Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, November 8th

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Matthew 22:23–33 (NKJV)

23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24 saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Religious hypocrisy abounded in Jesus’ day; it abounds in our day as well. In Jesus’ day, the Sadducees were the hyper-liberal religious leaders—controlling the temple and the Jewish council. Being materialists, they did not believe in the supernatural, but saw Jesus as a threat to their cash-flow and power, especially after He turned over the money-changer tables in the temple court. So, they come to Him and pose a question about resurrection because they do not believe in resurrection. They are trying to make Him look foolish, but Jesus turns that table on them as well. He tells them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (29). Then Jesus explains both Scripture and the power of God to them as though they were foolish little school children. They claim to believe in the first five books of Moses, but they demonstrate that they do not believe what these books actually say about God and His power. In this way Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, and He vindicates the hope of God’s people in the resurrection.

Likewise in our day, many claim to be Christian and even want to be leaders in Christian churches, but they fail to believe in basic biblical truths like the resurrection of the dead. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy as well when He says, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (29). We, however, who have faith in Him and His word, know both Scripture and the power of God to raise the dead. He raised Christ from the dead, and we too will be raised from the dead, even as Christ promised us, “Because I live you also will live” (Jn 14:19).

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, November 8th

Each Day in the Word, Monday, November 7th

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Matthew 24:29–51 (NKJV)

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days… they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (29-30). Jesus gives us a general description of His second coming but does not give us the exact timeline for it. In fact, He tells us repeatedly to stay ready for His return for the precise reason that we do not know when that will be, and that He will come at a time that we “do not expect” (44).

When He does finally return, we can rejoice, as He sends His angels to gather us from all points on the globe. He promised to rise from the dead, and He vindicated His word when He rose from the dead; and He promised to return, and He will vindicate His word when He returns, because His “words will by no means pass away” (35).

For those of us who have received His salvation in faith, Jesus’ return is accomplishing our full salvation, but for the impenitent, His return is a fearsome prospect of judgment. The signs of His return will be unmistakable. Thus, the need is not to predict the time of His return, but always to stay ready for it by living in faith in Him.

Christ tells us that His return will be sudden, and since we cannot calculate when that return might be the only option we have and His instruction to us is to eagerly watch at all times for His imminent return. This means we are to constantly live in our baptism daily, repenting of sin daily, and receiving His forgiveness daily. As with His supper, so with His return, only by living in faith are we “truly well prepared” to receive Him.

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Monday, November 7th

Beware of idols in all their forms

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/767896708 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for the Third-to-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

We began our service today with a happy thing, with the baptism of another soul into our Father’s family, into Christ’s kingdom, into the Holy Christian Church. The Gospel you heard today from Matthew 24 wasn’t filled with happy things, though, was it? Jesus didn’t always speak happy and comforting words. He has lots of things to teach His disciples (then and now) after they are brought into His kingdom through Baptism and faith, things that aren’t happy and joyful but serious and urgent, so that we can be happy with Him for eternity. We have to hear everything He says, and that includes the hard things.

It was a hard saying of Jesus that He spoke to His disciples during Holy Work as He warned them about things to come. Some of those things would come to pass literally, in the actual city of Jerusalem, within the next several years. But some of them would happen figuratively, within the figurative, spiritual Jerusalem that is the Christian Church on earth. To sum it up, an abomination will be set up in Jerusalem and a time of great tribulation will come upon God’s people. We must be ready to flee from the abomination and endure the tribulation until Christ returns at the end.

An abomination is something that God hates, and throughout the Old Testament it’s used as a synonym for an idol and for the practice of idolatry. We’ve been talking about this particular abomination for several weeks now in Bible study. Daniel is the one who first prophesied this “abomination of desolation” in chapter 9 of his book, an abomination that would be set up “on the wing,” which we’ve identified with the most famous wings in Jewish history—the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the ark of the covenant in the heart of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus confirms that interpretation by saying that this abomination will be set up “in the holy place.”

The idolatry that was literally set up in literal Jerusalem, in the literal temple, were the sacrifices, prayers, and offerings that the Jewish people made to God after the Day of Pentecost, in rejection of Jesus as the Christ. After His death on the cross, as the one divinely accepted payment for sin, after His resurrection from the dead, after the Gospel of salvation through faith in Christ was preached, Jerusalem as a whole said, “We don’t want it. We don’t want any of it. We want to approach God under the covenant He made with Moses, on the basis of our obedience to the Law. We want nothing to do with this Jesus.” And so their worship became the worst kind of idol in God’s sight. An idol that bears God’s name, but that bears it falsely. An abomination. The destruction that the Roman armies brought on Jerusalem in 70 AD was the desolation that was caused by the abomination that was Jerusalem’s rejection of Jesus.

