Category: Trinity 10

The Things that Make for Peace

8/24/2022

Trinity 10
Luke 19:41-48
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 21, 2022

Less than a week before Jesus is betrayed into the hands of wicked men, beaten, flogged, spit upon, and finally crucified to death, he entered into Jerusalem with crowds shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!” Yet, as Jesus approached Jerusalem on a donkey, he burst into tears, weeping. Was he weeping over his impending torture and death by crucifixion, which he had so many times predicted to his disciples and knew was nigh? No. Jesus did not weep for himself, but for this city, which had rejected him.

Jesus told how her enemies would lay siege to her walls, hem her in, and finally dash her down to the ground with her children within her. And the prophecy of Jesus came true and in the summer of 70 AD after a long siege, Jerusalem was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are reported to have died either by starvation, disease, or violence. The destruction of Jerusalem shocked the world because of its great violence and loss of life. Yet, most shocking is the fact that Jerusalem was God’s city. God chose Jerusalem and no other city for his temple to dwell. Yet, even the temple was laid to ruin. And all this, because Jerusalem, who’s name bears the name of peace, salem, did not know the things that make for peace.

God chose Jerusalem. God promised to be in his temple. Jesus himself called the temple his Father’s house (Luke 2:49). The people of Jerusalem were God’s chosen people. And yet, God destroyed them, the city, and the temple by means of pagan brutes. Jesus noticeably cries. He doesn’t want Jerusalem to be destroyed. Yet, do not misconstrue Jesus’ weeping with reluctance to act. God does not desire the death of the wicked, but he certainly will carryout just punishment on the wicked. And so, we learn that Jesus’ declaration that they did not know the things that make for peace is not merely a message for the people of Jerusalem two-thousand years ago, but these words are written for us upon whom the end of the age has come. We must know the things that make for peace. God threatens severe punishment on those who reject the peace he offers. In this sermon, we will learn how peace is gained, given, and gotten.

Peace is gained in no other way than through the incarnation of Jesus’ Christ, his obedient life, and his innocent suffering and death for our sins. When the angels announced the birth of Jesus, they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) God became man to gain peace for us, because no mere human can give his life to ransom another (Psalm 49:7). Jesus, the Son of God, lived as the one true human peacemaker, obeying God’s law perfectly. And after he suffered and died for all the sins he did not commit, Jesus returned victorious from the grave and said to his disciples, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19).

The peace Jesus came to gain he came to gain for everyone. All people are by nature at enmity with God, because of their sin. All have fallen short of God’s glory. All have rebelled and made themselves God’s enemies. Yet, God in his love, while we were still enemies, sent Christ to die for our sins. Scripture tells us that Jesus’ blood makes propitiation, that is, his blood takes away God’s wrath, not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross gained a universal atonement, that means, it paid for the sins of the whole world. And Jesus’ resurrection from the dead declared a universal justification, that is, God forgives the sins of the whole world for Christ’s sake.

This peace between God and man was gained by Christ alone. You have not done anything to earn your forgiveness and peace with God. Christ Jesus won it of his own accord. This peace with God is a free gift, which grants eternal salvation to all who believe. Yet this gained peace does you no good unless it is given to you. This peace is given through the Word alone. St. Paul writes, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? … So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14, 17)

This peace is also given through the Sacraments, not because the Sacraments are some powerful things outside of the Word, but because the Sacraments are made Sacraments by the Word of God alone. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the true body and blood of Christ Jesus, which grants forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe it, because this is what Jesus’ Word promises in his words of institution. That is why after the consecration, the pastor holds the bread and wine, which is the body and blood of Christ, and says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” In the Sacrament, by the power of God’s Word, Christ visits his people and grants them peace, just as he did with his disciples after his resurrection.

So, there is no other way for God’s peace to be given to you except through the Word and Sacraments. If you reject God’s Word and Sacraments, then you reject God’s peace. 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) Jesus says, “If you abide in my words, you are my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31). In his second Epistle, St. Peter writes, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter 1:2) Well, how do we receive this knowledge of God whereby peace it multiplied to us, except through his Word?

