Sermon Texts

April 28, 2024 Text:  1 John 4:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

You are familiar with Catherine the Great and Alexander the Great, but do you know Abbas the Great or Cnut the Great, or even that Herod was called Great.  We have the Great Lakes and Great Wall of China.  In the last ten years someone came up with GOAT – Greatest of All Time.  We use this in sports.  Is Michael or the Lebron the greatest basketball player.  For football is the greatest a quarterback, running back, or wide receiver.  In baseball, pitcher or hitter.  The only sport where everyone agrees is in hockey, where Wayne Gretzky is known as “The Great One.”  This all means they are greater than others.

Our text identifies the one who is truly and eternally and universally greater than all others, and it assures that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (v. 4)

“GREATER THAN . . . “

The world has always been made up of competing belief systems and ideologies.  We might call them the “spirits of the age.”  They want to claim us as their own.

John warns his hearers, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit.”  Every belief system is not the same.  If you are not connected to the “vine” of Jesus Christ as heard in our Gospel, then some other ideology is controlling your mind.  

In our First reading today, we had Philip and the eunuch.  The eunuch lived in a culture not connected to Christ.  As Philip talked this man was changed and eventually baptized.  He had overcome the “spirit of the age.”

The aged John wrote this letter around AD 80. The prominent city in this Greco-Roman culture was Ephesus.  It was a diverse city by the sea.  Its temples and works of art attracted tourists.  Unbridled sexuality was expressed openly in the public theater and arts.  It prided itself on religious diversity.  Ephesus was internationally recognized as a “sanctuary city.”  All of this challenged the faith of John’s “little children.”  Therefore, he warned that these “spirits” could lead them astray.  They were to test these spirits.  Were they of Christ or apart from Christ.  He stayed connected with them as they engaged in this spiritual warfare.  Just like a parent today whose son or daughter leaves home to study or work in Chicago, New York, San Francisco.

“Do not believe every spirit.”  The spirit of compromise or the confession of Scripture?  The spirit of relativism or the “the way, the truth, and the life” as uttered by Jesus?  The spirit of immorality or making the God blessed choice?  The spirit of toleration or calling something wrong?  The spirit of intimidation wrought by political correctness or standing firm in the pages of the Bible?

Test all of this.  “We are from God.  Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (v. 6).   St. John says the “spirits” are discernable.   How?  “By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (vs. 2-3)

It is and always will be about Jesus.  Jesus is greater than…the spirits of every age.  Jesus is greater than…the spirit that minimizes or denies human sinfulness.  Christ dies for it.  Jesus is greater than…the spirit of the antichrist working in the world.  Jesus is greater than…our sin of giving in to those spirits in thought, word, deed.  Jesus is greater…than our heart when it condemns us.  Jesus is greater than…the world working to overcome us.  Christ’s dying and rising overcomes.

As we confess Christ, God abides in us.  The Ethiopian eunuch received Christ through Baptism.  We too as we are baptized into Christ.  John spoke about the Word of life.  We see with our eyes and receive with our hands the crucified and risen body and blood in the Holy Supper.  This greater than meal sustains us.

As the “Spirit of truth” moves in us we love one another.  We bear Christ and confess Christ to one another and to the spirit of the age.   We dispense with fear.  We are not afraid of the world and who is in it.  Holden told me recently of a group of men sharing Christ in and around the bars of downtown Bloomington on a weekend evening.  Could you and I do that?  They can.  We should have it in us because we know this truth, “he who is in us is greater than . . . he who is in the world.”

Amen.      

April 21, 2024 Text:  John 10:11-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Remember the game show Let’s Make A Deal?  Hosted by Monty Hall, the players had choices.  Many times, the choice would be between something they already had and what was behind door #1, door #2, or door #3.  Sometimes it was a better prize – a car or vacation – but at other times it would be a donkey or big stuffed animal or a car that wouldn’t run.  

In our text for today it is about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  In fact, John 10:1-18, is all about this theme.  Preceding our text, in verses 7 & 9 Jesus calls Himself “the door.”  I like that.  A door has two sides.  There is a blessed thing about Jesus:  Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and a door.

John 10 gives us this good news that Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Door . . .

