For enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to Israel

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 3

Isaiah 45:14-25

Every Sunday, after Communion, we sing the Nunc Dimittis, where Simeon praises God for revealing to him the Christ, who is the salvation which God had prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to His people Israel. What we have in our verses this evening from the second half of Isaiah 45 is essentially saying the same thing as Simeon. It’s God’s promise to bring the Gentiles into His plan of salvation and to bring glory to Israel in the process.

Thus says the LORD: “The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush And of the Sabeans, men of stature, Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours; They shall walk behind you, They shall come over in chains; And they shall bow down to you. They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, And there is no other; There is no other God.’ ”

God has just informed the captive Israelites in Babylon that He will surely be sending Cyrus to deliver them back to their homeland, back to Jerusalem and Judea. But with their return from captivity would come even greater blessings. He mentions Egypt and the surrounding nations here, coming over to Israel, yielding to Israel, humbling themselves before Israel, pleading to them for a place in Israel. Why? Because “surely God is among you, and there is no other God.”

The Egyptians here are symbolic of all Gentile nations. And the coming over to Israel is also symbolic. This is not God promising Israel an earthly kingdom to which all the secular governments of the world must submit. He’s promising that the Gentiles would come into God’s Church and seek salvation in the only place where it was to be found: among the people of Israel, from whom the Christ would come. And the Gentiles would acknowledge Israel’s God—including Jesus Christ, the Son of God—to be the true God.

Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!

This is the confession of all of us who have come to Israel, to the people from whom Christ came. We Gentiles have recognized Israel—Old Testament Israel—to be God’s chosen people, who preserved His Word and His religion long enough for Jesus, the world’s Savior, to be born. We have rejected the pagan gods of our pagan ancestors and have come to know the true God as the One who revealed Himself to Israel. In that sense, He is a God who hides Himself. Yes, He reveals many things about Himself in nature, things that all the Gentiles could recognize: that He is all-powerful, wise, kind, righteous, and eternal. But the true God can’t truly be known except to the extent that He reveals Himself to us in His Word. Part of His governance of the world included hiding Himself from the Gentiles for a time, and even now He remains mostly hidden from all men. But He revealed enough of Himself to Israel that both they and we could know a small part of His greatness, and all we need to know about His plan to save us through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is a light for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

Isaiah continues: They shall be ashamed and also disgraced, all of them; They shall go in confusion together, Who are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You shall not be ashamed or disgraced forever and ever.

The Lord assures Israel that the Gentile idolaters, including all who had oppressed them in the past, would be put to shame, that the victory of the unbelievers would be temporary, while the salvation of Israel through the coming Christ would be eternal.

In the next set of verses, God assures the people of Israel that He means what He says about this plan of salvation, for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

The Lord did not create the heavens and the earth in vain, for no purpose. He made them so that the earth might be inhabited. In the same way, He hasn’t been telling Israel for the last thousand years to seek Him in vain, for no purpose, so that He can abandon them now. No, they’re about to find out that their trust in Him was well-placed when He carries out this plan of salvation, for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to Israel.

“Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.

The Lord’s words here to “you who have escaped from the nations” can be applied equally to Israel, who was about to escape from their captivity in Babylon, and to the Gentiles who have escaped from their captivity to idolatry and have found the true God among the people of Israel. God challenges them all to compare Him with the idols of the nations, and to recognize that He is the only true God, the true Governor of the world, and also a righteous God and a Savior God, who isn’t like the gods that the nations worship—gods that demand sacrifices for their own benefit and honor. No, our God instituted sacrifices among the people of Israel for their benefit, to make them aware of their sins, so that they might one day put their faith in God’s great sacrifice of His own Son on the cross. Truly there is no God or Savior besides Him.

Finally, God calls out to all the world with this saving invitation, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, ‘Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed against Him. In the LORD all the descendants of Israel Shall be justified, and shall glory.’ ”

This grand invitation goes out to all mankind: All are invited! All are welcome! Come, and acknowledge the Lord God of Israel as the true God! Acknowledge His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Savior from sin! Come and bow down before Him in faith, and you will be grafted into the believing descendants of Israel. In Christ you will be justified and glorified! But, if you will not, if you, whether Jew or Gentile, refuse to believe in this God and in His Son Jesus Christ, understand that whoever sets himself against the Lord will bow down before the Lord Christ, not in worship, but in shame.