This is why refusing to hear the Word of God is such a wicked and terrible thing. It puts you in jeopardy of eternal condemnation. Jerusalem was destroyed twice for refusing the peace given to her through the Word of God. The people rather listened to false prophets and teachers, who told them what they wanted to hear. They refused to repent. They refused to humble themselves. They did whatever their hearts led them to do. And so, they lost their Savior. Jesus is only a Savior to sinners. He comes to bring peace only to those who repent of their sins. But if you deny your sins or cling to them without repenting, then you are rejecting Christ as your Savior and giver of peace.

God gives this peace to everyone. This word of peace is intended to be preached to the entire world. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” and in Mark 16, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”, and in Luke 24, “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem.”

This is why Jesus grieves with bitter tears. As he purchases salvation for everyone, so he offers salvation to everyone. But not all who are offered salvation receive it. This does not mean that Christ does not want them to be saved. He weeps for them. This does not mean that Christ did not gain for them God’s peace. He suffered for them. St. Peter again writes in his second Epistle that false teachers would “even deny the Master who bought them.” (2 Peter 2:1). They were bought! Their peace was gained for them! Their peace was given to them! Yet, they would not receive it. They rejected it.

And so, we cannot neglect the third part of this sermon. How is peace gotten. Peace is gained by the obedience of Christ Jesus and his suffering and death for our sins. This peace was gained for everyone. This peace is given through the proclamation of the Gospel. This peace is intended to be given to all peoples in every nation. This peace is gotten through faith alone. St. Paul writes, “We hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28). And again, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

That we receive this peace through faith means that we do not obtain it with our own works. This peace was gained by Christ alone. This peace is given by God alone freely to all who will receive it. And faith alone gets this peace. Now, some reason that since this peace of God is gained for everyone, and since God intends to give this peace to everyone, that the getting of this peace through faith is our work. God does his part by gaining and giving, and we do our part by getting. But this is not true. We are incapable of getting what God gives unless God enables us to get it. Faith itself is a gift from God. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, “No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”

By nature, we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2). It is impossible for us to please God. We cannot even believe in God or the peace he has gained and given unless the Holy Spirit grants us new birth. This is why we confess in our catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith.”

Yet, if God gained peace for everyone and he gives peace to everyone, but only those whom he grants faith get it, then does God not really want to save all people? No. That’s not what God says. God desires to save all people. Only those whom he gives faith get salvation. You cannot blame God for your unbelief. You can’t accuse Jesus of having insincere tears. It’s a mystery why some are saved and not others. Everyone who is saved is saved by grace. Everyone who is not saved can only blame himself. We must humble ourselves and recognize that there are some things we just don’t understand. Rather, we focus on what God does reveal to us.

God reveals how he has gained our peace through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. God reveals that we can only be given this peace through his Word in the preached message and in the Sacraments. And God reveals in his Word that only faith gets this peace. The peace of God is gained, given, and gotten by grace alone, that is, according to God’s underserved love for us without any merit or worthiness in us.

That our salvation is by grace does not mean that we can ignore God’s Word and continue in sin, because it’s all up to God. God has revealed that his peace is given only through his Word. And this peace was gained by Christ’s suffering and death alone. So, we must not resist the work of the Holy Spirit and cause anguish to our Lord, who bought us with his blood. Rather, we should gladly hear the promises of Christ, trust in them, and let his Word shape us to live lives pleasing to him. We should trust not only that Jesus’ suffering and death has the power to forgive our sins, but that his Word has the power to create faith, which gets this peace. Now, may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.

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What Makes Jesus Weep?

8/9/2021

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The Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem, James Tissot, 1886-94. No Known Copyright Restriction. Brooklymuseum.org

Trinity 10
Luke 19:41-48
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
August 8, 2021

What makes Jesus weep? Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, because he knows that the city will be destroyed in the most brutal way. About forty years later in the year 70 AD, the Roman general Titus besieged Jerusalem when it was filled with people, who had gathered to celebrate the Passover. No one was able to leave or enter. There was mass starvation, plague, disease, murder, and all sorts of cruelty. Thousands upon thousands of people, many historians number it in the hundreds of thousands, were killed. The buildings were destroyed and burned, including the great temple. And those Jews who did survive were sold into slavery to do hard labor or were fed to wild beasts as entertainment. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was one of the most horrific events in human history. Yet, that alone is not why Jesus weeps.

