Jesus is the God of Abraham

Posted on March 22, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15 + John 8:46-59

About a month ago, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, claimed in an interview that those who practice Judaism, the Jewish religion, the one that rejects Jesus as the Christ, are the “spiritual descendants of Abraham,” and that, on that basis, they have a right to live in the land called “Israel.” I bring this up today only because that very question—who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham?—comes up in today’s Gospel and is answered definitively by Jesus. And, yes, His answer exposes Huckabee, and all who teach as he does, as dangerous and blasphemous false teachers. But much more importantly, Jesus’ answer calls all men to turn away from all their false gods and to seek eternal life through Him and through Him alone, because Jesus is the God of Abraham, which means that only those who believe in Jesus as their God are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

The Jews were in a standoff with Jesus when our Gospel takes place. Jesus had been telling them very plainly that He had been sent to earth by God the Father, and that, because they didn’t believe in Him, they were wrong to call God their Father, even though they were physical descendants of Abraham. In fact, in the verses right before our text begins, He went so far as to tell them, to their faces, that, in truth, they were neither children of Abraham, nor children of God, but children of the devil himself, because they didn’t believe in Him, as Abraham did, and they were trying to kill Him, which Abraham never would have done.

“Which one of you convicts me of sin?” Jesus asked. And none of them could. And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears God’s words. That is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. What truth was Jesus telling that the Jews refused to believe? He told them the truth that He had been sent directly by God the Father. He told them the truth that He was the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. He told them the truth that He had the power to free them from the slavery to sin and to make them into true children of God, through faith Him, the true Son of God. The truth Jesus told was a gracious invitation to be saved through Him. But their unbelief revealed the truth about them: that, for as much as they claimed to be children of God, they weren’t.

And that upset them, to hear that from Jesus. Who in their right mind could claim that these religious Jews were not acceptable to God? The only conclusion they could come to was, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?” Jesus doesn’t react to their racial slur—something people often resort to when they have no actual argument—but He does respond to their charge that He has a demon, because that was outright blasphemy against Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and who judges.”

People often think they can dishonor Jesus and get away with it, disparage Him and get away with it, fail to listen to Him and get away with it. Because He lets them get away with it for a while. As He said back in John 3, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. But ultimately, no one will get away with dishonoring Jesus, disparaging Him, or failing to listen to His teaching. God the Father’s patience will run out, and when that happens, if a person hasn’t repented of dishonoring the Father’s beloved Son, that person will wish he had never been born. Because death is not the end. It’s something that’s experienced forever.

But for now, there is still real hope for those who do repent. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. What a claim!

But first, what does it mean to keep Jesus’ word? What had He just said? He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. To keep His word is to follow Him. And to follow Him is, first, to leave behind the place where you were—living in sin, living for yourself, living for this life, hostile to God and His Word and His commandments. You leave that behind by repenting of it, recognizing the ugliness of your sinful heart, and by turning to God for forgiveness through His Son. That’s what faith is. Believing in God for forgiveness for Christ’s sake. At that point, according to Jesus, a person goes from dead to alive, from condemned to justified, from enemy of God to child of God. Such a person, living in the light of Christ, will then go on to live as a child of the light, struggling against sin and the deeds of darkness, being a light in the world, hearing the word of Christ, gathering with fellow believers, and doing all these things all the way through this life, until the end. That’s what it means to follow Jesus, and to keep His word.

Those who do that will never see death. What does He mean? Everyone knows that believers in Christ still die! Well, if you mean the temporary separation of body and soul, then, yes, believers still die. But to “see” death (or to “taste” death, as the Jews put the question back to Jesus) is much worse than that. To see death is for the soul to suffer in hell after that temporary separation of body and soul, a suffering which the one who keeps Jesus’ word will never see. To see death is to suffer it forever, to be raised from the dead on the Last Day only to be cast out of God’s presence into eternal condemnation and death. The one who keeps Jesus’ word will never see that. As He says a few chapters earlier, He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.And on the Last Day, Jesus says, the one who fell asleep in Him will hear His voice and come forth from the grave into the resurrection of life.

Of course, the unbelieving Jews were oblivious, as usual, to Jesus’ true meaning. They never were able to see the spiritual meaning behind His words, because they rejected the working of the Spirit of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote, The natural man, that is, the man without the Spirit of God, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So they said to Jesus, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Even though they were wrong in their interpretation of Jesus’ words, they were right in their conclusion, that He was claiming to be greater than Abraham, and greater than all the prophets.

