Sermon Texts

July 23, 2024 Text:  Luke 1:57-80

Dear Friends in Christ,

Do you remember from the 1980’s the show The A-Team?  On the show was the character Colonel Hannibal Smith played by George Peppard.  His famous line was, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

We all like to see our plans be successful, right?  Work schedules.  Financial plans that meet or exceed our projections.  Career plans – school that leads to job that leads to promotion.  And there are some in the pews this morning waiting for a vacation plan to Germany come together that began in April 2023.  

The Bible shows that God is also a planner.  Isn’t it nice to have Him in charge of the universe and human history and human destiny?  Our text is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, a festival day in the church celebrated tomorrow.  We get to . . . 

“SEE AND HEAR GOD’S PLAN COMING TOGETHER”

We know that plans don’t always work out.  We might lose focus or procrastinate.  Sometimes we have a plan but because of expectations it is not what we intended.  Haven’t you had a great time somewhere, when initially you dreaded it.  Or vice versa, you have great expectations for something and then the big letdown.  Then sometimes plans are foiled because we live in a messed up, sinful world. Plans blow up in our faces.  We get discouraged.  Or we put too much trust in people.  This happens in politics.  You pray and vote for leaders and then they follow their own agenda instead of the one you voted for.

We have all seen plans fail.  Hopes dashed.  In our text, Zechariah had experienced this sort of thing too.  Zechariah was sure God’s plan wouldn’t work.

You remember the big announcement.  The angel Gabriel had come to Zechariah and Elizabeth, his wife, and told them they would have a son.  His name was going to be John and he would prepare the way for the Messiah.  This plan was promised throughout the Old Testament.  

Except experience, or what I call our sociological history, was telling Zechariah that this was a long shot.  Elizabeth and I are way too old.  God must be distracted.  Surely this coming Messiah can’t overcome the pagan rulers of Rome and religious leaders of Jerusalem.  

So, Zechariah didn’t believe in the plan of God.  Not now.  Not through him.  Zechariah was struck speechless because he didn’t believe in God’s plan.  Now pay attention to this for our modern times.  The pagan Roman rulers and corrupt religious leaders carried on with no apparent ill effects or consequences.  Zechariah had a lot of quiet time to contemplate what was happening around him.

The plan is starting to come together.  John is born.  Zechariah is speaking.  Zechariah’s song, his prophecy was a fulfillment that God’s Old Testament plans were coming together.  John means “The Lord has shown favor.”  He and Elizabeth were highly favored to have this child in old age.  They had been in God’s plans all along.

Verses 67-79 is called the Benedictus.  It has been part of the church’s liturgy since the 9^th century.  How did these words pop in his head?   God caused him to remember over a dozen Old Testament passages filled with promises that were now being fulfilled.  God’s plan had come together.

Zechariah’s prophesy talked about a Lord who was on the way.  Isaiah spoke about Him.  Malachi spoke about Him four hundred years before his coming.  God hadn’t forgotten.  God’s grand plan was now coming to completion:  to send Jesus, the Messiah.  Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, came at just the right time.  Jesus lived the perfect live that mankind had failed to live.  Jesus suffered and atoned for all the sins of mankind, who had failed to keep God’s perfect Law when He died on the cross.  Jesus rose from the grave to demonstrate his victory on our behalf.  This plan is not over.  Jesus will come again at just the right time to usher in the kingdom of heaven in all its fullness.

You and I, as the Church, have been commissioned to prepare the world for Jesus’ final coming.  Do not doubt the plan.  Do not be “speechless” with those who need the Gospel in preparation for that day.  Remember God’s promises.  Praise God like Zechariah did, for the plans in your life.  Study the Bible so you know the promises and can declare the Lord’s mighty works of love and salvation.   I love it when a plan comes together. 

Amen.        

June 9, 2024 Text:  Mark 3:20-35

Dear Friends in Christ,

It was about 8 years ago at my Grandma Lueck’s funeral in Wisconsin.  The family was standing around all waiting to go into the sanctuary.  The Pastor asked if someone would like to say a prayer.  I don’t remember exactly what I said but it was a little off the beaten path for the moment, because you see everyone standing there was LCMS.  It included three Pastors, a parochial school principal, two church organists and various leaders in their churches.  We were going to have to cast lots…maybe that is what I said!  Anyway, my cousins gave me that look, what is this guy thinking.  I tend to get that a lot.  But there are no secrets, everyone knows who I am.  Church family, you get that, right?