Jesus weeps because of the reason such a terrible destruction would befall them. Because they did not know the things that made for their peace. Because they did not know the time of their visitation. Now, what does Jesus mean by “the time of their visitation”? Who has come to visit them? God has come to visit them. Now, how can this be? God is present everywhere. Scripture says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) God cannot get any closer to us than that! Then, how can Jesus say that God visited Jerusalem? Isn’t he always in Jerusalem as he is everywhere else?

God is indeed everywhere. But he is not everywhere in the same way. God’s presence in hell is much different from his presence in heaven. God’s presence in a brothel or opium den is much different from his presence in a church, where the Gospel is preached. By visitation, our Lord Jesus means that God visited Jerusalem with his grace. Yet, Jerusalem rejected God’s visitation of grace. This is what makes Jesus weep. And Jesus is God. This is what makes God weep. Jerusalem rejected the Gospel. Jerusalem rejected her Lord, who came to her with forgiveness and salvation. Jesus is God in human flesh. He is the long-time prophesied Son of David, whom the people of Israel had been waiting for. And he came first to proclaim the good news of redemption to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but he was rejected. He desired to save them. But they would not be saved. And for this, Jesus weeps.

The destruction of Jerusalem is a warning concerning the coming judgment. Jerusalem’s demise is a type of the demise that the world will experience when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. And if God did not spare Jerusalem and her people, whom he chose out of all the nations of the world, to whom he sent the prophets, with whom he made the covenants, to whom he promised the Messiah from among their brothers, then we should not think that we will be spared if we reject our visitation. St. Paul speaks of this very thing in Romans 11 saying, “For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.”

So, what is the time of our visitation? How does God visit us with his grace today? The time of our visitation is now. And the way God visits us with his grace is through the Gospel. God visited you when you were Baptized and he placed his name on you, washed you of all your sins in Jesus’ blood, and poured his Holy Spirit into your heart to give you a new spiritual birth. God visits us whenever the Gospel is preached. When Jesus is proclaimed as crucified for sinners; when Christ’s resurrection is preached; when your sins are declared forgiven for the sake of Jesus’ innocent, suffering and death, then God is visiting you with his grace. When the body and blood of Christ, our God and brother, is fed to you in the Sacrament of the Altar, that is God’s visitation of grace.

So, how do we reject this visitation as the Jewish people of Jerusalem did? We must know, so that we can avoid this evil and escape judgment. We reject this visitation when we reject Baptism. This is done either by refusing to be baptized against Christ’s command and promise or by rejecting the Baptism Christ has given you through impenitence and unbelief. We reject this visitation when we refuse to listen to the Gospel and when we refuse to believe it; when we find no value in the Sacrament where Christ supernaturally feeds us his body and blood, which he sacrificed on the cross for us, and so refuse to partake of it. We reject this visitation when we persist in our sins and refuse correction; when we refuse to repent of our sins and ask God for forgiveness for Christ’s sake. In short, we reject our visitation when we refuse to believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This also means that we receive God’s visitation when we believe the Gospel. When we believe that our sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, then we receive God’s visitation for our eternal benefit.

The other day I heard a guy on the radio talk about how he believed in heaven and hell. The reason he gave for the existence of hell was that there had to be a place of punishment for murderers and rapists and child abusers and wicked men like Hitler and Stalin. And this is how many people think. If hell exists, it exists for those really bad people, but not us. But Christ comes to visit us with God’s grace to rescue us from hell. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God does not want us to go to hell. That is why he sent Jesus to die for our sins on the cross and make atonement for us. And that is why he weeps when we reject him. Without faith in Jesus, we cannot be saved. Hell is real. And it is for all who reject Christ, clinging to their sin and unbelief.

