Easter 5 Sermon

 

Christ is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! +

    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. That's how the explanation to the 3^rd Article of the Creed from the Small Catechism begins, and it summarizes one of the most profound truths that the Scriptures teach, that we hear in our Gospel lesson. When it comes to our faith, when it comes to us believing in Jesus, knowing anything at all about faith, it all comes about not by our strength, but by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, through the Word. The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the Comfortor, the Paraclete (if you prefer the old Greek word as I do) – the One who comes to us with the Word of God and grants us faith and understanding. The Spirit working faith in us by the Gospel is indeed to our benefit, and today, we will hear again and remember Jesus' Words about the Spirit, and the Spirit will do His Holy Spirit thing and declare the things of Christ to us, and having called and gathered us here around the Word the Spirit will enlighten, sanctify, and richly forgive us. Listen.

    When He [the Spirit, the Helper] comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. So right here for us, Jesus lays out what the Holy Spirit will do in the Church, what the Word of God preached and taught will do – because wherever the Word of God is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit will be there at work. The Spirit calls us by the Gospel, the Spirit works through the Word. You want the Holy Spirit to be at work in your life – then, as former LCMS President A.L. Berry would say, “Get in the Word.” And when we hear the Word of God, the Spirit is going to convict the world, the world which God the Father loved by sending His Son, so that whoever believes in Him because the Holy Spirit convicts the world would have everlasting life. The Spirit will convict – He will show you what you've missed, what you've failed to understand, and He will do so thoroughly. The Spirit will connect the dots for you, for people throughout the world. That's what the Spirit does – the Spirit takes the Word of God and counteracts sin, our sin that would confuse us and mislead us and derail us. The Spirit comes in and by the Word fixes that.

    And the Spirit convicts and fixes and corrects and redirects along three paths, in three angles. The first that Jesus mentions here is concerning sin. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. The first thing the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit reveals sin. Well, Pastor, isn't sin sort of obvious? Well, remember, you're saying that as a Christian, as someone whom the Holy Spirit has already spent a lot of time convicting about sin, teaching and showing and revealing sin. We're used to dealing with and confronting sin – it's how we start every service, it's part of every sermon or bible study here. But this is something that happens in your life because of the working of the Holy Spirit – and apart from the Holy Spirit revealing your sin to you, you won't, you can't see it. Consider David, when he gets all wrapped up in his affair with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah – David doesn't see, doesn't understand His sin... not until Nathan the prophet comes, and Nathan speaks, and the Spirit convicts David, and then by the power of the Spirit David sees his sin and confesses; then David will write in the 51^st Psalm – Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Because without Thy Spirit, O Lord, I get lost and caught up in sin!

    And this is the reality – without the Spirit revealing sin to us, without the Spirit showing us our sin, we fall into folly. We fall into great shame and vice, and unbelief. And this is what we are in fact seeing when we see all the wickedness of sin around us – because the Spirit does make us to see sin at work in the world around us. We see unbelief and its fruit. Paul notes that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost. But if you don't see your sin, if you don't recoil from it, and if rather you dive on into it and delight in it, if you celebrate it and demand that it be validated and praised – well, that's because you don't believe that you're a sinner, because you don't believe in Jesus. And Satan and your sinful flesh will attack you, they will try to drive you into the morass of gross and open sin to destroy and crush your faith – and the Holy Spirit with great love for you will show you your sin and drive you to repentance. That's the first thing the Spirit does.

    The Spirit also convicts concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer. The Holy Spirit will speak concerning righteousness – because again, the world apart from the Holy Spirit doesn't have a clue about what is actually right and good and just. Apart from Christ we will simply have people clamoring over their own hairbrained ideas and demanding their own way and coming up with crackpot schemes to fix this or that and everything in the world – and of course, these fixes only come about if we give them more power and do things their way.

    That's not righteousness. That's not how things get fixed. That's not how the sin that we see in ourselves, in the world, gets fixed. With might of ours could naught be done, soon were our loss effect. No, we need a righteousness far greater, far truer than any that we ourselves could muster. We need Jesus. We need Christ and His righteousness. All the plans of the world are junk – Christ Jesus is the One who fixes things. Jesus is the righteous One – the One who makes things right, who rescues us from sin, death, and the power of the devil, who redeems us, who restores us. And how does He do this? By going to the Cross, by His bitter suffering and death – in a little while, and you will not see me – remember from last week, that's Jesus talking about His crucifixion, where He fulfills all righteousness.