“PROTECTS HIS SHEEP”

Hello fellow sheep.  Do you need some protection?  Again, a door has two sides.  On one side Jesus is providing his grace and mercy.  He opens His gracious hand to provide us pasture and living water – food and drink.  On the other side He closes the door so that we receive protection from the thieves and wolves.  We need help so the false shepherds do not steal our soul.

In the First Reading from Acts, the leaders of Israel were annoyed because the disciples were teaching about the resurrection of Jesus.  After all that had happened, they still didn’t believe.  The wolves, the Sadducees and high priests, wanted to scatter the flock.  Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit made this wonderful witness, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Let’s go back to a famous door.  One day, on orders from the Almighty, Noah and his sons built an ark.  This ark had a door.  The rains started up and at some point, Noah and his family boarded the ark.  Then what did they do?  They closed the door.  When that happened, the rain fell for God’s judgment.  For the people who still had faith, this small group of eight, the door provided protection.  Eventually, the rain would subside and Noah was able to open the door and reveal God’s Blessing on the earth.  Judgment was also present.  The door was shut on those who did not believe.  It was the same door, but your eternal fate was determined on which side of the door you were on.

Like on Let’s Make A Deal, we enter doors all the time that reveal something new.  Someone’s home you have never been to, a new school you will be attending, a hotel room in a foreign city, a restaurant you have been excited to chow down at, a medical room awaiting a doctor’s diagnosis, a funeral home to pick out a casket.  Some doors you can’t wait for.  Some doors you would like to never face.

No matter what you find behind the door, the Good Shepherd is there.  You receive Jesus as your Lord and master.  Outside these doors, many are rejecting Jesus.  They are outside the ark we might say.  Judgment is raining down.  

But you are safe.  Just like Noah was safe from the wind and waves and flooding waters, you are safe from God’s judgment.  You are protected from the wrath of God.  Sheep are put into pens with doors closed to keep out the wolves.  In the same way, Jesus is watching over you and keeping you safe from the devil and his evil angels.  Inside these doors of our church, God feeds and nourishes you.  You hear His voice in the preaching and proclamation of God’s Word.  You drink from the living water that flows from the baptismal font.  You eat the food that he has prepared at his banquet table, bread and wine that is his body and blood that offers you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Don’t be afraid.  Let the Holy Spirit take your hand.  Reach out.  Turn the knob.  Open it.  Go ahead.  Heaven and all its glory, all the blessings of God Almighty given for you. Come, enter through the door that is Jesus and find your Good Shepherd waiting for you.

Amen.  

April 7, 2024 Text:  John 20:19-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

If you are a parent, there is one moment that stands out.  The first time you got to touch your baby boy or baby girl.  The skin, the warmth, your flesh and blood in your arms.  It’s emotional.  It’s life-changing.  You can’t forget that time.  I couldn’t stop kissing the boys.  That touch that started in Overland Park, Kansas and Normal, Illinois delivery rooms continues to this day.

Touch is so important.  The disciple Thomas was a toucher.  It was a moment in his life he won’t soon forget.  

“THE TOUCH OF THE LORD”

The research is clear, people, especially children need touch.  If children are not touched, they grow at a slower rate, they are sicker, they have more trouble socially and they display more angry and depressed emotions.

It doesn’t stop there.  When you meet that special someone, you want to hold hands, put your arms around each other, sit close.  Do you married couples have that secret touch between the two of you that says, “I love you.”

We need that kind of touch.  The one that says love, assurance, closeness, comfort, happiness.  Touch says the other person is there, alive, real – and so are you.

We get to Thomas.  He’s a doubter.  A little skeptical.  See, he wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared risen from the dead.  He would not believe unless he touched Jesus.  “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (v. 25)

It is over a week later that Jesus appears.  Jesus must know that Thomas is doubting because it is Jesus who says these words, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (v. 27)  Just the right touch.  He gets to touch the Lord and Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” (v. 28)

In Jesus’ lifetime there was a lot of people who needed to see him.  There were people who needed to touch him and be touched by him.  When he blessed the children in Luke 18.  When he placed the mud on the eyes of the man born blind in John 9.  The woman who needed to touch his cloak in Luke 8.  The washing of the disciples’ feet in John 13.  Those are just a few of the many times that the touch of the Lord was important.