The fact that Jesus wept over Jerusalem shows that God desires all people to be saved. There are some who teach that since those who are saved are chosen by God before the foundation of the world, that God also chooses others before the foundation of the world to go to hell. In other words, they teach that God does not really desire to save all people, but he only desires to save those whom he ultimately saves. Jesus proves that this is wrong by weeping over Jerusalem. He wants them to be saved. He wants them to receive their visitation. He wants them to know what makes for peace, that is, faith in Christ. But they would not. They have refused to accept the Gospel.

But even after they refuse the Gospel and Jesus has predicted their destruction, he shows his desire to save them by going into the temple to preach the Gospel. And in so doing, he does save some. Even from the cross, Jesus prays to his Father that he would forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. How is God to forgive them, but by bringing them to faith? And it is in Jerusalem, that city whose destruction Jesus has proclaimed, where Jesus sends his Holy Spirit on that first Christian Pentecost, so that three thousand are added to the saved on that day. Yes, Jesus’ tears tell us that he does not delight in the destruction of Jerusalem. He desires to save them all.

And it is not only the Jewish people he desires to save. St. Paul declares that God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). No one goes to hell, because God doesn’t want him in heaven. No one goes to hell, because God has destined that person to hell. People only go to hell, because of their own stubborn unbelief. People only go to hell, because they refuse God’s visitation of grace.

So, what should make us weep? It should be the same thing as that which makes our Lord Jesus weep; that people reject Christ’s visitation, persist in unbelief, and are damned to hell. When King Agrippa asked the prisoner St. Paul if he would persuade him to be a Christian, St. Paul answered, “I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.” (Acts 26:29) And that is exactly how we should be. We should desire that everyone be as we are, to confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, to receive his visitation and have confidence in our forgiveness and salvation.

In Romans chapter 9, St. Paul makes a disturbing declaration that he could wish that he were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his kinsmen, if it meant that they would be saved. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenant, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs; from their race came Christ our God in the flesh! How awful is it that they would reject Christ’s visitation! And so, we too should pray for the conversion of all Jewish people to the faith God intends for them, that they would accept the Messiah whom the prophets promised to them, who indeed came to save them.

Likewise, we should pray for the conversion of our brothers and sisters, children, parents, spouses, friends, and neighbors, who still will not believe in the Gospel. To them has been given saving Baptism! To them the Gospel has been proclaimed! To them God has been offered as their Friend and Savior! We should weep for them. We should proclaim Christ to them. We should invite them to church. We should pray for them. God desires that they be saved. He sent Christ Jesus to die for them. God does not want anyone to die in his sins. And neither do we.

Finally, we know what makes Jesus weep, but what makes Jesus rejoice? Jesus tells us that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. That is to say, God and all his angels and saints rejoice when one sinner receives his visitation. God’s grace did not fail because Jerusalem rejected Christ. God’s grace does not fail today, because so many still reject him. God has preserved his people. He has given them true faith and made them his children. God’s children are sinners, who have repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior. God’s people are those who have received God’s visitation of grace through faith in the Gospel of Christ. God’s people do not come from a particular city. They are not limited to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. God’s people come from every nation and language on earth. God’s people are sinners, who have been forgiven, who have received Christ’s visitation through faith.

And so, you should rejoice today, not only that you have repented of your sins and received Jesus’ visitation of grace through faith in the forgiveness of sins, but also rejoice at these your brothers and sisters in Christ, who have received their visitation in faith.

May God keep us as his people and may we continue to receive his visitation of grace, so that we may stand without shame when our God visits us in glory to judge the living and the dead. 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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Jesus desires to save all people through faith.

