than gathering around the voice of Christ.? If we refuse to hear this voice, we are not of God. Let this be a warning to all, who refuse to hear God’s preaching and word. That is not how Christians behave. If you find yourself behaving this way, repent and believe in the Gospel!
Yet, it is not only those who refuse to hear the word of God preached who are Christians in name only. These Jews, who opposed Jesus, in fact did listen to lots of preaching. But they rejected the true preaching and listened to lies. There are many churches that claim the name Christian, but they reject the teachings of Christ. Many say that it doesn’t matter what a church teaches; all that matters is that you love Jesus. Well, that’s not true. It matters what a church teaches, because it matters what Jesus teaches.
Jesus preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:15; Luke 24:47). Yet many churches with the name Christian refuse to teach that people should repent of their sins. Like dogs that refuse to bark when a burglar breaks in at night, so these preachers refuse to warn people of the danger of their sin as Jesus Christ commanded. Many churches with the name Christian deny that Jesus is the only way to heaven. In saying this, they say that Jesus is equal to Satan.
No, we must not just call ourselves Christians. We must do as Christians do. We must hear the words of Christ. Abide in his word and do the works of God. This means that we should also mark and avoid those churches that claim to be Christian while they reject the teachings of Christ Jesus from the Bible.
And what does Jesus teach us? From this Gospel lesson alone, Jesus teaches us the way to everlasting life! These Jews denied a God, who could give eternal life. They confessed Abraham to be dead and the prophets to be dead. But Jesus preaches a God of the living, not of the dead. He preaches a God, who gives eternal life to all who believe in Christ.
Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day; he saw it and was glad. How could Abraham, who lived two thousand years before Jesus have seen Jesus, who was just a thirty-year-old man? Because Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. God promised to send the Christ through Abraham’s lineage. Abraham believed this promise by faith. Abraham saw Jesus through faith, when he according to God’s Word attempted to sacrifice his only son Isaac, whom he loved. Yet, Christ stopped Abraham and instead provided a ram. So, Abraham confessed that God would provide. God would provide a sacrifice, that would make atonement for all our sins. God did not require Abraham to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved. But God would sacrifice His only Son, whom he loved. God would provide!
Jesus Christ is the appointed Sacrifice for our sins. His blood makes satisfaction for our sins. How can this be? How can one man’s death make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world? Again, Jesus tells us, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
Not before Abraham was, I was. He’s not just older than Abraham. Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” God told Moses at the burning bush that his name was, “I AM.” So, the people of God called him, “Yawheh,”, which is translated, “He is.” He is. He always is. He has no beginning or end. Jesus says, “I am.” Jesus is God. He is before Abraham. He is now. He is forever.
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the sacrifice of the eternal Son of God on the cross. His death fully pays for all our sins. If you believe Jesus is God, then believe that your sins are forgiven! The Jews scoffed that Jesus could give eternal life. He’d have to be eternal to do that. Well, Jesus is eternal. If they listened to him and believed his word, they would know that.
During this global pandemic we hear a lot about how it is important that we listen to the experts, especially the scientists and healthcare professionals. And this, of course, makes sense. They know more about this disease than most of us. And since this virus has the potential to kill many people and has already killed thousands worldwide, it is wise for us to listen to those with the greater knowledge. This is a matter of life and death. We need to be careful that we don’t just listen to people spouting off their own opinions
Your faith in Christ, likewise, is a matter of life and death, except at a much greater magnitude. We are talking of eternal life or eternal damnation. If you shouldn’t just listen to any old Joe’s opinion on matters concerning the coronavirus, then you certainly shouldn’t just follow any old Joe’s opinion on sin, righteousness, faith, and salvation. You should listen to Jesus. When someone spouts off his opinion about something not being a sin or not being important to your faith or what you should believe, you should ask where in the Bible it says that. Jesus says that in the Scriptures we have eternal life, because the Scriptures bear witness about him. That is why we hold the Bible so dearly. That is why we expect our pastors to teach us from the Bible, not their own opinions or according to the desires of itching ears.
When we listen to those, who dismiss what the Bible teaches, we do not follow Jesus. Rather, we follow our own sinful desires and we do the will of the devil. That is a deadly path that leads to being a Christian in name only, but not in reality. Yet, when we listen to Jesus, what do we learn? Yes, we learn of our need to repent of our sins. We learn to be humble before our God and before others. Yet, we also learn of the only God, who saves. We learn that God provided his very own Son to be the sacrifice for all our sins. We learn that his blood forgives us and gives us eternal life. We learn that this God, who provides us with eternal life, also provides for our daily needs as often as we ask him.
When we listen and cherish the words of Christ, we learn that we are God’s children. We learn that as God’s children, who keep his words, we will never see death. Amen.