Today Jesus is going to be with his family.  In a group setting.  As family we tend to know each other the best.  Do they know Him?  Do they understand Him?  Let’s sneak ourselves into this . . . 

“FAMILY AFFAIR”

Our text begins with Jesus going home.  Crowds are huge.  These newly appointed disciples and Jesus couldn’t get anything to eat.  The family goes to seize him and say, “he is out of his mind.”  Why did they say this?  We need a little context which Mark does not give, but Matthew does.  Jesus had just healed a demon-possessed man.  His family thought he was in league with the demons.  They do not believe he is the Messiah, he must be crazy.

Does our family ever think we are “out of our mind.”  Do they ever look at you, like my cousins looked at me?  There are times we are out of our mind.  We don’t think clearly.  We do dumb things.  We say things we shouldn’t.  Our family knows most of our foibles and our weaknesses.  If they don’t, God surely does.  It is all a family affair.  Being in a family is not all happy meals and campfire songs.  It can be dark and dirty, emotional and confusing.  Who can we thank for that?  The first family.  It’s there in your Old Testament.  They disobeyed God.  They were naked.  They hid.  They blamed.  Families have been doing the same ever since.  

The accusations don’t end there.  Here’s comes his church family from Jerusalem.  The place where the cross would play an important part in this family affair.  “He’s possessed.”  Jesus’ opponents could not deny his miracles, so they question their origin.   They aren’t from God, they are from Satan.  Well, that’s a big matzoh ball hanging out there.

Time for an answer.  Satan cannot cast out Satan.  If divided, a kingdom cannot stand.  Then the family affair analogy, a house divided cannot stand.  Do you think Jesus might be telling his family something?  Quite an absurd charge, but if you don’t believe in Jesus as Messiah, you can pretty much accuse Him of anything.  

The battle Jesus had with Satan occurred in a way no one saw coming.  Jesus would bear our sin on the cross.  God would condemn Jesus for your sins against immediate family, extended family, church family, the family of God.  He suffered your eternal judgment.  He utters, “it is finished” and your sin is gone.  The resurrection proves Christ took away your sin and sets you right with God.  

Christ can declare in our text, “all sins will be forgiven the children of man.”  Christ’s promise defeats Satan.  Satan is bound by Christ.  Satan can no longer accuse you.  His power is broken.  You walk naked no longer in the garden.  You are set free from his prison.

Because of Christ’s victory, you are no longer an outsider.  When our boys were little, I would say to them, “I love you like you are my son.”  They would say, “I am your son.”  I would respond, “that’s what the blood test says.”  God completed that family joke by giving the boys and I the same exact blood type.  

God has made us family by blood and our genes.  “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  Jesus addresses those who thought he was out of his mind and who at this point do not believe in Him as Savior.  Christ is not downplaying family ties and their importance.  Earthly relations are crucial and help form who we are.  But even more important is our relationship to God and His family of faith.  This forms our eternal communion.  All believers according to Ephesians are the household of God.  We are the household of faith as Paul writes in Galatians.   To Jesus this tie is supreme.  We have to be careful to not place the earthly tie above the heavenly.  I had the opportunity recently to be interviewed about one of our sons.  It gave a chance to witness again, “He is not really my wife and I’s son, he belongs to God.”  

That is the family affair we should all want.  You and I belong to God.  You have been set free from Satan.  You are in the family of Christ the Savior.  Nice to have you home.

Amen.     

May 26, 2024 Text:  Acts 2:14a, 22-36

Dear Friends in Christ,

Roll the dice and take your chance.  When your numbers up, it’s up.  Do feel lucky?  Well, do you?  Is that how we live?  Is that how God operates?  Is life random, or . . . .

“DOES GOD HAVE A PLAN?”

It has been my experience as a Pastor that people answer this question in three different ways.  Some feel that their life has no direction.  They do not see God leading them and that things just happen randomly.  Life has just evolved and whatever happens, will happen.  They don’t have a God direction and they may have a hard time seeing heaven and hell and judgment.  A fellow by the name of Haywood Broun noted this little nugget, “Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist there is no God.”  And why does this happen?  The 17^th century mathematician Blaise Pascal said it correctly:  “Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it may be true.”  And this scriptural teaching that God is one God in Three Persons?  Well, it is beyond the human mind.