    So having shown you your sin, the Holy Spirit will show you your Savior – He will fix your eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfector of your faith. That's the Holy Spirit's job – and whenever you have any understanding of Who Jesus is and what He has done for you – the Holy Spirit has guided you into that truth. The reason you believe in Jesus is that the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel and enlightened you with His gifts. The Holy Spirit leads us away from trust in ourselves, trust in our own strength, our own power, our own reason and smarts, and He makes us to trust in Jesus and His righteousness. Because of what Christ Jesus has done, because of His death upon the Cross and His resurrection, you have forgiveness and life – and the Spirit is the One who actually delivers that forgiveness and life to you – He delivers it by the Word, whether it's the Word proclaimed, or the Word attached to water in Baptism, or the Word attached to bread and wine in the Supper. What we have taken to calling “the means of grace” are actually more properly called “the means of the Spirit” - they are the means, the ways, in which the Holy Spirit brings you Christ and His righteousness.

    And one more thing. The Spirit will convict concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. So, we live by the Spirit – by the Spirit we see our sin and then we see our Savior, we are brought to repentance and faith. But then we see the world around us, and so often it is a mess, a Christless and anti-Jesus mess. And this can threaten to overwhelm us, drive us into despair. And so the Holy Spirit speaks concerning judgment. And this is where that old term “Paraclete” is such a great word. It's translated here as “Helper” because hardly no one knows what a paraclete was anymore, but it's worth learning. In the Ancient world, if you were in court, and you had someone leveling vile accusations against you, and threatening you with ruin, you were allowed to have a paraclete – someone who would be along side you (para – like parallel, like side by side) and who would talk (clete, call out) to you and help you, advise you, encourage you, console you. Your defense lawyer who would see you through the case over and against the ravings of your enemy.

    That's what the Holy Spirit does – the Spirit is your Perry Mason, your Matlock, your Atticus Finch. And when the world rants and raves at you, and you see the power of Satan roaring and raving, and it's fearful and it's intimidating, the Spirit is the One who leans over and says, “Don't worry – He's already lost – it's done and dusted and he's just in denial. He's judged, the deed is done, one little word can fell him.” And what is that word – well, we've been saying it all Easter – Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. The Spirit holds the judgment of God before our eyes – the judgment that you are alive in Christ, and in Christ you are forgiven, redeemed, and bound for the resurrection, and that Satan, the ruler of this messed up world, is bound for hell. This world's prince may still scowl fierce has he will – he can harm us none. That what the Spirit will remind you of in the Word.

    And the Spirit continually and repeatedly works, because we can't keep this all in, we can't have all of this wondrous stuff that Jesus does for us in our heads at the same time – it's too big, to wondrous for us. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. We cannot process the entirety of what Christ has done for us at any one time. So Jesus sends the Spirit – When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the Truth. The Spirit guides you now into all the things about Jesus, about Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that you need. The Spirit applies, delivers, gives you the Jesus that you need as you need Him. He will take what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything you need to know about Jesus, about the Father (for all that the Father has is Mine), this is what the Holy Spirit brings to you and reveals to you and makes you to understand.

    So that's what the Holy Spirit does. And no, we don't talk about the Holy Spirit all the time, but in large part that is because the Holy Spirit is busy focusing us and fixing our eyes upon Jesus. And whenever you see Jesus, whenever you understand how sin attacks and how Christ's righteousness wins out forgiveness and that Satan is defeated – that's the Spirit at work upon you and with you and in you for your good, to be your paraclete, your Helper, just as Jesus sent Him to you to be, just as Jesus poured Him upon you in Holy Baptism to be. The Spirit is indeed the Lord, the giver of life – because He gives you Jesus. And while no man may say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit – you have been given the Spirit, and thus together we gladly confess that Jesus has forgiven us and given us life and crushed Satan. Let us confess it by the Spirit again! Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia! +

Easter 4 Sermon

Christ is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

    So, by now does that opening seem a little. . . old to you? Christ is Risen – we know – and Easter was three weeks ago, isn’t it done? Now, in the Church, we are in the Easter season for 7 weeks, but socially, you don’t see many Easter decorations out and about anymore. The Cadbury Eggs have already been marked down and sold off, the lilies are fewer and fewer, and things seem like they are just back to normal and pressing on to the next thing. Just finished the taxes, and now the planting and the end of school and summer plans are all barreling towards us. A joyous shout of Christ is Risen/ He is Risen indeed, Alleluia – that almost seems out of place now, out of time.

    It’s not that Easter isn’t worth celebrating this long – it’s not that we shouldn’t continually rejoice – but our celebrations in this world – it’s just hard to have them last this long, isn’t it? This makes sense. Life in this world is hard. It’s hard to focus even unto today on the joys of Easter when that’s three weeks in the past, three weeks of hardship, three weeks of aches and pains, three weeks of busy-ness, three weeks of perhaps sore trials and sorrows, three weeks of things that have gone wrong, terribly wrong. How do we keep up, how do we maintain the joy of Easter for this long?