But before presenting His boldest claim of all, Jesus challenges them one more time. Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.” In other words, I’m not claiming this honor for Myself, this honor of being greater than Abraham and the prophets, this honor of being able to keep a person from seeing death. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” Jesus, the Son of God, isn’t boasting when He claims that the Father honors Him. He isn’t boasting when He claims to know the Father. He’s simply speaking the truth. He’s also speaking the truth when He accuses those who do not believe in Him of not knowing God. And, if they claim to know Him, He is simply speaking the truth when He calls them “liars.” Whenever anyone claims to know God, you have to test that claim. Now, Jesus says elsewhere that not even everyone who calls Him Lord, or who calls himself a Christian, is actually a child of God, because there are many hypocrites who bear the Christian name without truly believing in the Lord Jesus. But of this you can be absolutely sure: Anyone who claims to know God, but who does not acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, most certainly is a liar.

Finally, Jesus made His boldest claim—for which they took up stones and were ready to kill Him on the spot. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. These Jews who claimed Abraham as their father, but who hated and rejected Jesus, must have been livid to hear Jesus claiming that their father Abraham, who lived 2,000 years before any of them were born, loved Jesus and rejoiced in Jesus. How so? By believing and rejoicing in God’s promise that, one day, an offspring would be born to Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus was that promised Offspring, the true Son of Abraham, the Savior of the world, to whose coming Abraham looked forward with all his being.

But Jesus was more than just the Son of Abraham. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Not only the promised Son of Abraham, but the God of Abraham, who existed before Abraham was born, who was there interacting with Abraham during His earthly life, who will be there on the Last Day to call Abraham out of his grave, just as He will call all men forth from their graves. “I AM,” Jehovah God, or Yahweh. That’s who Jesus claimed to be.

So remember, dear Christians. Either Jesus Christ is the God of Abraham, the only true God, through whom alone salvation and eternal life come, who ought to be worshiped by everyone, or He was a kook, a blasphemer, a liar, and a fraud who doesn’t deserve to be followed by anyone. There is no middle path.

By the grace of God, you are among those who confess Jesus as the God of Abraham, and who hope in Him for this life and for the next, which means that you Christians are the true spiritual descendants of Abraham, who have been given the right to live, not on an earthly piece of land, but in the heavenly country, which is far better. Hold fast to Jesus as your God. Be among those who keep His word and do not turn away from it. And knowing His greatness, prepare to stand in awe, again next week, of the lowliness to which your God once stooped for us men and for our salvation. Amen.

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Introduction to the harshest sermon ever preached

Posted on March 18, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Laetare – Lent 4

Isaiah 9:8-17 + Matthew 23:1-12

Turn your minds back to Holy Week again. It’s Tuesday afternoon. Soon Jesus will go out to the Mt. of Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He’ll give His disciples some final instructions about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and about the difficult times leading up to the end of the world and the signs of His return for judgment. But first, He has one last sermon to preach to His followers about the scribes and Pharisees, the leaders of the Jews. It takes up a whole chapter, Matthew 23, which I’ve never preached on before at Emmanuel, first, because it doesn’t come up in the Church Year, but second, because it’s the harshest sermon Jesus ever preached. And it isn’t directed at believers in Him; it’s directed squarely at the wretched ministers of the Old Testament Church of Israel—at the very ones who would have Him killed by the end of the week. The words of this sermon were the last thing Jesus said to them before they would arrest Him on Thursday night, and how these words must have rung in their ears!

We’re going to review this whole chapter together tonight, next week, and on Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week—not because you’re Pharisees who need to have a harsh sermon directed at you, but because Jesus preached this sermon also in the hearing of those who believed in Him, for three reasons: (1) So that they could watch out for the false teaching of these unfaithful teachers, (2) so that they themselves would never fall into similar sin, and, most importantly, I think, (3) so that they could see just how zealous their Good Shepherd was for them, how angry their God was at the worthless shepherds who dared to mislead His beloved sheep. While those shepherds were destroying Jesus’ flock for love of themselves, He, the Good Shepherd was about to lay down His life for them.

Jesus introduces His harsh sermon by leveling two charges against the scribes and Pharisees.

Charge #1: They were teaching things to others that they themselves did not follow, thus setting a horrible example for the flock.

Charge #2: They were seeking to be acknowledged and revered by men as great teachers, turning the people’s focus toward themselves and away from Christ.