8/27/2019

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Luke 19:41-48

August 25, 2019

Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he made a horrifying prediction concerning this ancient city, beloved by God. Jesus spoke of an event that would happen less than 40 years later, when Roman troops would surround the city and besiege it for months causing mass starvation, then they would break down the city walls, kill thousands of Jews both inside and outside the city, and finally raze the temple itself, burning it to the ground.
The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was the worst defeat the Jewish people had ever experienced. It effectively ended their hope of ever securing an earthly kingdom again, scattering them throughout the world. It changed their way of worship forever; to this day no sacrifices are offered in the temple, because it is no more. And the loss of human life was innumerable.
And for this Jesus weeps. He weeps, because he loves Jerusalem. He loves the Jewish people. He weeps, because he came to save them, to bring peace on earth and good will to men, yet he was rejected and despised by the people he came to save. Jesus makes this mournful prophecy on Palm Sunday, just a few days before he would be tried by the high priest and leaders of the Jews and delivered over to the Gentile governor Pontius Pilate to be crucified. Jesus knows full well that he is about to suffer more than any man ever has or ever will, yet he mourns for this city and its people, because they did not recognize him as the Messiah who came to visit them and make peace between them and God.
We cannot look at the destruction of Jerusalem without looking at the end of the age. God’s judgment against Jerusalem for her disobedience is a warning against the whole world to repent, because God’s judgment is coming. Yet, Jesus’ weeping teaches us a lot about this final judgment and how we should prepare for it.
First, God’s judgment will come. Jerusalem developed a false sense of security. The Jewish religious leaders infatuated themselves with their own self-importance. They thought that they would remain forever. When the Messiah came, they thought they didn’t need him. They had the temple, made of giant stones. It could not be moved. They had their traditions and the respect of the people. They didn’t need what God offered, so they rejected God and paid no attention to his warnings neither from the prophets, John the Baptist, nor even his Son. So, we should heed the warnings God sends us, so that we are not caught unaware.
Second, Jesus’ weeping teaches us that God loves the world. He loves the people who live in it. God does not desire the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus shed his blood to make propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Jesus’ weeping teaches us that God desires to save all people. He did not elect some from eternity to go to hell. Jesus did not die for a select few. Rather, Jesus came to earth, took on the flesh of all mankind, and he died for all sins of all people. Jesus weeps, because though he has paid the price to give eternal life to all people, many still reject him and reject the life that he gives.
You cannot blame God for your own sins. No one can blame God for his own unbelief. When people reject God, it is their own fault. Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And God has won salvation for all people through Jesus Christ, who made atonement through his blood. Yet, this must be received by faith. It is through faith, that is, through trusting in this forgiveness and salvation for Christ’s sake, that one receives eternal life. Yet, if someone rejects the faith, there is no salvation.
Jesus said that Jerusalem, a name which means possessor of peace, did not know the things that make for peace. It is Jesus who makes for peace. His suffering and death for our sins forgives our sins and makes peace between us and God. Jesus said that Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed, because they did not know the time of their visitation. It is said that God visits his people when a mighty miracle is done, like when Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead. God visited his people in Jerusalem when he sent Jesus to do the mightiest miracle in history, dying on the cross to defeat sin, death, and the devil. Jesus’ death on the cross was a mighty miracle, because by it he did what no human being could ever do, make atonement for all sins. And Jesus himself rose from the dead, assuring us that forgiveness and salvation are indeed won for us whose sins he bore.
And God visits us today through his Son. God reveals to us the makings of peace. And as with Jerusalem, many reject this visitation. Yet, just as there were crowds that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna” and “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” so also do many accept God’s visitation today and receive the peace from God, which surpasses all understanding.
Yet, how does God visit us today through his Son? How do we recognize our visitation? Jesus doesn’t walk into our town as he did into Jerusalem. Yet, Jesus did promise us that he would be with us even to the end of the age. God visits us through his holy Word and Sacraments. God has visited Lane and Drew through Baptism. By the power of the word of God that washing that Lane and Drew received was not just one of water, but a washing of the Holy Spirit! God joined those two children to the death and resurrection of Christ. Scripture promises that all who have been baptized have put on Christ; that Baptism washes away sins, gives new birth in the Holy Spirit, and indeed, gives eternal salvation. So closely has God joined Jesus to the promise of Baptism that we can rightly say that those who have received Baptism have received Jesus Christ.