The invitation was there already in the Book of Isaiah. But it wasn’t until the days of old Simeon that the Lord actually brought His salvation into the world, and by God’s grace, Simeon recognized it as he held the baby Jesus in his arms. Here it was, the salvation that God had promised so long ago through the prophet Isaiah, the One who would be a Light for enlightening the Gentiles and for bringing glory to the people of Israel, the One before whom every knee will bow, the One in whom all the spiritual descendants of Israel, both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, will be justified, and will glory! Amen.

 

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The sorrow will be temporary

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Jubilate – Easter 3

1 Peter 2:11-20  +  John 16:16-23

Today we begin a five-week stretch in which we hear the Gospel, every week, from a portion of John’s Gospel, chapters 14-16. These chapters in John all recount some of Jesus’ final words to His disciples before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, all spoken from that same upper room where He celebrated the Last Supper and instituted the Lord’s Supper with His disciples. The suppers are finished. And Jesus spends these precious last moments preparing His disciples, not just for the next three days, but for what life would be like after His ascension. The help of the Holy Spirit would be essential for His Church going forward, and He’ll talk about that help in the other texts we’ll consider in the coming weeks. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus is specifically preparing His disciples for a time of sorrow they’d have to endure, a “little while” of not seeing Him. But the main thing He emphasizes to them is that this time of sorrow would be temporary, and that their sorrow would, soon enough, be turned to joy—joy so great that it overshadows all the sorrow that came before. These words were spoken for their benefit, but they were recorded in Holy Scripture for our benefit. So let’s consider the text.

“A little while, and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me, because I am going to the Father.” They didn’t understand what He was talking about, and they were afraid to ask, so He goes on to explain, although still in a somewhat cryptic way. Jesus said to them, “You are asking one another about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see me. And again, a little while, and you will see me.’ Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

There are two fulfillments of Jesus’ words here. The first little while, the first time of sorrow His disciples would experience, would be the next 72 hours or so. Within a few hours, Jesus would be taken away from them, arrested, tried, convicted, tortured, tried again, tortured again, convicted again, crucified, and buried. During that time, Jesus’ disciples would be the most sorrowful they had ever been or would ever be, because Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, was actually dead, and they thought it was permanent. If only they had believed these words Jesus had spoken to them! But they didn’t. And so they were sorrowful, while the unbelievers in Jerusalem rejoiced that they had finally gotten rid of that troublemaker, Jesus of Nazareth. The disciples would be sorrowful right up until the moment Jesus appeared to them again, in that same upper room, on Easter Sunday evening. Then they rejoiced when they saw the Lord, just as He said they would.

The second “little while” of sorrow wouldn’t be as little as 72 hours, but it also wouldn’t be as sorrowful, because for the rest of their lives, they knew and believed that Jesus was alive and reigning at the right hand of God. That’s what Jesus actually meant when He said that He was “going to the Father.” He was talking about His ascension, which would take place 40 days after He rose from the dead, His permanent removal of His visible presence from this earth—permanent in the sense that He wouldn’t be making any more appearances until the very end of the age, when He returns to this earth for judgment. For the rest of their earthly lives, Jesus’ disciples wouldn’t see Jesus again.

That time of separation from Jesus wouldn’t be pure sorrow, like it was when Jesus was dead and buried, but it would have its share of sorrow. And remember, we’re talking here only about the sorrow that Christians have because they’re Christians. All people have sorrow in this world because of sin and its consequences. But Jesus was talking about the kind of sorrow that affects Christians only, while the unbelieving world goes on rejoicing. What would Jesus’ disciples face in this world after He departed and went to the Father? They would face brutal opposition from their own countrymen and from the Gentiles. They would face torture and imprisonment, ridicule and mockery, slander and lies. Eventually they would witness the Roman empire turning against them and their fellow Christians with a vengeance. They would watch, or hear about, one another being put to death, one after the other, for carrying out the mission Jesus had given them. What’s more, while they lived, the apostles would witness even false brothers quickly start to introduce false teachings into the church and would have to spend a good deal of time stamping out the fires of heresy. There would be plenty of sorrow during that “little while” of the rest of their earthly lives.

But as soon as they closed their eyes in the sleep of Christian death, they would see Jesus again. They would be with the Lord in Paradise, just like the thief who died next to Jesus on the cross, where they still are today, nearly 2,000 years later. And their joy has known no end.