The Lord foresaw all of that, and so He warned His dear Christians to flee Jerusalem, to flee to the mountains, to flee urgently from the city when they saw that the abomination (the idolatry of Jewish worship that rejects Jesus as the Christ) was firmly set in place, because He knew how bad things were going to get when the Romans finally came in with their armies. He also knew that fleeing wouldn’t be easy, that leaving the holy city would be hard, that life “in the mountains” wouldn’t be pleasant or comfortable, because a great tribulation was coming on the world over the next few centuries, not only in the destruction of Jerusalem, but in the Great Persecution of Christians and in the rise of all kinds of false teachers over those next few centuries. The Christians at that time needed to be prepared for how bad things were going to be. And they needed to be reassured that those days would be cut short for their sake; it wouldn’t go on like that forever.

And, to be sure, there was widespread peace for the Church after Constantine legalized the Christian religion in 313 AD. The Great Persecution was over. But, as often happens in times of peace and prosperity—as happened over and over again in the Old Testament—the people of God grow soft and complacent. They begin to enjoy this life and the things of this life too much. They move away from their dependency on God’s Word and Sacraments. And that’s when error and corruption and all kinds of evil are allowed to spread.

And so the stage was set for another abomination of desolation to be set up in the holy place. This time, not Jerusalem or its temple, but in the Holy Christian Church, which is God’s true temple on earth. Idolatry was officially promoted in the way Christians were taught to pray to the saints who have fallen asleep, to expect help from the sleeping saints, to sacrifice the body and blood of Christ in the Mass, to view the Roman pope as the Head of all Christians and to view his teaching as more authoritative than Holy Scripture, to believe that sinners are not saved by faith alone in Christ Jesus. These are just some of the idols that were set up in the holy place of the Holy Christian Church. They are the abominations of the institution referred to in Scripture as the Antichrist.

But the Antichrist isn’t a single person. For some five hundred years, Lutherans have identified the primary manifestation of the Antichrist in the Roman Papacy that endorses and promotes those forms of idolatry I just mentioned, and that, centuries ago, persecuted and killed those who disagreed. And so, for some 500 years, we are those who have fled from Rome to the mountains. We couldn’t stay in communion with Rome, nor can we go back to Rome. We can’t stay and share in her prestige or her glory, because destruction is coming upon her.

But the influence of Antichrist isn’t restricted to the Papacy. It’s all the setting up of idols that takes place within the Christian Church, where faith in Christ and the Word of Christ are substituted with something else. Protestants, who have no outward allegiance to the pope, have set up plenty of idolatries in the Christian Church, too. Women pretending to serve as pastors, contrary to God’s Word. Homosexuality endorsed and approved as acceptable and God-pleasing. Denying the saving, regenerating power of Holy Baptism. Denying the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The worship of man, the worship of personal preference, the rejection of the holy ministry, and the elevation of church bodies and synods to the place of God in people’s hearts. These are just a few of the abominations that have been set up in the Christian Church. All of these things are antichristian idolatries. To remain in communion with those who promote any of these idolatries is to remain in Jerusalem after the abomination of desolation has been set up.

And so we must always be as those who are fleeing to the mountains. That doesn’t mean we stop going to church, though. On the contrary, it is still God’s will to create faith and to forgive sins only through the ministry of the Word, through preaching and through the Holy Sacraments. It is still God’s will to save sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified for their sins and by sustaining faith through His Means of Grace. And it’s still God’s will that Christians gather together to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the Day of Judgment drawing nearer. God will most certainly keep us safe from death and the devil as we flee from the idolatry of the Antichrist in all its forms.

But fleeing to the mountains means we have to give up all our idolatries, too, and keep giving them up, because idolatry is like the mole in the whack-a-mole game. Smack it down in one place, and it pops up in another. We’ve given up the prestige and the comforts and the conveniences of a larger church in order to remain faithful to the Word of Christ. But we could easily start to exalt ourselves and become prideful, or loveless, or we could cling desperately to the external things we still have. We could easily grow more attached to the things of this world than to the Word of Christ, which would mean forfeiting all the benefit of fleeing the abomination of desolation in the first place.