Yet, Baptism is not the only way that God visits his people. He continues to visit us through the preaching of his Word. When the pastor declares the forgiveness of sins, Jesus promises that he himself is forgiving you through your pastor’s words. Christ’s true body and blood, the same that were pierced and shed on the cross, Jesus feeds us under bread and wine. Jesus visits us today. He visits us throughout our life. And in every that he visits us, he joins us to his cross, where he died to take away our sins; and he joins us to his resurrection, where he secured for us our victory over death. Baptism, the Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, the Sacrament of the Altar are all means by which God gives us the same Jesus, who died and rose for us.
This visitation can only be received by faith. Yet, most reject the faith. Why do most reject it? Because mankind is totally corrupted by sin. Since our first parents’ fall, we have all been born in sin. The common refrain that children are not born haters, but that they learn to hate is simply not true. Everyone is born with hate in his heart. It is called original sin. Original sin produces actual sins. It makes us selfish. Children certainly don’t need to be taught to be selfish. They are selfish. And if that selfishness is not curbed by rules and laws, then selfishness leads to worse and worse behavior.
Original sin rejects God. Scripture says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...” and “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” It is impossible for children of wrath, who are dead in their trespasses to accept God. This is why our Epistle lesson said, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit must in his mercy create faith in our hearts. He must make us alive in Christ Jesus, so that we can receive him as the one who makes peace between us and God.
The Holy Spirit makes us alive in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, that is, the good news that Jesus bore our sins and rescued us from hell. But sinners reject this good news if they don’t think they need it. And that is our natural state in original sin. We don’t think we need Jesus. We don’t need forgiveness. We don’t need atonement. We don’t need our sins to be covered and washed away in Christ’s blood. We’re doing just fine without it.
This is how Jerusalem was. And this is how our world today is. God laments through Jeremiah that his people do not recognize their sins. They continue headlong like horses into battle into all types of idolatry, adultery, and other abominations. And they aren’t ashamed. They aren’t in the least bit embarrassed that they have offended God. They have no fear of God, because they believe the lies of the prophets and priests, who tell them that God is at peace with them. God is fine with them living their life the way they want.
Does that sound familiar? That is the prevailing teaching of most religious institutions today. And this is a dangerous teaching, that we don’t need to repent and turn from our sins. We need God’s Law. We need to be told that we are sinners. We need to be told when we are doing wrong; when we are not placing God as first in our life; when we are living contrary to his Law; when what we are doing is hurting our neighbor. We need to know that the wages of our sin is death and eternal damnation. We need to be warned about God’s judgment against sin. If not, then we will not see our need for Jesus, his cross and forgiveness. Without the preaching of the Law, we will be content without Jesus.
Jesus preached the Law. He told the scribes and Pharisees that they were not as good as they thought they were, but were whitewashed tombs with no true righteousness within them. When he wept for Jerusalem, he was warning them to turn from their unbelief. Jesus drove out the sellers and moneychangers from the temple, so that people would learn what the temple was there for. And Jesus wants us to hear the preaching of the Law today, so that we never forget that we need him. So that we recognize his visitation as a precious treasure that takes away our sin.
It is Christ’s visitation itself that creates saving faith in sinners, who mourn their sinful condition. The Holy Spirit works through the preaching of the Gospel to create saving faith in your heart. God’s word is powerful. And God’s word is comforting to those sorry for their sins.
If you reject Christ’s invitation, that is your own fault. Yet, if you accept Jesus’ visitation, all credit goes to God, who created faith in your heart through the preaching of the Gospel. Many question how God can at the same time desire all people to be saved, yet not all are saved. Yet, we have no right nor ability to delve into the hidden will of God. We can only know God and his message as he reveals it to us. And the message God reveals to you is this: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. This is done through the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through faith in the work of Christ Jesus, you have certainty that God is pleased with you, that your sins are forgiven, that God has chosen you to be an heir of his kingdom. Through faith in Jesus, you know that your Baptism washed away your sins and clothed you with Christ. Through faith in Christ, you know that he does not weep over you, but rejoices over you, even as he prepares a place for you in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will be no weeping forever. Amen.