Let’s look at charge #1: Jesus spoke to the multitude and to His disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do that. But do not do according to their works. For they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

To sit in Moses’ seat was to be a teacher of Israel like Moses was, a teacher who taught, not their own ideas or their own traditions, but the Word of God to the people of God. They were to teach the people what God had commanded them, through Moses, to do, and to not do. They were to teach the people both God’s justice and God’s mercy. They were to teach the people to ponder the sacrifices that were required for sin, and to look ahead to the coming Messiah to save them from their sins. As long as they were teaching in accord with Scripture, the hearers were to do what the scribes and Pharisees told them to do.

But, at the same time, the people were not to imitate the scribes and Pharisees in their behavior, because the scribes and Pharisees weren’t living according to their own teaching. Jesus calls them out for their open hypocrisy. “Keep the Law!” the Pharisees commanded. “Keep the whole thing! Keep it perfectly!” Yes, you should do that, Jesus says. But the Pharisees themselves don’t keep the Law.

Teaching people to keep God’s Law was not the problem. The problem was that the Pharisees believed that a person could earn himself a place in heaven by keeping the Law. So they preached it in all its severity to the people, laying a heavy burden on their shoulders, loading them up with guilt before God. But no one, including the Pharisees, was able to keep the Law well enough to earn God’s favor. And the Pharisees offered no solution to the people. “Just keep at it! Keep working at obeying! Harder and harder and harder! Make yourselves worthy of God’s attention!” But no one could.

The Pharisees should have directed the contrite sinners to God’s mercy in the promised Messiah, who would be the true sin offering that would atone for their sins and through whom sinners would have access to God. But, no. The Pharisees didn’t preach the Christ, much less Jesus as the Christ. And so they were leading all who followed them straight to hell.

Now on to charge #2: But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the best places at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

Phylacteries were little boxes in which people kept some Scripture verses. It was a visible symbol people invented in memory of what Moses commanded: You shall bind my words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Moses’ command was figurative, but by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were using these phylacteries and hanging them from their forehead and binding them on their arms, and they made them large, so that everyone could see how obedient they were.

They had also “enlarged the borders of their garments.” That’s a reference to something God did actually command through Moses: Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them. Those little tassels on their garments didn’t have to be large. They were just supposed to be personal reminders of God’s commandments. But the Pharisees made them extra large and visible, so that everyone could see how obedient they were to God’s commandments. Everything they did was to be seen by men, and praised by men. They chose the best seats at feasts and in the synagogues. They were desperate to be revered and respected by everyone around them. Rabbi! Rabbi! That was music to their ears.

But God hates that kind of self-importance. He hates it when people lift themselves up above others, or, even worse, when they exalt themselves in God’s presence. Instead, He counsels His own disciples and followers to behave differently from the wicked scribes and Pharisees: But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ For One is your Master, even Christ, and all you are brothers. And do not call any man on the earth your father, for One is your Father, who is in heaven. Do not be called masters, for One is your Master, even Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.”

This isn’t an absolute prohibition against calling anyone Rabbi, or teacher, or master, or father, from that moment on in history. We know that from the rest of Scripture, where all these terms are used for people, where God calls upon us to “honor your father and your mother.” The problem is when titles are used, or insisted upon, to bring glory to oneself, to lift oneself up in the eyes of men, instead of pointing men to Jesus, and to our Father in heaven. In other words, don’t be like the Pharisees, stealing God’s praise for yourselves, seeking prestige and honor and glory, walking into a room and expecting everyone to sit up straight in your awesome presence. That’s the opposite of what any child of God is supposed to do, much less a minister, who is called to imitate the Lord Jesus by being a servant to those who need his service, who is called to preach Christ, and not himself.

Now, none of this sermon from Jesus has been terribly harsh, so far. It will get much harsher as the verses go by. But hear in these words the voice of the Good Shepherd, who is fed up with the ministers who lead His sheep astray. Let His words bring comfort to the humble, and let them serve as a warning to those who would leave humility behind. Amen.

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What we really need from Jesus isn’t bread

Posted on March 15, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4

Galatians 4:21-31 + John 6:1-15

We’ve been speaking a lot about temptation and testing in this Lenten season. We often wonder why God tests us, or why He allows the devil to tempt us. Well, today’s Gospel is an example of what often happens in the absence of testing, when God sends us a tremendous blessing. We become so wrapped up in the earthly blessing that we lose sight of the real, more important, eternal blessings Jesus came to win for us and give to us. We forget that we’re sinners who desperately need His grace and His forgiveness—forgiveness that only comes through Jesus.