We need the touch of the Lord.  The sign of the cross on our forehead and hearts and then the water touching our head in Baptism.  Jesus is there.  At the baptismal font, we touch and have been touched by Jesus in just the right way.

As we come to the altar the touch of the Lord is here.  He has promised to be in that piece of bread and sip of wine.  His body.  His blood.  The living Jesus, right there.  Among us.  Touching us.  Jesus is close to us and saying, “I love you.”  He is giving assurance, comfort, and joy as he purifies us from all sin.  He is real, present, and alive – and so are we when we touch that bread and wine, that body and blood.

When we are touched by the Lord, we then extend that touch to others.  In ministry touch is so important.  The sick and the dying and the struggling want to know that someone is there.  As members of Christ, we give hugs to our fellow brothers and sisters.  We give mutual consolation to each other.  In a way, that’s Jesus touching us through his Church.

One day we will have the same joy and wonder of touching Jesus as Thomas did.  His resurrection says our hope is that touch and being touched will not end at the grave, but will be ours again on the Last Day and for all eternity.  The leper, the abandoned child, the brokenhearted, the grieving parents, the son who remembers – all need the touch of the Lord.  Jesus incredible gift to us is that we are, and we will be touched by the Lord.

Amen.      

March 31, 2024 – Easter Text:  Mark 16:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last March actress Gwyneth Paltrow and optometrist Terry Sanderson went to trial over a ski crash.  They both blamed each other.  He sued for damages, and she sued for defamation.  The jury decided for the actress.  The headline read “Gwyneth Paltrow gets vindication at ski collision trial.”

A few months before that, here in Illinois, a man was released from prison after serving almost 30 years for murder.  DNA evidence proved he was not the killer.  “I feel vindicated,” he said.

To be vindicated is to be cleared of guilt or to be proven right.  Today we conclude our Lenten Series “God On Trial” with our Easter theme . . .

“VINDICATION”

Who needs to be vindicated?  For starters, Jesus.  After Good Friday it sure looked like Jesus was wrong.  Put on trial, declared guilty of blasphemy, sentenced to death.  Pontius Pilate was judge and jury and with a little peer pressure from blinded souls, he handed down the sentence:  death by crucifixion.

Jesus was hanging there between two criminals, bleeding and dying, he looked so weak and powerless.  If he were who he claimed to be why wouldn’t God rescue him?  If he were God, couldn’t he escape?  Like every other person who hung on a cross, he breathed his last.  His lifeless body was buried in a tomb.

How could his followers process everything?  As darkness settled on the land they had a bitter mix of sadness, confusion, doubt, and fear.  

Maybe you can relate.  Some you love has died.  After all the funeral planning, the funeral and burial, friends and family head home.  Darkness settles, it’s quiet in the house, you feel alone.  “Lord, I am lost and confused.  I just don’t understand.”

It is not just the death of a loved one that leads to these thoughts.  Death reminds us that our time is running out.  Bodies failing, minds fading.  Even the young have their anxieties about making the right choices – friends, relationships, college, and career.  It’s the vertigo of a million possibilities.  We may wallow in guilt as mistakes are magnified in our minds.  How we have let down our Savior.

We may not know what the women were thinking on Easter morning, but we know what they were doing.  They went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body – one final act of love.  Then a young man in a white robe says, “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen; he is not here.  See the place where they laid him.”

It is too much to process.  They fled trembling and in astonishment.  But it would sink in.  Jesus would appear to them and many others.  The reports were corroborated again and again.  The good news was true:  “Victory!” was the headline.  Vindication!

Jesus didn’t come down from the cross to prove he was the Son of God.  He did something better; he rose from the dead.  On Easter, Jesus was proved right:  he is the God-man, the Messiah that he claimed to be.

Easter is vindication.  Do you ever wonder what his enemies thought?  Jesus took their sin, He took your sin, He took my sin and he died for it on the cross.  The exclamation – “It is finished.”  Vindication!  All those sins are paid for.

Easter is vindication for the prophets of old who told of the coming Messiah.  People like Job who placed their hope in Jesus, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth…yet in my flesh I will see God.”  Jesus’ resurrection is proof that Job was right.  It is proof for us too.  With Christ raised from the dead, we have hope beyond this life.  Jesus’ resurrection is the promise of the resurrection for all people.  That day will be our ultimate vindication. 