Does God have a plan?  The second answer from people is yes, He does but they do not have the spiritual awareness to see it.  Someone once remarked to me, “I know God has an answer, I just wish He would write it in the sky.”  These folks have a hard time understanding who God is.  We tend to fit Him into our thoughts and ideas.  When that happens, we want Him to be a skywriter and give us the plan.  Come into my office, Mr. and Mrs. Christian and I will lay everything out for you.  Is that how God works?   

The third way to answer this question is the Spirit induced way.  Yes, God does have a plan.  Yes, He does reveal it to us.  No, He does not always do it in ways that are expected.  I see my life as one God-ordained journey.  I tell my family over and over that God has put me exactly where he wants me to be.   In my socialization over the years, it has led me to see the reasons for events in my life that have taken place.  The Lord has always given me signs.  What career path to take.  Who to marry.  What call to take.  There are more big decisions in my future where He is going to lead me.  Do you see it the same way?  Which of these three ways do you find yourself?  No-direction God?  Some direction God?  All direction God?  Does God have a plan?  Or is it all random?

There was nothing random about your salvation; God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a definite, gracious plan for you.  In God’s work, we know him and his character, and we see the three persons of the Trinity in action.  Why did God need a plan?  Sin.  It separated us from God.  We deserved death.  But God had a plan.  Peter proclaims this wonder:  God knew what was going to happen.  He knew that we would sin, and He knew what redemption would cost.  It was the price of His Son.  Yet He still went forward.  He created. He redeemed.  

The entire Trinity was involved in God’s plan.  The Father foreknew and sent His only-begotten Son.  God allowed Jesus to be crucified.  He preserved Him from corruption and raised Him from the dead.  Jesus was exalted to God’s right hand.  Jesus’ saving work was complete.  God declared His Son Jesus both Lord and Christ, Master and Savior.

The Son submitted to the Father’s will and came to earth.  He took on our flesh, assumed our nature and shared in our weakness.  He did mighty works which showed His identity.  He resisted all temptation and took our sin upon Himself.  He became obedient to death on a cross.  He faithfully carried out God’s plan.

The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost.  The Spirit gathered the crowds to hear the message in their own language.  The Spirit testifies to Jesus through the Gospel.  We are born again of water and the Spirit.  He speaks to us through God’s Word.  Continually calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the one true faith.  

This is God’s plan.  The Father, Son, and Spirit are one God, and each person works in grace and mercy to make us His own.  What a plan!

So, if He knew you from the creation of the world and He had this wonderful plan that He made your soul a part of, doesn’t it figure that He is giving you some direction in life?  I think you know the answer to that.  No need to roll the dice or feel lucky.  You are blessed because this Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has made you a saved soul.  Now may the Trinity help you to live like one.

Amen.

May 19, 2024 Text:  John 15:26-27; 4b-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

We all have things about us that we don’t want to face.   For me, it is my age.  My whole life I have been the young whippersnapper.  Kindergarten at age 4, high school graduation at 17, the youngest in my class at seminary.  Recently at our joint Ascension Worship with Christ Lutheran one of their members came up to me and asked, “How long have you been here?”  I answered, “25 years.”  She replied, “I still remember when you came, we all thought you were 15.”  I feel great, can still compete athletically, and God pulls the strings of life and laughs, “Lueck, you are going to be a grandpa.”  What?!  All of us have things we don’t want to admit.  It can be hard to handle the truth.

Today we celebrate the coming of the Spirit of truth – the Holy Spirit promised by our Lord.  Are you happy about the Spirit’s appearing?

‘HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?”

Our fear of the truth has pretty much put its meaning up for grabs.  According to apologist Greg Koukl, truth in our age is so nebulous that we are living with our “feet firmly planted in midair,” with nothing absolute in which to ground ourselves.  Truth suffers everywhere.  In our politics, in our education, in our business dealings, in our sports, in our institutions, even in our churches.  It is easy to see in others.  Do we see it in ourselves?

A biblical great had a hard facing the truth.  He was a King.  Went by the name David.  Had an affair with a bathtub beauty named Bathsheba.  Got her pregnant.  Had her husband killed.  Takes this war-widow as one of his wives.  David hopes no one knows – but God does.  Sends in a man on a mission.  Went by the name Nathan.  He tells David a little story and David gets enraged.  David wants justice.