Jesus compared their sorrow to that of a woman in labor: “A woman has sorrow when she is giving birth, because her hour has come. But as soon as she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of her joy that a human being has been born into the world. So it is that you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

Now these words of Jesus apply just as much to the Christians living after the time of apostles, maybe even more, because we’ve never seen Jesus at all. All we’ve known is this time in between Jesus’ ascension and His eventual coming again. By the miracle of God’s Holy Spirit, working through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, we’ve come to believe in Jesus, without seeing Him. We believe that His words were faithfully recorded in the Bible, and that everything He said is true. We’ve been brought to repent of our sins, to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins, and to hope that He is indeed preparing a place for us now in the heavenly mansions, so that when we close our eyes in the sleep of Christian death, or when He returns to judge the earth—whichever comes first—we will see Him and rejoice.

But that also means that our entire life on earth is a “little while” of sorrow. Not pure sorrow, because we know that Jesus is alive, that He has conquered death for us and will return for us. But there’s sorrow, nonetheless—real sorrow, because the world hates Jesus even more now than it did back then. It hates the truth and loves the lies that the devil spews. So the world rejoices that Jesus is unseen during this time. It means that the lies can grow and evil can fester in the world largely unchecked, and it has! The infection has almost completely ravaged mankind, as it did leading up to Noah’s flood, and that causes Christians no end of sorrow, just as righteous Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing the lawless deeds of those around him in the wicked city of Sodom.

What are some of those sorrows? What things torment our souls?

First of all, we’re grieved by our own sinful flesh. The world rejoices to indulge in every sinful pleasure and activity, and to place one temptation after another before our eyes, but the Christian is grieved by temptation, and by his own sins, and yearns to be rid of them. But that sorrow is temporary, because this sinful flesh is temporary. One day we’ll shed it, and we’ll see Jesus, and that sorrow will be replaced with pure joy.

We’re grieved by the world’s largescale rejection of truth itself, and the embracing of lies. The lies are everywhere (and we point them out often precisely because they aren’t recognized as lies by the rest of the world): the lie of evolution and a billions-of-years-old universe has swept the world and practically consumed it as it shakes its fist at its Creator and claims, “You didn’t put this here! We don’t have to serve You!” There’s the lie of homosexuality as something natural and good. There’s the lie of transgenderism and the crushing pressure to accept it. There’s the lie that sex is free, and free of consequences, and free of responsibility. There’s the lie that the little child growing in her mother’s womb is a disposable clump of cells, and that preserving some degree of baby murder is a good thing. There are the lies of the politicians, the lies of the media, the lies of those who want to make Christianity into the greatest evil ever unleashed on this planet, because it robbed pagan cultures of their pagan worship practices and spread the “harmful” doctrine of Christ everywhere. Add to that the persecution of Christians, and the tyranny of corporations and of governments—including our own—which is now turned most acutely against Christians, and that will not change. Add to that all the false doctrines that have flooded the outward Christian Church, to the point that many Christians aren’t even Christians anymore, according to a Biblical definition. These things affect us. They affect our children. They’re painful, and they make it, sometimes, almost unbearable to live in this world of sorrow for the Christian.

But I think many women would say the same thing about the pains of childbirth. Painful, sorrowful, almost unbearable—until it’s over. And a child is born. And all the pain was worth it. Even forgotten, in a sense. That’s how it will be for believers, too. The sorrow is temporary. Temporary, not because eventually the Christian Church will succeed against the world and take over the world and convert the world to Christianity. No, temporary, because we will see Jesus again. You only have to live through the sorrow of this world for a several decades, at most. Then you’ll see Jesus. The world doesn’t have much longer to exist. Then all people will see Him. This sorrow will have an end, and knowing that, with the certainty of faith, will help you get through it.

What else will help you get through the sorrow? Well, you have the promise of the good Shepherd, that He is still with you, walking with you even through the valley of the shadow of death. You don’t see Him. But He tells you He’s there, and He doesn’t lie. And He promises that He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear.

What else? The ministers whom Christ sends you and the fellow Christians God places around you. These are gifts of God, like the doctors and nurses in the delivery room, to help you make it through the little while of sorrow.