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Judica (Lent 5): If Anyone Keeps Jesus' Word, He Will Never See Death

3/19/2018

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John 8:46-59
March 18, 2018

The Jews proudly claimed to be children of Abraham. In verse 33 of this same chapter they answered Jesus, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone." It was to Abraham that God promised to give the land of Canaan and that his descendants should be as numerous as the dust of the ground. Abraham was the grandfather of Jacob, later named Israel from whom the twelve tribes of Israel descended. To be a child of Abraham is a great distinction. It means that you are a child of promise, a member of a holy people. It means that God is your Father, as the Jews themselves said to Jesus in this same discourse, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father- even God." (vs. 41) But these Jews, although physically were descendants of Abraham, were not children of Abraham nor could they claim God as their Father.

Jesus said to the Jews, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did." (vss. 39-40) They aren't the children of Abraham, because they do not do the works Abraham did. What were the works Abraham did? Jesus tells us, "Your Father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." (vs. 56.) How did Abraham, who lived eighteen centuries before Jesus see Jesus' day? He saw it through faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) The work of Abraham is to hear and believe the word of God. Abraham is the man of faith. His children are his children through faith, as St. Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, "Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blessed.' So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." (vss. 7-9)

Just because a person is a physical descendant of Abraham, does not make him a child of Abraham. And even those who are not physical descendants of Abraham can still be his children through faith, as God himself promised to Abraham just a few verses after our Old Testament lesson, "And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 22:18)

Young Jarrett's father has been a member of Trinity Lutheran Church his entire life. His grandfather is a lifelong member of this congregation. Even his great-grandfather was a long-time member of Trinity Lutheran Church.  While that is truly wonderful, that does not make Jarrett a member of this congregation nor a child of God. All of us are born in sin and must confess with King David, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:5) And St. Paul tells us, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Corinthians 15:50) We inherit only sin and death from our fathers. And that is why Jarret was brought here to be baptized today.

Jesus says, "Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."(vs. 47) Those who are of God listen to God's Word. Those who are not of God cannot listen to God's Word. You must be of God in order to listen and believe in God's Word.  St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (vss. 12-14)

Unless the Holy Spirit intercede, we are incapable of believing in Christ and becoming children of God. Yet, the Holy Spirit does work through God's Word and Baptism. This is why Jarrett's parents brought him to be baptized today. They want him to be God's child, so that he can continue to cherish God's Word and have eternal life. Through this second birth of water and the Spirit, Jarrett has received a pedigree far more excellent than the name Klyn or any other name under heaven can give him. Through this second birth in Baptism, the Holy Spirit has made Jarrett a child of Abraham, the man of faith. God is now Jarrett's Father and his earthly father and mother will teach him to call God, Father with confidence when they teach him to pray the Lord's Prayer. And he will be brought up to hear and believe the Word of God, just as his father Abraham believed God.

"Whoever is of God hears the words of God." That is why you all come here, isn't it? To hear the Word of God. That means that you are of God. That is truly a great honor. Yet, the benefits of hearing God's Word only begin there. Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." (vs. 51)

What a fantastic promise this is! If we truly believed this promise from Jesus, we would cling to his words for dear life and desire constantly to learn from Jesus. All other things in life would be of lesser importance, if we truly believed that the one who keeps Jesus' word will never see death!

But what does it mean to keep Jesus' word? It means to hear and read it as often as you can, so that the promises and wisdom of God are always on your heart and tongue. Jesus says, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32) Those who are of God abide in Jesus' word. They make Jesus' word their dwelling place. God's word transforms them, so that their whole life revolves around it, not just on Sunday morning. How you raise your children depends on God's Word. How you speak to your parents hangs on God's Word. How you behave at work and at school and with your friends is ruled by what you learn and believe from your Savior Jesus.

And when God's word so permeates your life, you are able to have peace within, even as the world rages around you. Because as the world around you changes, God's promises stay the same as does his love and forgiveness. You can follow the example of your father in the faith Abraham, who did not regard his perishing body when he heard God's promise, but believed that God would make a great nation from him. And even more than that, he was able to look beyond his own grave and see the day of Christ and rejoice in it. And so, you too, having trusted in Jesus' word can with confidence face death, knowing that you belong to God and God is the God of the living, not of the dead.