David goes so far as to say, “The man who has done this deserves to die.”  What follows is one of the great dramatic moments in the Bible.  Nathan looks the king in the ye and says, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:5, 7)  Ouch.  The ugly truth has to be faced.  David would repent and write in Psalm 51:3, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”

The Spirit of truth is not sent purely for us to see the truth in our lives.  The Spirit testifies and points to the Word, revealing that God is truth, Jesus is truth, the Spirit is truth.  God is true to his Word.  The Spirit of truth comes convicting the “world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” (v. 8-9)

We know the long, dark shadow of David’s sin, covers us in darkness.  We like to keep our sins hidden.  We can spin some pretty good yarns to ward off suspicion and keep our reputation.  Whether forced to or confronted, the Spirit pierces our hearts and opens us up to reality.  He comes and says, “You are the man!  You are the woman!”  Not someone from the news channel or the internet or the great evil that is out there.  You.  You have been convicted.  How are you handling that truth?

There is another truth.  We can praise God for this truth.  Jesus promises, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (v. 26)  God’s Word convicts of sin and judgment, but this same Spirit will also convict us of righteousness.  

The Spirit delivers this righteousness that our Savior has won for us by shedding His blood on the cross.  The Gospel delivers the beautiful truth that, despite our sin, God is for us.  God is true to His Word.  This Jesus died for us, rose for us, reigns for us, prays for us.  “God is faithful and just and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn. 1:9)

I have a hard time facing my age.  The gray hair in the mirror gives it away.  I could try to cover it up with some chemicals, but the gray is always going to be there.  Much like sin.  We can try to hide it, but it is always there.  It isn’t going away until Jesus welcomes us into heaven.  I am probably always going to compete against my age.  It is who God made me to be.  I ask for his help in handling the truth.

What about you?  Where do you need to do some soul searching?  What truth do you have a hard time facing?  Remember this, in God’s household, there is life.  It is the life of Jesus Christ for the death of this world.  When you make the wrong choice, recognize it and repent.  The Spirit gives each of us this beautiful truth:  righteousness in exchange for guilt, forgiveness in exchange for shame, and life in exchange for death.  

The Spirit of the Truth, the Helper has come.  The Father takes what is His and declares it to you.  You can handle it right – Life and Truth?

Amen.    

May 12, 2024 Text:  1 John 5:9-15

Dear Friends in Christ,

About 15 years ago Anthony Esolen wrote this in an article entitled “Nowhere Man.”  “’Behold,’ says the Psalmist, ‘I searched for the place of the wicked man, and he was no more.’  It is the second clause (his place knows him no more) that expresses the greater dread, of a death beyond death.  It is the terrible prospect of a total and unalterable severance – expressed as a loss of place.  How should it be, if one were wiped clean from the memory of earth and heaven and all that dwell therein?  How should it be, not to cease to live, but to have one’s few days of life delivered over – in their essence – to nothingness?”

Western Civilization has succeeded.  It has reduced the Christ to a minor player on the stage of human history.   What has been, what is, and what’s to come will not be altered by Him who sits in the heavens and laughs.  When it comes to Christ and possessing eternal salvation . . .

“EITHER YOU DO OR YOU DON’T”

John writes, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.  Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.  Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.” 

Concerning these verses, it has been correctly noted by Mark Jeske:  “People of all cultures are used to hearing human testimony in court and assigning great weight to it.  How much more impact does the Christian message have since God is talking!”  And this insight.  “There is only one truth – God’s truth…Christianity is not one of many philosophies that you can select interesting views and ideas from as though in a cafeteria.”

Well, our text says it, “Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar.”  The hatred may grow in intensity against Christ and the Church, but Paul gives this chilling truth.  “Do be deceived:  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.” (Gal 6:7)

I want to live forever, don’t you?  Not here though.  In heaven, with the Triune God.  The older I get the less I want to put up with the crap of this world.  It all ends eventually at the grave.  But John gets us past the grave when he writes, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” Either you do or you don’t.  There is no middle ground in Scripture.  The wages of human sin is always death.  Christ alone enters humanity and offers the alternative.  It’s a gift.  Given to the sinful and undeserving.  God has given to us eternal life in his Son. 