What else? You have the Word of God, which is living and active, sheltering you and strengthening you with dependable truth. You have the promises attached to Holy Baptism. You have a special kind of presence of Jesus, His very body and blood, given to you in Holy Communion, so that He becomes a part of you, even now when you don’t see Him.

All these promises and gifts will enable you to push through the sorrow, to lean into it instead of running away from it. They will enable you to rejoice in the future that’s coming, just as a woman in labor, at least a part of her, can rejoice in the child who is about to be born. And these promises and gifts of God will even enable you to choose sorrow and suffering, when necessary. Because, yes, the Christian is often confronted with a choice, with many choices throughout one’s life. Do the right thing and face suffering for it, or do the wrong thing, or keep quiet, in order to avoid suffering and sorrow. St. Peter reminds us, in today’s Epistle, that doing the wrong thing to avoid suffering is simply not an option for the one who wants to be a follower of Christ Jesus.

So in those moments, whether long or short, when the sorrow begins to overwhelm you, remember Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead. Just as His time in the grave was temporary, so will your sorrow be. The Lord promises that, soon enough, you will see Him. And your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. Amen.

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God has raised up the heavenly Cyrus

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 2

Isaiah 45:1-13

On Sunday, we heard the Gospel about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. That title fits Jesus, not only because it describes so well His relationship with believers, but because it identifies Him as the Son of David, the great Shepherd-King of Israel, and as the LORD God Himself, as He reveals Himself in Psalm 23: The LORD is my shepherd. The title of shepherd is also most fitting for Jesus, because He is the true deliverer of Israel of whom Cyrus was a symbol. If you recall from last week, Isaiah 44 ended with a prophecy about the Lord’s “shepherd” named Cyrus, whom we identified as Cyrus II, also known as Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, whom God chose and sent before he was even born to return captive Israel from Babylon to Judea. We meet Cyrus again here in Isaiah 45:

“Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut.  So God referred to Cyrus as His “shepherd” in the previous chapter. Here, you noticed what He called him? The Lord’s “anointed.” And you know what the Hebrew word for anointed is, don’t you? It’s Messiah. The Lord says to His Messiah, Cyrus. Now, that word Messiah is used for several offices in the Old Testament. It’s used for prophets, priests, and kings, and it’s also used for the furnishings of the temple, which were anointed with the special anointing oil prescribed in the Law of Moses. But here the Gentile ruler named Cyrus is called the Lord’s anointed—anointed, not literally, but figuratively. That is, he was solemnly chosen by God and set aside for the special purpose of delivering His people from captivity.

You can see, then, how Cyrus was a type or a pattern of the coming Messiah, the Christ, the true Anointed One of God, sent to be both Shepherd and Conqueror, to deliver God’s people from our captivity to sin, death, and the devil and to shepherd us safely through this life. Some of the prophecies in this chapter are specific to Cyrus and Old Testament Israel, but most of the prophecies here also apply to Christ and the New Testament Church.

God promises to go before Cyrus and make the crooked places straight, removing all the obstacles to his conquest of Babylon. That’s the exact same thing God promised to do for the coming Christ by sending the forerunner, John the Baptist, to make the crooked places straight through the preaching of repentance. God promises to break in pieces the gates and the bars of Babylon. But in Daniel’s prophecy about the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, it’s Christ’s kingdom that breaks in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth. Here God says that he holds the hand of Cyrus and has called him by name. But in Isaiah 42 those same words were spoken, not about Cyrus, but directly about the coming Christ, “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles.”

The only thing said here that can’t be applied to the Christ is the phrase, “though you have not known Me.” Cyrus didn’t know the God of Israel. He didn’t serve the Lord intentionally. But Christ certainly knew the Lord as the eternal Son of God, as the one who is, as John writes, “in the Father’s bosom,” who is true God by nature. And He did serve the Lord intentionally, as we heard just this last Sunday, “I lay down My life for the sheep.” And a few verses later, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Rain down, you heavens, from above, And let the skies pour down righteousness; Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it. You may not remember this, but that verse serves as the Introit for the 4th Sunday of Advent. Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and bring forth salvation. It’s a picture of Christ, isn’t it?, who both came down from heaven as the Lord our righteousness, and who was also born from the earth, born of a woman, to be the salvation of mankind.

“Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’? Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”

Here God scolds Israel for all their past doubt, all their disagreement with how He rules the world, including His plan to allow them to be conquered by the Babylonians and taken into captivity. It really is arrogant for the created thing to criticize the Creator, like a lump of clay that thinks it’s smarter than the potter, that thinks it has the right to know the potter’s plans. It doesn’t. The Creator has every right to make what He wants and to use it how He wants to. This text serves to humble us all and to expose our arrogance for thinking that we should have some say in God’s plans, or, even worse, that we have the right to criticize His plans.

In His mercy, God has revealed many of His plans to us. He didn’t have to, but He did. He revealed to Israel the reason for their captivity and the general outline of His plan to rescue them from it. He has revealed to us the general reason for the suffering and death that we endure. But He has also revealed much of His plan to save us through Christ. As for the present chaos of this world, we don’t need to know God’s plan. We just need to trust that it’s good. And as for the future, God has revealed enough of that, too, to give us hope and sustain our faith. Let that be enough.

Thus says the LORD, The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; And concerning the work of My hands, you command Me. I have made the earth, And created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, And all their host I have commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city And let My exiles go free, Not for price nor reward,” Says the LORD of hosts.

Even though God doesn’t have to reveal His plans to us, His creatures, He tells us to ask Him, in this case. He wants us to know. The one who designed and stretched out this universe has chosen to focus His attention on His chosen people, to raise up an earthly savior for Israel—Cyrus, who would decree freedom for the captives. But as we’ve seen, that earthly savior was a symbol of the heavenly Savior, of Jesus Christ, who has decreed freedom for those held captive by sin, death, and the devil. The Lord designed and maneuvered the first four thousand years of human history to bring about Jesus’ birth, suffering, death, and resurrection, and has been working tirelessly for these last two thousand years to make sure that you and I had our part in the Savior’s kingdom and in His work of building it. God has raised up the heavenly Cyrus to save His people and has given you a place in His kingdom. Now trust the rest of the Lord’s plans for you and for this world, and know that the heavenly Cyrus will soon return to deliver God’s people from every form of captivity. Amen.

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The Good Shepherd’s shepherding, past and present

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Easter 2

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

St. John’s Gospel includes many pictures to help us understand the Lord Jesus better. He is the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning and who was God. He is the Bread from heaven, the Light of the world, the Door of the sheep, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Vine, and we the branches. It’s the Apostle John who also records the words of John the Baptist, identifying Jesus as the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sin of the world. But, how is He like a lamb? We learned that on Good Friday as He died on the cross and became the sacrificial lamb, the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the world.

But in another sense, Jesus is not like a lamb at all, because when a lamb is slaughtered, it has no say in the matter. A lamb doesn’t choose to be slaughtered. It doesn’t lay down its life for anyone. Its life is taken from it by others. It’s an involuntary victim. Not so with Jesus. In today’s Gospel, Jesus pictures believers in Him as sheep and Himself as Shepherd. I am the good Shepherd, He famously says. He is the good shepherd who voluntarily laid down His life for the sheep, and who also took up His life again in order to keep caring for His sheep for all eternity.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He calls Himself good in contrast with the bad. The bad shepherd, the “hireling” as he’s called in our Gospel, is not the owner of the sheep. He doesn’t care about the sheep. He’s a hired hand who’s only out there in the field tending the sheep because it’s a way to make money. He stays with the sheep as long as it’s convenient for him, as long as it’s not too much trouble. But if danger comes, he’s looking out for himself. He sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.

Who is the hireling? He’s every shepherd or “pastor” who looks out for his own best interests ahead of the safety and security of the flock entrusted to his care. And there have been many, many of those over the millennia. But Jesus is not like them. The sheep are His. They belong to Him. And He does care about them.

Who is the wolf? He is the devil. And he has power over people because of sin, power to accuse them before God, power to hold their guilt over them, power to drag them to hell. And no one could be free from his power, because no one is without sin. No one is righteous, no, not one, the Psalm says. And as Isaiah wrote, we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, each one, to his own way.