    Jesus knew that this would happen. You see, Jesus knows us and understands us better than we ourselves do – He knows and understands the burdens and struggles that we face in this life, the challenges and sorrows – how it can wear down a person. So, on the night when He was betrayed, there in the Upper Room with the disciples, Jesus takes some time to speak to His disciples about what life will be like after the Resurrection – words of comfort that make up the entirety of John 16, that set the stage for what life will be like in the New Testament Church. And those words are what we will be looking at until we celebrate Pentecost – those words are the words the Disciples kept in their minds as they waited for the Holy Spirit. So, even though we may be tired or worn with care, let us listen to our Lord’s Words from the Gospel and see what gifts He gives us through them.

    A little while, and you will see Me no longer, and again a little while, and you will see Me. This phrase gets repeated three times here in this passage, and although the disciples didn’t see then and there on that evening what Jesus meant, with the benefit of time and the writing of John’s Gospel, we do see. That Thursday evening would yield to Good Friday – less than 24 hours later and the disciples would have seen Jesus Crucified, put to death – taken away from them. They wouldn’t see Him any longer. Christ knows this is coming – but He also knows the resurrection is coming. They will see Him again, He will come to them after the resurrection and be with them. But His Words are true again - A little while, and you will see Me no longer, and again a little while, and you will see Me. Christ doesn’t hang out with the disciples very long after Easter. On the 40^th day He ascends – and there is sorrow and wonderment. But as the disciples learned from His death and resurrection – this parting is only a temporary one. The One who has gone to the Father will prepare for them a home for all eternity. While they don’t see Jesus in the days after the Ascension, that is only for a little while – and then will come to them the joys of being reunited for eternity with Christ in the very life everlasting that He has won for them.

    What we remember, what we know, dear friends – is that we here now are living in that same little while of the disciples. We know that the day shall come when we shall see Christ face to face, whether that happens when He comes again, or whether we should die before the last day – either way, we shall see Him. We live out our lives in that time of the little while – but what we remember is the same thing the disciples remember. Yes Christ died, but Christ rose – and He is good to His Word. If He says that for a little while you won’t see Him, but then you will again – His Word is true. We, likewise behold Christ’s death and resurrection, and we know that He will be true to His Word. That is why we can confess that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, that we expect the life of the world to come. We know it is coming.

    But that doesn’t mean that our time, the little while we have here on earth, that doesn’t mean that this little time won’t be filled with difficulty. There are struggles and trials and sorrows – some that others cause us, many that we foolishly cause ourselves. While we still are sinners in this sinful world, there will be sorrow. Hear how Christ describes this: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. The disciples would see this quickly. How they must have lamented when Christ was crucified. I can’t imagine. And yet, as they would soon understand, even that sorrow was turned to joy at our Lord’s Resurrection. They would see the pattern – sorrow turns to joy. And this is what the Disciples remembered as they went out after Pentecost day to preach the Gospel. In their work, in their lives, there was much sorrow. There were persecutions, there were stonings and crucifixions of their own to face – all while the world rejoiced. For the Early Christians there would be lions to devour them while the crowds cheered. There would be faithful people hounded by the wicked. But always, there was the promise of joy, joy to come, joy that is theirs with Christ.

    We must learn and remember what they learned and remembered – for God is true to His Word. Does the world around you rejoice as you suffer? Do people seem to delight in making your life more difficult? Do you have to always be wary of the next scam or raw deal, do you have people who would rejoice to see you stumble? Yeah – and that’s the way it is in this world. And when we look at that – it’s easy to get down, to get overwhelmed, to get depressed. But there is a truth that we remember. Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed, alleluia. That is true. The Sorrow of the Crucifixion moves onto the joy of the resurrection – and we need to learn from that how God works. He does not abandon us, He does not forsake us – but rather we can know and be sure that our sorrows turn to joy – that whatever it is in this life will indeed pass – that these sorrows will not overwhelm us – and that all of them will eventually yield and go away at the return of our Lord.

    When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. Again, another example to learn from. Sorrow leading unto joy. Childbirth is a mighty painful thing – and frankly I don’t like pain at all. Yet, women go on through it, and then have the joy of their child. God sees us through trials and into joy and happiness.