You see, there are no demons in today’s Gospel, as there are in the rest of the Lenten season. No trials, no temptations, no testings—at least, not of the crowds. Only God’s free and abundant goodness and grace, which is why this Sunday bears the name Laetare, from the Introit, Rejoice with Jerusalem, all you who love her! Because Jerusalem is the Church of God that is the recipient of His grace. But in today’s Gospel, God’s grace is quickly followed by man’s stubborn refusal to accept it. Oh, the people in the Gospel readily accepted the free bread and the free fish to fill their bellies. What they wouldn’t accept, couldn’t accept, was the free salvation from sins that God was offering them through Christ, who is the true Bread that came down from heaven, without whom we starve and waste away. No, they, like most people still today, were focused on earthly blessings. They wanted a Messiah to provide earthly food, earthly goods, earthly benefits, not the salvation from sin they so desperately needed. But that path only leads to spiritual starvation and death. Jesus does provide the earthly bread that we need. But, as we learn in today’s Gospel, what we really need from Jesus isn’t bread.

The story is familiar, I think. 5,000 men, plus some women and children, had followed Jesus to a mountain, near the Sea of Galilee. He had taught them for most of the day and had healed their sick. But before dismissing them and sending them home, He wanted to feed them—not that they were going hungry or would have starved without it. But He wanted to show them His power and His compassion. And, He wanted to teach them, as we see in the rest of the chapter, that earthly bread is nothing compared to the bread from heaven, which they truly needed, and which He had come to provide.

He also wanted to test His disciples, starting with Philip. He asked Philip, Where shall we buy bread, that the people may eat? It was a test. What will Philip do? Will he run the calculations in his head and conclude it’s impossible to feed them? Or, has he learned finally to turn to Me and say, “It’s impossible for us, Lord, but nothing is impossible for You!”?

Philip, unfortunately, went with the first answer. Two hundred days wages wouldn’t buy enough bread for each one to have even a bite. Andrew did only a little better. There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many? They weren’t there yet, not yet ready to put all their needs into Jesus’ hands and leave them there for Him to take care of. They were still looking to themselves, to what they could do, even in an impossible situation. And at least they were honest about it. They could do nothing.

There’s a lesson for us there. Some things are within our reach in this life. With hard work, with dedication, and education, and a stubborn refusal to quit, there’s a lot you can accomplish—although even then, it’s only with God’s consent and blessing that you’ll succeed. But other things are so far beyond our reach that there’s absolutely nothing we can do to achieve them. The prime example of that is dealing with sin.

Here’s an example. I talked to someone not long ago who wanted to know more about God. He said he absolutely believed in God. But every other sentence he uttered was an explanation of how he had led a pretty good life; how he hadn’t done a whole lot of bad things; how, if anybody could be saved, it was probably him. I told him, that’s exactly what the Jews thought who eventually put Jesus to death. They ended up hating Him, because He kept insisting that they hadn’t done nearly enough to achieve peace with God, and that they had no chance at helping themselves out of the predicament caused by their sin. They refused to humble themselves before God. They refused to admit, from the heart, that they could do nothing to earn His favor or His forgiveness.

But for those who did come to that realization, to that genuine recognition that they had zero possibility of gaining grace, that they deserved only condemnation, Jesus had another message. He would be their possibility, their way to gain grace, just as He was with the multiplying of the loaves for the 5,000. He would be their Mediator with the Father. And the Father would accept them, if they came to Him through Jesus. That’s what He truly came for. Because that’s what sinners truly need. Not a bite of bread here, or a job promotion there, or healthy bodies, or a peaceful society. But a Mediator between God and sinners who would atone for our sins and stand between sinners and a holy God, and make us acceptable to Him, through faith in Christ Jesus.

That’s what Jesus was really offering the 5,000, peace with God through Him, everlasting life through Him. He would give it to them as a free gift, just as He gave them the gift of earthly bread and fish, which they had no possibility of providing for themselves.

You know the rest of the story. Jesus took those five loaves of bread and two fish, gave thanks for them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people, who were seated in groups on the grass. And the bread and the fish just kept coming from Jesus’ hands, into the disciples’ hands, until all 5,000 of them were full, with enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets. And the lesson was, this is nothing compared to the spiritual blessings you’ll have from Jesus, if you remain with Him.

But the crowds took the wrong lesson from it. Or rather, they drew the wrong conclusion from it. They learned one important lesson from this miracle: This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world! That much they learned. And they were right. But what was the Prophet for? Why had He come? What would He do for them? It says that, after the people realized that Jesus was the promised Prophet, they were going to come and take Him by force to make Him their king. Not the king of the kingdom of heaven, but a king for this life, to give them power and glory and wealth and prosperity, to give them a better life on earth.