When did we last hear those words? We heard them on Good Friday. Why? Because, as Isaiah’s prophecy continues, the LORD has laid on Him—on Christ, our good Shepherd—the iniquity of us all. Now tie those words to Jesus’ words: The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Willingly. Intentionally. Voluntarily. In fact, He came to earth in the first place for the very purpose of confronting the wolf and laying down His life so that the sheep might be saved. He laid down His life in every way, by living His life, not for Himself, but for us, and by giving His life on the cross for us. The Son of God took on our flesh and lived among us as both God and Man. He devoted His life to serving us by preaching the truth, the truth about us as sinners and about Him as the One who freely forgives sins to all who trust in Him. He laid down His life as the atoning price for our sins, and not only for ours, but for the sins of the world. You should picture your Good Shepherd bleeding and dying on the cross. That’s what it meant to see the wolf coming and to stand His ground for the sake of the sheep, so that He might be attacked and killed in their place. The good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep.

Of course, you should also picture Christ, your Good Shepherd, risen from the dead, perfectly healed and alive again on Easter Sunday—healed, though He kept the marks of His crucifixion, the nail prints in His hands and the spear print in His side, as He showed them to Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel. Those are the scars of the Shepherd from His battle with the wolf, and even as He wants you always to remember His resurrection from the dead, so He wants you always to remember His crucifixion, so that you never look at sin lightly, or take for granted the price that was willingly paid for your redemption: the holy, precious blood of your Shepherd.

Jesus’ life on earth, and His innocent death, and His glorious resurrection are His great shepherding acts in the past. But He isn’t done shepherding His sheep. He has more shepherding to do. As you know, it was never Jesus’ plan to stay on earth in visible form and to shepherd His flock, from Jerusalem or from some other place. Imagine how sad that would be! A Shepherd who lived on the other side of the world from where you are, who had only so much time to spend with each one of His sheep. No, the Lord had a different plan for this New Testament era, with a different form of shepherding in mind.

Jesus says in our Gospel, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. But that “bringing” into the one flock didn’t happen, or at least, was far from being finished during Jesus’ life on earth. This is the bringing the Good Shepherd does through the shepherds whom He has been sending into the world since Easter Sunday and whom He will continue to send until all the sheep are found who are to be found, until the whole flock is gathered into the One Holy Catholic—that is, Christian—and Apostolic Church.

So it is Jesus who sends the shepherds, which is the meaning of the word “pastor.” Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My lambs. Shepherd My sheep.” And as Paul writes to the Ephesians, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. That means that every pastor of God’s Church is placed exactly where the Good Shepherd wants him, in every time and in every place, so that Christ might preach to men through the humble service of men, so that He might gather His sheep, minister to His sheep, forgive the sins of His sheep, and preserve them in His flock through that very same preaching and through the administration of the holy Sacraments.

So, too, it is Jesus who brings the sheep, who went looking for each and every one of you, who brought you into contact with His Church and with His Gospel, who brought you—or will bring you—to Baptism and to faith. I know My sheep, He says, and am known by My own. He knew you from before the foundations of the world were laid, and He knows you still. Even if no one else on earth truly knows you, He knows you—who you are, what you need, what you’ve done, and what you will do. And He also knows all who will believe in Him as His Spirit calls them through the Gospel, even if they don’t yet know Him. There is still time to know Him! The invitation still goes out, to everyone!

And now, as St. Peter wrote in today’s Epistle, the Lord calls you to do good to others and for others, just as your Good Shepherd did, and to be willing to suffer for doing good, just as your Good Shepherd was. That means living as the light and salt of the earth. That means taking this Christian faith seriously, living a life that stands out in the world, that stands out in goodness and kindness and generosity, that shines with truthfulness in all things, that honors God’s Word above all things. You will suffer in this world if you live like that. But then, you’ll just be walking in the footsteps of your Good Shepherd, following behind Him wherever He goes, first to shame and then to glory.

May the voice of the Good Shepherd ring in your ears today and every day. You know Him. Now follow Him. He will make you to lie down in green pastures. He will lead you beside still waters. He will restore your soul. He will be with you as you walk, even through the valley of the shadow of death. And He will follow you with His goodness and with His mercy all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

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The big announcement of redemption

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Easter 1

Isaiah 44:21-28

Now that we have finished our review of those key Holy Week and Easter chapters of Isaiah, chapters 52, 53, and 54, we can go back to looking at Isaiah’s prophecy in order again, and we’ll stay in order through the rest of the church year. Before Holy Week began, we covered the first 20 verses of Isaiah 44, where, above all, God excoriated and mocked the idolaters and revealed just how foolish it is to worship something that you’ve made with your own hands, to worship anyone or anything besides the only true God, the Lord, the actual Creator of the heavens and the earth, the who has revealed Himself in the Bible and who pledged Himself to the people of Israel, in order that He might accomplish His eternal purpose of bringing His Son into the world to save sinners.