    But notice something, and this is important. There is going to be sorrow in your life. There are going to be days that don’t feel all that great – there are going to be times when the world around you rejoices at your suffering. That happens. Jesus tells us that this will happen. So don’t believe people who say that it won’t. Don’t listen to the false preachers who claim that all the joy in the world can be yours right now and forever – because all the joy of the world is hollow and vacant and fades away. There will be sorrow in this world, because this world is full of sin – and anyone who tries to convince that in this life you can completely avoid sorrow – well, they are trying to sell you on the joys of sin. But that isn’t our joy. Our joy is that which comes from God. And so dear Christian friends – we don’t live our lives as Christians trying to pretend that nothing bad will ever happen, we don’t live our lives for the sake of our stomach or our wallets – we don’t approach this life fearing what may or may not come. The Christian life is different. Listen to what Peter teaches us – For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. Sorrows and suffering and injustice comes – that happens – but how do we face them? We face them mindful of God. We know the promises of God, and we know that His promises are true. We have seen the world do it’s worst to our Lord and Savior – and yet He rose again. We have seen Christians before us tortured and put to death even – but they have the joys of heaven before them now. We have seen even our friends and loved ones who have fought the good fight of faith – and it is a fight, it is a struggle – and we know that they now rest from their labors. And they faced all of this mindful of God – as do you, for you too remember Christ’s death and resurrection and know that it is your own – that just as Christ was raised, so too you will be raised – and that joy no one can take away.

    What a gift we have from Jesus, that confident in Him, we are given this defiant joy in the face of all the troubles in the world. We know that there is nothing that can undo Easter, we know that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. Not the busy-ness of the past weeks, not wars and rumors of war, not whatever the summer holds, or even November. No, dear friends, we are right to repeat our cries of Easter joy – we are right to gather here around Jesus' Words and Jesus' own supper no matter what sorrow we face. Christ Jesus has conquered all – and we know that our sorrow will turn to joy. This is most certainly true. Christ is Risen – He is risen indeed, alleluia – Amen.

Easter 3 Sermon

 

Christ is Risen - He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia +

    The image of Christ, the Good Shepherd, is one of the most popular images we have in Christianity. How many pictures of Jesus have Him holding a sheep, or out in a pasture? We have the “Little Lambs” preschool precisely because Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I bet there are dozens of images and pictures of Jesus with sheep around here. Of all the things that Jesus does – of all the images he gives, the image of the Good Shepherd rises to the fore so often. Now, there are two places where we really get the idea of Christ as a Shepherd. One is the parable of the lost sheep in Luke, the other is our Gospel today. Let us, then, spend some time seeing what we learn from Christ describing Himself as our Good Shepherd.

    I am the Good Shepherd. This is a profound statement, and part of it we miss in English. In Greek, you wouldn’t need the word “I” there. . . you would only add it for emphasis. This isn’t just (i) am the Good Shepherd. . . this is I!!! AM the Good Shepherd. Do you want to know how this would sound to the person listening? Let’s jump back to Exodus 3. Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ what shall I say to them?” Then God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” If you were a Jew, you never used the construction “I Am” – that was reserved for God. In modern Hebrew, they don’t even have a phrase to say “I Am”, that’s how serious of a phrase this is. I Am the Good Shepherd. When Jesus speaks this simple, short sentence, He is openly claiming and announcing His Divinity, He is saying in neon, bold letters that He is God, that He is the LORD. That’s really what John 10 is all about. The next section, in verse 22, is where Jesus says bluntly I and the Father are One.

    So what does this mean – what does it imply that God Himself claims to be the Good Shepherd? This teaches us about our relationship to God. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. What a fantastic picture of God’s care for us. Let’s look at this from God’s point of view. Think of how this describes His care for us. We can understand this. Farmers, think of some of the conditions you go out into to feed your livestock. You have responsibility towards your animals, and you must care for them. This is God’s attitude towards you. . . He must care for you. If God is going to be God, He must care for you, He must provide for you. This is what we mean when we say “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” This is fundamentally who God is, the One who made you, and it is part of who He is to take care of you. And this imagery of the Good Shepherd also describes your relationship to God. You know Him. Part of what it is to be a Christian is to look at the world differently – we see the workings of our God, we know His hand. When we look at the blessings we have in our life, we don’t just say “Wow, look at everything I have earned – see how wonderful I am, see all my stuff!” No, we say, “Look at how God has blessed me, see what He has given to me.” We are sheep who receive our Lord’s care, we know and see that care, and we give thanks for it. This is what it means when Jesus says I Am the Good Shepherd – it means that when we see Christ in Scripture we are seeing the God who made and cares for us – this is the perspective we have to keep whenever we look at what Christ does. In His own Word, in His Scriptures, we hear His voice, we learn to know Him and know what He does for us. And what is the highest thing He does for us?