Easter is vindication for us as we live as people judged by this world.  Yes, the Christian Church is in decline in the United States.  Less people follow Jesus and worship in our churches.  Citizens are becoming more secular.  Even Christians might say, “The church is dying.”  Is that possible?  How can the church be dying when it is the body of the risen Christ?  Some churches may close, some Christians may fall away, but as long as Jesus lives, so does his church.  It may not be growing here, but in parts of the world the Christian Church is exploding in numbers.  People will always be hungry for the Gospel and the message of a Risen Christ.  We are vindicated!

We are on a triumphal march to glory.  We testify to the truth as we humbly and simply sing the victory song with saints and angels in heaven.  Sin is forgiven.  Death is defeated.  Jesus is Lord.  Christ and his people have been put on trial, and Easter brings the victorious verdict:  Vindication.  Alleluia!

Amen.     

March 29, 2024 – Good Friday     Text:  Matthew 27:38-54

Dear Friends in Christ,

Imagine standing at Calvary as Jesus is crucified.  There is a lot take in – different sights and smells.  For now, focus on the sounds.  What do you hear?

You first hear this, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Then the Jewish leaders, “He saved others; he cannot save himself….let him down from the cross and we will believe in him.”  The Gospel of Luke tells us that the soldiers and those crucified with him also said similar things.  Different voices.  Different tones.  But one diabolical chorus with a clear theme:  “Prove it.  If you are really God, show us.”

“EVIDENCE”

Today we still hear the echoes of voices directed at God or his people.  “If there is a God, show me the proof.  Why does it seem the devil has free reign in the world?  Why do prayers go unanswered?  I want a sign so I can believe.”

Like at Calvary, the voices come from different places.  People who hate the Christian Church and a God they can’t stand.  Some are natural skeptics who don’t believe in much of anything.  Some are desperate in their words and want to be proven wrong.   People still put God on Trial.  They want to see the evidence.  Does any of this affect you?

Do you get angry at the voices?  Are you frustrated about what they say about your faith?  Does Satan ever push a doubt into your cranium?  Could they be right?

Don’t ignore the voices.  In fact, in these voices, part of what they say is correct.  “He saved others.”  If they could have seen past their spiritual blindness, they might have noticed why he didn’t save himself.  He was refraining from using his power for a reason.  Why didn’t the man who could raise the dead save his own life?

Jesus had his own why question, but his question is meant to be an answer:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He cries to God not in unbelief but in agony.  It reveals what no one standing there could see.  The man in the middle cross wasn’t just suffering from lacerations, nails, thirst, and suffocation – on top of the ridicule.  This man, who had done nothing wrong in the court of humankind or the court of God, was suffering God’s wrath for the sins of others.  His question came from the depths of torment we deserved.  The one who saved others didn’t save himself.  Why?  Because he loves us.

That’s the answer to all the why questions that plague us.  “Why doesn’t Jesus do ____?   Why would he allow ___?”  Would he be abandoned by God for us only to later abandon us?  Would he follow every commandment, fulfill every prophecy, and forgive every sin only later to make a mistake in our lives?  He must love us.  He does love us.

Some voices were changed that day on the hill.  Luke speaks of a thief who went from mocking him to defending him.  A voice who wanted to be with Jesus in paradise.  The Holy Spirit working through a Suffering Servant.

Jesus works in us the same way.  A simple washing at a font and his Spirit is put in us to convince us he is our Savior.  Through eternal words, he speaks to us of the same forgiveness, the same promise of paradise.  In an unassuming meal, he lets us touch and taste Exhibit A:  the very body and blood he gave for us.  These means bring Jesus’ death to us to forgive our doubts – and put them to rest.

There is one more voice that should give you hope, especially if you have family or friends who look to the cross and their soul is blank.  They see and hear no Savior.  They are so deep in their sin that they are just a skeleton of bones with no purpose.  Remember how earlier we said that the enemies of Jesus spoke the truth – “He saved others.”  Nothing has changed.  If these dry bones didn’t think there was a God, then they would have no reason to get rid of him.  Do you ever try to destroy something that you don’t believe in or is not there?  