We’re reminded again in these verses that the phrase “My servant” in Isaiah’s prophecy sometimes refers to Israel as a nation. Sometimes it refers to the ideal Israel, to the Christ, the perfect Servant of the Lord, who would rescue Israel, the imperfect servant of the Lord. It clearly refers to Israel here in these verses.

“Remember these, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me! I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

God speaks here to the people that He has formed, whom He has been cultivating since the time of Jacob. They seem to have been forgotten by God, as He has allowed them to be held captive in Babylon for 70 years, although He has explained them many times the reason for their punishment. But now, God says that He has blotted out their transgressions. That is, He will no longer hold them against Israel, would not keep punishing Israel in captivity. He is ready to show mercy to them and rescue them from their captivity.

Of course, this blotting out of transgressions points ahead to the great rescue that God would accomplish through the Christ, the blotting out of transgressions that takes place, not just for Israel, but for all baptized believers in Christ Jesus. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. Return to me in repentance and faith, God says to all people, because I have sent My Son to die for your sins. “Return to Me,” or, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “Be reconciled to God!”

Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And glorified Himself in Israel.

Why should the whole heaven and earth rejoice at God’s redemption of Israel from slavery in Babylon? Why should the whole universe’s happiness revolve around Israel’s rescue from Babylon? For two reasons: First, because it brings glory to the God of the universe, who prophesied this rescue and who would surely be able to carry it out, no matter who opposed Him. And just as importantly, God’s saving act of returning Israel to the land of Israel means that the Christ can come to Israel, as promised! And the Christ would be a blessing to all mankind, because He bore the sins of all and invites all to return to God through faith in Him. That’s why all the earth should rejoice at the birth of Christ and at the resurrection of Christ, not just on the holidays we’ve chosen to commemorate those events, but throughout the year and throughout our lives.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

The Lord is getting His people ready for a big announcement. To do that, He reminds them who He is. He is the LORD, the great I AM. He is “your Redeemer,” the One who has always looked out for you and rescued you, even from your own sins. He’s the one who formed you, who knew you as a people and as individuals from the beginning of time. He’s the Maker of all things—the sole maker of heaven and earth. So what’s the big announcement from Israel’s Maker and Redeemer?

Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ And I will raise up her waste places; Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’;

God always confirms the word of His prophets and messengers whom He has sent. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah were such messengers. And they both prophesied, by God’s Holy Spirit, that Israel would be taken into captivity in Babylon and eventually released. Well, the prophecy of captivity had certainly been fulfilled. And now the other part will be also. He goes on,

Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Here it is. Here we come to it. The big announcement: The very name of the future King of Persia, Cyrus, who actually would say that very thing to Jerusalem, “You shall be built.” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” Cyrus II of Persia issued that very decree in 539 BC, after conquering the Babylonians, who had been holding Israel in captivity for 70 years. We’ll see Cyrus’ name repeated in the next chapter. And, understand, Isaiah wrote these words 100 years or so before Cyrus was even born.

As you can imagine, that’s a huge problem for those who don’t believe in God, who deny the inspiration of Scripture. Such a detailed, accurate prophecy of future events is impossible. In fact, this is the main reason why unbelieving scholars simply deny that Isaiah was the author of these chapters of Isaiah. Since detailed prophecy is impossible, they say, therefore, this prophecy must be fake.

But did you catch that other description God gave to Himself? Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness.

All the “wise men,” all the “knowledgeable men” of the world who refuse to believe God’s Word are turned backward; their knowledge is made foolishness by God. On the other hand, for us who believe that the God of the Bible is the true God and that the prophets were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s one of the many things that cause us to stand in awe of our great God, who holds past, present, and future in His hand and does as He pleases with them, who knows all things and guides all things to conform to His good plan for those whom He has chosen.

And as we’ll see next week, Cyrus himself, God’s “shepherd,” was a type, a pattern, of the coming Christ, whom God would send, not to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but to build a Church throughout the world, a Church made of up sinners who have believed the Lord’s promise of redemption and forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord’s true Shepherd, who will guide His people out of the captivity of this corrupt and crooked world into the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God. That’s God’s biggest announcement. And it can’t happen too quickly! Amen.

 

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