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Trinity 10:Repentance: Knowing What Makes for Peace

8/21/2017

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Jeremiah 8:4-12
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Luke 19:41-48

"Repent and believe in the Gospel!" Repent is a word we hear a lot at church.  But do you know what it means? To repent means, literally to turn. If a person is going down a road to destruction but then turns around and goes toward safety, he has repented. Everyone must repent or they will be condemned. To refuse to repent is to continue on your own way and not to turn to God's way. The Lord describes unrepentance in our OT lesson, "Like a horse plunging headlong into battle." Repentance involves a change of mind and behavior; to go down a different path than you are currently following.

We speak of repentance in two ways: first, to repent from unbelief to faith in Christ. This is called conversion. The second is daily repentance. This means that the Christian, who is daily plagued with temptation and the weakness of his sinful flesh must also daily turn from his sin and follow Christ.

The first repentance, that is, conversion is quite literally impossible. No one has the ability to convert to the true Christian faith by his own strength. This is because if you do not have faith you are spiritually dead and you have no ability to make yourself spiritually alive. Our Epistle lesson today proved this to be true. St. Paul writes, "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." Because of this and many other passages in Scripture, we teach our children to confess in the Small Catechism, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified, and kept me in the true faith."

This means that it is impossible for you to choose to be a Christian, but rather the Holy Spirit creates faith in your heart without your cooperation, before you can choose Jesus. He does this through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus and Baptism.

Now this teaching creates problems in our minds. If no one can choose to come to faith, but only the Holy Spirit can create faith, why doesn't the Holy Spirit create faith in everyone, so that all people will be saved? Why do some not believe and go to hell, while others believe and go to heaven?

Many have tried to answer this question. Some have determined that God did not intend to save all people and that Jesus only died for the few people he chose to save. This teaching must be rejected, because Scripture teaches the opposite. St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy chapter 2 that God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." And Jesus did not die for some people, but for all people. St. John writes that Jesus Christ is "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2) And Jesus demonstrates in our Gospel lesson that he desires for Jerusalem to repent and be saved by his weeping for that apostate city. God does not desire for anyone to go to hell.

Others have tried to answer the question by saying that it does not depend on God, but on us. They say we have the ability to either choose God. It's up to us. But we must reject this teaching too as it clearly contradicts the Bible as we just heard. Instead, we must put this mystery in the category of things God has not chosen to reveal to us in this life. We confess that those, who are saved, are saved by grace and are converted by the Holy Spirit without any cooperation on their part. Yet we confess that those who are condemned are condemned of their own fault for rejecting Christ and the Holy Spirit. They cannot blame God for their just condemnation just as we cannot take credit for our undeserved salvation. This seems to be a contradiction. But we accept it by faith. We leave the mystery to God.

Yet this does not mean that we should be apathetic about God's Word. The Holy Spirit works through the word of God to create faith. This means we should baptize our children, because there is the promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We should confess Christ to others and hear his words ourselves, for "faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17)

When God converts you to trust in Christ, he does not do so, so that you can continue in sin, follow your lusts, covet, steal, and hate. "That is not the way you learned Christ!" (Eph. 4:20) Instead God intends you to walk in his way, to fear, love, and trust in him above all things, to love your neighbor and consider others more important than yourself, to curb your sinful passions with the word of God and prayer.

This is not an easy task! We have received the Holy Spirit and the new man in our conversion. Before our conversion we were incapable of cooperating with the Holy Spirit, but now that God has enlivened our new man in us, we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to do good. Yet we still remain sinners in the flesh! We complain with St. Paul, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." (Rom. 7:18) We must repent every day, because every day we turn from God's path and walk in our own way. This is our sinful nature. We must fight against our sinful nature. To refuse to repent is to reject Christ, who bought you.

This is a very serious issue, because not one of us isn't plagued with temptation every day. Yet it is the call of many loud voices, including voices claiming to speak for Christ, that you do not need to repent. That whatever makes you "happy" is good and you should do it and not let anyone judge you for it. They say God loves you just the way you are, so you don't have to change a bit. Just keep doing what you're doing.

But this is a very dangerous teaching. God forbids you Christians to covet your neighbor's stuff, to steal, to hate and murder, to fornicate or engage in any form of sexual immorality, even to lust, to get drunk, to gossip, to despise hearing his word, in short, God forbids you from following your own path. He has bought you with a great price. People think it is freedom to do whatever your flesh desires. But this is not freedom. St. Peter warns against these false prophets, "They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." (2 Peter 2:19)

The proverb goes, "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." (2 Peter 2:22) That describes each of us, doesn't it? So, we must turn from our wicked desires and ways each day and devote ourselves to God. There is not a day that we will not have to battle sin until we die.