Many of you know George Orwell’s book 1984.  Orwell was a socialist.  In 1940 he wrote of Europe’s rejection of God, and he approved of that.  But listen to how he expressed his approval:  “For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on.  (Like the present pruning going on in America).  And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came.  But unfortunately there had been a little mistake:  the thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all, it was a cesspool full of barbed wire . . . It appears that amputation of the soul isn’t just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out.  The wound has a tendency to go septic.”

Wow!  Man does reap what he sows.  Either you believe in the Son or you don’t.  You can’t straddle the tree branch.  “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (v. 12)  There are a lot of people around us crashing to the ground who need our prayers.

Friend, you have got to do something with Jesus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit embrace Him.  Or by human might reject Him.  Either hang on to Him or throw Him out.  There is no in-between.  Another way.  A something else.

We are identified with Christ. You sang it with belief, didn’t you?  “The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord…With his own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.”  He died for our sins and then rose for our eternity.  Christ comes to you and I again and again in the Word and the Sacrament.  He did it all…for us.  We are so identified with Him that it isn’t an issue of either we do or either we don’t know and find comfort in His mercy and eternal life.  It is not “either you do or you don’t” for us.

We do.  Forever.

Amen.  

May 5, 2024     Text:  1 John 5:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our English language we have words that can have two opposite meanings.  One of those words is “overwhelm.”  On the news this week, we saw towns “overwhelmed” by tornadoes.  A city can be “overwhelmed” by an invading army.  We can be “overwhelmed” with grief at the death of a loved one.  In all these examples, “overwhelmed” is negative.  But it can also be used in a positive way.  I was “overwhelmed” with joy at the outpouring of support.  

The disciples saw it played out in their lives.  They were called to work alongside the Savior of the world and their world was turned upside down.  They were “overwhelmed” by the miracles and the healings and the way this man spoke.  Positive.  They also had times of being “overwhelmed” by the waves at sea or the soldiers marching into the garden or the trial and horrible crucifixion.  Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal “overwhelmed” them with sin and guilt.  Negative.

John knew the feeling.  John writes today to the Christian congregations so that they would not be “overwhelmed” by the world.  Which way is it going to be . . . 

“OVERWHELMED OR OVERCOMING?”

False claims were rampant when John writes this.  The virgin birth was denied, Jesus and the Christ were divided, and Jesus was buried but had not risen.  People had been conquered by the world.

People are still conquered by the world.  The virgin birth is still denied.  God becoming man is denied.  Jesus rising from the dead is denied.  All we have are new faces being put on the same heresies. 

We do not want to be “overwhelmed” by these deniers.  We don’t want to become complacent, or compromise our faith.  We do not want to stand in fear of rejection or conflict.  The world is powerful.  The voices of the world are powerful.  The devil is working.  How do we know all this?  Because there are pews in this sanctuary this morning that were formerly occupied by every Sunday worshippers and leaders in our church.  They now sit in silence because their hearts and minds have been “overwhelmed” by the world.  It is probably about the saddest thing a Pastor and congregation can experience.

John’s encouragement is that we “overcome” the world.  “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” (v. 1).  We overcome as we love and live out the command of God in our lives with one another.  Christ sacrificed on the cross our sins of doubt and complacency and compromise and silence.  

This faith in Jesus as the Law-keeping, sin-bearing Redeemer of the world is the “victory that has overcome the world.” (v. 4). The world’s desires pass away and the one who “does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17)

The object of our faith is Jesus the Christ.  He secured the victory for us by “the Spirit and the water and the blood.”  The life-giving Holy Spirit, by the life-cleansing water of Baptism, connects us to the life-redeeming blood of Jesus, who has overcome the world.  Jesus is God enfleshed coming to us yet today in his body and blood here in the sacrament of the Altar.  The church is nourished and overcomes the world.

In Christ we have overcome the world.  Without him the world would “overwhelm” us.  Victory in Christ.  That is the theme by which Sat. John lived and with which St. John died.  Christ breathed that divine theme into the Revelation of John, his last testimony to the churches John so loved.  In the New King James version of the Bible John uses the word “overcomes” seven different times.  Here are just two of those verses.  Revelation 2:7 – “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life.”  Revelation 3:5 – “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”

We are not “overwhelmed” by the world – or by whatever may happen to us in it – because we are, as St. John says, those who, in Jesus Christ, are overcoming the world.

Amen.