But what of those, who are not of God; who refuse to listen to God's Word? Jesus said to the Jews, who refused to believe his Word, "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires." (vss. 43-44) Jesus is not charitable at all with his words toward those who refuse to hear his word. And for good reason. To refuse to listen to God's Word is the most dangerous sin you can commit. An adulterer can repent. A murderer can hear the absolution as from God himself and die at peace with God. Whatever sin you've committed, God willingly forgives for the sake of Christ's suffering and death. But how can those, who refuse to hear God repent or receive forgiveness from God? They cannot. Their faith dies and they cannot be saved.

The Third Commandment is "Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy." Your Small Catechism explains it thus, "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." Many don't think that they despise God's preaching and word when they refuse to hear and learn it, but that is exactly what they do. Those, who are of God hear the words of God. Those, who are not of God refuse to listen.

These particular Jews, who were talking with Jesus were not of God. They said to our Lord, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (vs 48) This is the common progression of those who refuse to hear God's Word. They start out saying, "Well, I don't despise God's Word. I just have other things going on." But then the refusal to listen to God's Word leads to blasphemy and mockery. And we see this often through popular entertainment, the Christian faith and our God are mocked more than any other faith and we are accused of hatred, bigotry, and stupidity for following Christ.

At the end of our lesson these unbelievers picked up stones to throw at Jesus. This again is the natural evolution of those, who hate Jesus' Word. They begin by refusing to hear it. Then they mock it. Then, they become violent towards those who speak it. And we have seen this throughout Church history. While the Christian Church has remained from the time of the Apostles, their persecutors have shifted shape from Roman pagans, to Islamic jihadists, to atheistic Communist regimes. Christians, especially those who confess out-loud the name of Christ are physically abused and killed.

Yet, you don't need to travel to ISIS controlled territory in the Middle East or to North Korea to witness violence against those who speak God's Word. You can find it right here in America, in this town, in your homes, in this congregation, even within your own heart. St. John warns, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." (1 John 3:15) Okay, perhaps we don't have too many people picking up stones and killing those, who speak God's Word. But Scripture tells us that murder begins in the heart. Has a brother or sister in Christ confronted you with God's Word or spoken a truth from God's Word that has caused you to get angry and to hate? Some will even hate their pastor, because they don't like the Word of God he teaches. This is a call to repentance for all of us. And this warning should urge us not to forsake hearing God's Word. How quickly can our sinful hearts turn us not only to ignore God's Word, but to hate those who speak it.

The Jews wanted to stone Jesus, because he said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." Not, before Abraham was, I was. No, Jesus is. He is always present. He is eternal. Jesus is God. In fact, when Moses asked God in the burning bush, what his name was, God said, "I AM WHO I AM. Say to the people of Israel, I AM has sent you." (Exodus 3:14)

For those, who refused to hear Jesus' Word, this claim to be God infuriated them to the point of murder. But for us, who are of God and who cling to God's promise of eternal life, Jesus' claim to be God gives us great joy and confidence. How can Jesus say that whoever keeps his word will never see death? No one else can say that! Pick your philosopher or guru, find the best life coach or advice-giver. Can any of them promise that if you keep their words, you will never see death? No! Of course not! But Jesus can and does. Because, Jesus is God! His word created life in the first place! And his word will give you eternal life.

Jesus' divinity gives power to his blood. Our Epistle lesson tells us that the blood of Christ purifies our consciences, that is, it forgives our sins. Goats blood can't do that. Ordinary human blood can't do it either. But Jesus is both a human being and God. His death on the cross is more precious than any sacrifice to God. And his blood has the power to wash away your sins.

This is also why we have such confidence in Jarrett's Baptism, that he is a child of God, and our Baptism as well. In Baptism, God is at work. It looks like Jarrett just got his head wet with water, but the holy blood of Christ our God purified him and cleansed him of all sin. How can water do such great things? Because of the Word of God. And whoever abides in this word will live forever. Amen.

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

Rejoicing in Abraham's Faith

Jesus the Perfect High Priest and Victim

The Faith of Abraham

Whoever is of God

Judica (Lent 5): If Anyone Keeps Jesus' Word, He Will Never See Death

Rev. James Preus

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