    I AM the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Because we are so familiar with this statement, we can forget how astounding it is. Why in the world would a shepherd die for sheep? They are just sheep, after all. Would any of you trade your life for a sheep’s life – it seems like such a strange idea. But Jesus goes on to explain the distinction that He is making. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. The key there, the key to understanding this passage, is the phrase “who does not own the sheep”. We can be very tenacious in defending our own, in protecting that which belongs to us. We understand this. If you want to watch a mother become upset, threaten her children. A soldier, he isn’t just out there for fun, what’s he doing? He’s defending his family, his home, his country.

    But even these images that we can understand don’t quite fully explain the Shepherd’s attitude towards us. It gives us a picture, but to really get the full impact, we need to pause and think about something. Anything that we have, our stuff – it’s not really ours. All that we have is simply gift, simply God providing for us – family and friends, house and home, everything that I need to preserve this body and life. My dad – he isn’t mine as though I own him, he’s the father God has provided me with. He belongs to God. If you have kids, they are a gift to you from God. If you have a dog, God has blessed you by letting you have the company of a dog which is His creature. We don’t really own anything – all that we have belongs to God.

    And we are His sheep. Think on this – think on the care that we will give to things and stuff that can be here today and gone tomorrow, the whole Lord giveth and taketh away idea. This is the care we who are sinful give even to things that aren’t ours – now imagine the care that our Holy and Righteous God gives to His sheep. We are God’s creatures, literally. We have our existence simply because God wants us to exist. Why is God willing to lay down His life for us, why does Jesus go through all the things He does? Because we are His, and He will defend us tirelessly from any and all who would scatter us. No one has a bigger stake in you, no one has more involvement in your life, than God. And He will care for you, He will lay down His life for you so that you will be His forever, so that like Him you too will rise.

    And do you see the contrast that is formed? The hired hand flees. That’s talking about us, you realize. We are all hired hands, we have been given things to take care of by God. God is the one who owns stuff, we are simply stewards and caretakers – and we flee and fail. How often, just this past week, have you abused the charges you have been given by God? How many times this past week have you treated poorly your spouse, or your kids, or your neighbor – any of the people God places into your life simply so that you can serve and provide for them? Has your time been rightly used, to say nothing of your treasure? We so often forget that these are gifts, and rather than treating them appropriately, we abuse them for our own enjoyment. We live at the expense of our neighbor instead of giving ourselves to them.

    Thankfully Christ Jesus doesn’t have our attitude. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. What a wonderful example of love. I mean, here you Christ looking at us, and we exist simply because He has created us, and you can see the depths of His love for us by what He is willing to endure for our sake. And it’s not a matter of practicality, it’s not a matter of Jesus will wash our back and now we’ll wash His. . . we are in a position where we don’t have anything to give Him of ourselves – we can only reflect back His love, use the gifts which He has given to us for His pleasure. And yet, He will lay down His life for us. That is love. That is God Almighty saying that He values you and your well being more than He values His own.

    And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. One thing to remember about this passage is that this talk comes when Jesus is conversing and arguing with some of the Jews. He’s dealing with people who had that, sadly familiar, attitude of misplaced pride and self worth. And Jesus says, “You know what guys, I’m not here just for you, I want all my sheep, I want all my creation. I will speak My Word, and from all over the world My sheep will hear and follow Me.” You don’t have to be living in Israel to be one of God’s people today – indeed all over the world Christ’s Church heeds the Word of the Shepherd and follows His lead. All over the world, Christians gather around Christ the Crucified being preached, Christ the Crucified being given to eat and to drink in His supper. Did you catch that in the Old Testament lesson today? So I will seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. When are we rescued? On a day of clouds and thick darkness. And lo, from the 6^th hour until the 9^th hour there was darkness over all the land. God is speaking about the Crucifixion here. That’s where it happens, that’s where we who were scattered and scampering about in our sin were won by Christ. Today, what are we gathered around? We are at our home, at our Father’s house – we are here to hear Christ Crucified preached. This is where our Good Shepherd calls us to feed us with His own Body and Blood from this very altar. This is how our Resurrected Lord rules today, this is where He gathers us and cares for us. This is our Israel, our Holy Land, because this is where God has chosen to give us His blessings.

    I AM the Good Shepherd. Thanks be to God our Father, that He has sent His Son Christ Jesus into the world to gather us unto Himself. Christ did not flee the wolf that came, but fought, suffered, died, and rose again to victory – and because of His Victory, we have life eternal in the pastures of the Lord. Christ is Risen - He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia + Amen.