At the bottom of the cross was this type of man – a doubter, a skeptic, someone joining the mob mentality of why he won’t save himself.  He represents your child, your loved one, the one you pray for all the time.  He utters one of the greatest hopeful lines recorded in all of Scripture:  “Truly this was the Son of God!”  Whoop, there it is!  Walk past the cross tonight knowing that dry bones can be made alive again. 

On Golgotha, Jesus gives us all the evidence we need.

Amen.

March 28, 2024 – Maundy Thursday Text:  Luke 22:7-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

Things in our “God on Trial” series are about to get hectic, a little crazy.  The enemies of Jesus are ready to pounce.  Judas is now on their payroll, and it could happen at any minute.  Somewhere out there in the city, they lurk and conspire.

Soon it will come to a head:  their plot – and God’s plan.  Here is what is coming in the next 24 hours – the mob arrest in Gethsemane, the trials before Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, and Pilate again; the crucifixion and death on Calvary, and the burial in the tomb.

But not yet.  For a few hours in this second-floor room, it is just Jesus and his disciples.  How He has longed for this moment.

“RESPITE”

This time with his disciples is precious to him.  He enjoys being around them.  It is a good respite before the turmoil.

It is more than that, of course.  They are not just hanging out watching the NCAA basketball tournament.  They have gathered to celebrate the Passover – to remember the night the Lord rescued the Israelites from Egypt.  The Lord led them out of slavery, and they celebrated with a meal.

It was not just a look to the past but also a look ahead.  The perfect Lamb of God, the Christ would be sacrificed for the people.  His blood would protect them from God’s wrath.  He would give them freedom from their slavery to sin and death.  

We haven’t hit on the best part yet.  On this night for the first time, Jesus grants to his people his real body and blood, the very things he’ll give in death the next day.  He gives a down payment on the new covenant, the new pact God will make with sinners – sealed with Jesus’ blood shed on the cross – a promise of forgiveness through faith.  Jesus institutes a meal that is still being celebrated every week in Christian Churches around the world.  How we long to take our places at the table.

Our enemies, like Judas, are ready to pounce.  They lurk outside these walls looking to put God and his people on trial.  They ridicule the words God has given us and conspire to prevent those words from influencing our culture and our children.  That is why it is good to be in this room, God’s House with God’s people.

We cannot deny that we bring our sin in here.  The church doors are not some kind of airlock that keeps spiritual contaminants out.  Where there are sinners, there is sin.  Sin was in the upper room in the hearts of the disciples.  We drag our guilt in here with us for all the times we have been easy prey for our greatest enemy.  We carry in our doubts and fears.

Which is why we need to be here.  In this room, Jesus gathers us together to assure us that his blood covers our sins and shields us from God’s anger.  When you hear God’s Word here, Jesus is speaking to your hearts just as if he were sitting across the table from you.  More than that, he invites you to the table.  Gives you his body and blood in an unbreakable pact, a promise of forgiveness through faith, sealed with the blood of the Lamb of God.

When do you need a respite?  For me it will be next week.  The last two months have been crazy busy.  But I am not alone.  In this sanctuary we have people changing jobs, planning to move out of state, contemplating their future, traveling for work or pleasure.  We have others dealing with sickness, chronic pain, or family problems that won’t go away.  The reasons we need a respite are endless.

Tonight, Jesus gives the invitation.  “Come with me to a quiet room.  Come recline at my table.  Let’s celebrate a special meal together.  I have made the preparations, there is nothing you need to do.  The food is ready.  The drink is prepared.  It is my body and blood.  Let me serve you.  Let me strengthen you for the struggle of tomorrow.”  Here, in this moment, at this table, it is just you and Jesus and the company of heaven.

And one more thing.  As Jesus gathers us, he gathers us together in one body.  To your right and to your left, here at Jesus’ Table, are your brothers and sisters, who are fighting alongside you, facing the same enemies, needing the same Divine strength, and receiving the same forgiveness with you.

It is about to get hectic, but this Supper is a respite.  Here we find peace.  Here we kneel in the presence of God.  Here we are surrounded by his people.  Here it’s like . . .

Heaven.

Amen.