Battling sin is certainly a daunting task, so it is no surprise that people have always followed prophets, who give an easy way out. The Lord condemns the false prophets in our OT lesson, "They have healed the wounds of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there was no peace." In other words, these prophets didn't heal the wound of the people's sin at all. They simply said, "Oh, it's not a big deal. God isn't upset at you. You aren't sinning. Just keep doing what you're doing." Now while that certainly put a smile on their faces at the time, it led to their ultimate destruction. It led them away from God. It caused them not to repent!

Jesus mourns over Jerusalem in our Gospel lesson, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!" The false prophets gave them peace without repentance. They offer the same peace to us today. But this is not true peace. True peace comes from the one and only Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. He died for the sins of all sinners, so that whoever repents and believes in him shall have true peace.

God does not desire to condemn anyone. A few verses after our OT lesson the Lord says, "For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me." See the sorrow our God feels over the sin of his people! It is the same sorrow Christ displays as he enters Jerusalem the very week he will be crucified. You see, God does not grieve over our sins, but then look away the way we might see something disturbing on the news and turn the channel. Our sins actually wound our God. Our wound became his wound when he hung on the cross winning true peace the false prophets would never understand.

Jesus tells us that Jerusalem would be destroyed, because they did not know the time of their visitation. That is, they did not recognize Christ and repent of their sins and believe in him. And Jerusalem was destroyed. In 70 AD, about forty years after Jesus spoke these words Roman troops surrounded Jerusalem, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, and burned the temple to the ground. God punished them for their unbelief and this is a warning for us to repent.

Do you know the time of your visitation? This might sound threatening after all this talk of sin, punishment, and repentance. Repentance itself seems like a scary thing. What if I don't repent well enough? Will I ever be good enough for God? And if I keep on returning to my sin, what's the point? But repentance doesn't simply mean to turn from doing what is bad and do what is good. If that were how you were saved, you would never be saved. To repent means to turn from your way to Christ's way. This means to turn to Christ for forgiveness.

God asked at the end of the chapter where we find our OT lesson, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?" God wants to heal his people. He wants to heal you. You don't know the time of your visitation simply by recognizing your sins and trying to do better. You recognize the time of your visitation by recognizing the Balm of Gilead, Jesus Christ your true Physician. God is angry at the false prophets because instead of turning his people to true medicine and healing, they drive them deeper into sickness and death. God doesn't simply want you to recognize your disease. God wants you to recognize the true medicine that cures your disease.

Jesus Christ is your true medicine. I hope by now you recognize your disease. You're a sinner. You need to repent every day. But repenting doesn't do you any good if you don't get healed. If you don't turn to Jesus, you'll just keep returning to your vomit and wallow in the mire. If repenting doesn't lead you to Christ's forgiveness, your constant repenting will simply exhaust you, so that you give up. But when you truly recognize your visitation, you recognize your Savior Jesus. You see that you don't simply turn from a path of doing bad things to follow a path of strict rules. Rather, you turn to Christ, who lovingly forgives you and gives you his Holy Spirit to guide you on your path.

You recognize your Visitation where Jesus promises to come to you. In church we begin each service in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because Christ first visited you in your life when he Baptized you in this name. You recognize Jesus' visitation when you not only repent of your sins, but believe in Christ's forgiveness earned with his blood. You recognize your Visitation in bread and wine, believing that here Christ's true body and blood are the balm that heals your body and soul from the sin from which you've turned.

Repentance won't do you any good if you do not turn to Christ for free undeserved forgiveness. But every time you turn to Christ he does heal you. No matter how many times you turn, how many times you repent from sins that keep haunting you, Jesus heals you. To know the time of your Visitation is to recognize that Jesus saves you a sinner and gives you true peace with God purely through faith in him. Amen.

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

The Things that Make for Peace

What Makes Jesus Weep?

God Dwells with His Church

Jesus desires to save all people through faith.

Trinity 10:Repentance: Knowing What Makes for Peace

Rev. James Preus

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