But to guard us against that, God continues to provide for us here in our flight. The Gospel is still being proclaimed in our midst, where the Holy Spirit calls us daily to repentance through His Law, comforts us and forgives us through His Gospel, hedges us in with His warnings to beware of all those false christs and false prophets who will seek to distract us along the way. “Here is Christ! Over here! Over here!” You know how confusing the religious scene is in our world. So confusing, so lonely, and so disheartening that even the elect are close to being deceived, as Jesus said we would be.

That would be more disheartening if we were truly alone. But we aren’t. Not only does the Lord Jesus accompany us always, to the very end of the age, but there are countless others around the world who have also fled Jerusalem and are living as spiritual refugees. Some of them we know, some of them we don’t. But we give thanks for them all, for the true believers in the world.

And all of this would be scarier, too, if Jesus hadn’t told us it would be this way beforehand. But He did. Right here in our Gospel. And He promises that it will be all right, and better than all right for those who cling in faith to Him above all things. We may be living as those who are fleeing, but God is with us as we flee, our Captain, our Defender, our Savior. He hasn’t sent us out of the city empty-handed, but has poured His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, and has given us His Word and His body and blood for food, and His righteousness for a cloak.

And at just the right time, the carcass will appear—the body of Him who was dead, but now lives again forevermore. And when He appears, the eagles will gather around Him, all those who have longed for His appearing. Paul described that in today’s Epistle: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The words of Jesus today paint a frightening picture, but not so frightening when He promises His help and a blessed ending for His Church, for His believers, for His saints. Cling to that promise! Beware of idols! And wait patiently here in the mountains for the Lord’s return! Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Beware of idols in all their forms

Each Day in the Word, Sunday, November 6th

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Revelation 19:1–5 (NKJV)

1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”

“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!’” (1). The great multitude of the saints of God have been praying, “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory”; and once they are in glory, as the Church triumphant, they joyfully proclaim the salvation that is now theirs—secured by Christ and received through faith in Him. That proclamation will be ours as well when we are transferred from the Church militant to the Church triumphant.

That proclamation also refers to the “true and righteous” judgments of God, who at the end of time, will judge the impenitent for their sins and avenge His servants. The good news of the book of Revelation is that no matter how dark our times may appear on this earth, God does in fact Rule all things behind the scenes, and He will ultimately bring all things under His direct control.

Smoke from the incense of the prayers of the saints previously ascended to God pleading for our salvation from the oppression of those who oppose God, and now we see that in the end this smoke will be replaced by the smoke from their destruction which “rises up forever and ever!” (3).

Thus, we may look forward to our joining the heavenly choir, singing the praise of God for saving us and completing justice on the impenitent who had oppressed us in this life. Christ ultimately shares His victory in heaven with those of us who have shared His suffering here on earth. For this reason, we can praise Him even now as we look forward to praising Him forever!

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Sunday, November 6th

Each Day in the Word, Saturday, November 5th

Posted on November 5, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

2 Corinthians 5:1–21 (NKJV)

1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. 12 For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Adam and Eve, created completely “good” by God, walked with God in perfect communion.  After the fall into sin, they were ashamed to be found naked creation and hid from Him.  Their own works-righteous clothing of fig leaves could not conceal their guilt. Thankfully, God gave His promise that His Son would crush the Serpent’s head.  With that, guaranteeing what was to come, He clothed them by the sacrificed blood-shed skins of an animal (Gen. 3:21), foretelling the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

As long as we live in this sin-stained human-nature, we groan and are burdened.  Though we have been brought to believe in Jesus Christ and live by faith in God’s Son, we are not free from this body of sin. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Rom. 7:18).  By God’s grace, Christians are constantly fighting against the desires of our sinful nature.  We live by faith, not by sight.  We die to sin and rise again to new life through faith in Christ.  We receive the (Pastoral) Ministry of reconciliation and the minister (pastor), as Christ’s ambassador, sent to reconcile us to God through the message of Jesus Christ.

Through the resurrection of the dead, we will be freed from the battles of this world.  We will be “clothed with our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:4).  God’s deposit will reach fulfillment when we appear before Christ’s judgment seat, dressed in Christ’s white robes of forgiveness. The old has gone, the new has come.  And the alleluias ring forth for eternity!

Let us pray:  Lord, grant to Your faithful people pardon and peace that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve You with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Saturday, November 5th