And isn’t that what most people want still today? In fact, it’s about all they want. And if they’re interested in the afterlife at all, they think they’ll earn it with their hard work, with their decency, and, maybe, with their bloodline. What do most people really want from religion today? Some want entertainment. Some self-help advice. A nicer world to live in. A feeling of belonging somewhere. But you don’t need Jesus to have any of that. If that’s what you want, just about any religion will do, or no religion at all. You don’t need Jesus to get bread.

What we really need from Jesus isn’t bread. It’s salvation from our sinful obsession with bread, from our greed for personal gain, from our lack of trust in God to provide. It’s salvation from our pursuit of career, or sports, or leisure at the expense of hearing and learning God’s word. It’s salvation from our unrighteous anger, and bitterness, and lovelessness, and from lustful thoughts and sexual depravity. It’s, literally, salvation from death, both temporal and eternal. That’s what we really need from Jesus.

And it’s exactly what He came to give away, for free. To those who repent of their sins against God and who look to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again, for the forgiveness of sins and for salvation that lasts into eternity—to them Jesus gives the true bread. He gives Himself, true God and true Man, and the Mediator between God and sinners. He feeds us with this very Gospel as it’s preached. And He even makes Himself available to us tangibly in the water of Holy Baptism, and even more tangibly in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, where He literally feeds us with His body and blood, the “medicine of immortality.”

The question is, do you understand that these are the things you really need from Jesus? If you do, then seek it from Him above all else. Trust in Him, and you will always be given the kind of Bread that will sustain you through life, and through death, and back into life again. That’s why this Sunday bears the name that it does: Laetare. Rejoice! Amen.

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Living for this life or for the next

Posted on March 11, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Oculi – Lent 3

Job 19:23-27 + Matthew 22:23-33

Turn your thoughts again back to Holy Week, to Holy Monday. Or, honestly, maybe it’s Tuesday already; the Gospel writers don’t tell us everything Jesus said and did during that early part of Holy Week, and they don’t bother with an exact timeline. We didn’t hear about it last week, but the Pharisees have just given Jesus a trap question about paying taxes to Caesar, and He has just silenced them with His answer, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

That’s where this evening’s lesson comes in. You may recall that two of the main religious factions in Israel at the time of Christ were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were both well-known and powerful leaders in Israel, but they were different from one another.

The Pharisees weren’t generally priests. They were teachers in Israel and the elite Law-keepers, the ones who boasted about keeping God’s law, who looked down on anyone who didn’t keep it as well as they did, and who were well-known for adding laws and teachings and traditions to God’s law. And, the Pharisees were more “anti-Roman Empire.”

The Sadducees, for their part, were more closely tied to the priesthood and the temple. They were more “pro-Roman.” And instead of adding teachings to Scripture, they had subtracted many teachings of Scripture. They accepted only the first five books, called the Torah or the Law of Moses, as inspired Scripture. They denied the existence of angels and spirits and the “spirit-realm” we call heaven and hell. And they also denied the future resurrection of the dead.

So when the Sadducees in Jerusalem saw that Jesus had silenced the Pharisees, they decided it was their turn to test Him early on in this week of Passover.

In order to understand the Sadducees’ question, we have to understand the Law of Moses. In the book of Deuteronomy, God had given the Israelites this command: If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. You can see the purpose of it. Until the Messiah came, God was adamant that the genealogies and the tribal inheritances had to be preserved in Israel. If a man died without having a son, his name and his inheritance wouldn’t continue. So a brother of the man who died was supposed to marry the widow, and their firstborn son would bear the first husband’s name.

So, in the scenario presented by the Sadducees, seven brothers all ended up marrying the same woman, just as Moses had commanded. For the Sadducees, who believed that this life is all there is, that’s not a problem. But for those who believe in a resurrection of the dead? Did Jesus actually envision a future where those seven men and that woman would be raised from the dead and then live forever in some kind of reverse polygamy—not one man with several wives, but one wife with several husbands? It’s absurd. And they knew it. They were hoping to make Jesus either agree with them that there is no resurrection, or look silly by trying to defend such a strange marriage arrangement in heaven.

But Jesus knew much more about heaven, and about God’s plans for the future, than they could ever imagine. His first response was to correct their understanding about marriage. In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. That’s something that you actually couldn’t get from the Old Testament Scriptures, at least, not very directly. Contrary to the Mormon heresy about “celestial marriage,” Jesus tells us plainly that God designed marriage only for this earthly life. Husbands and wives are given to each other for companionship in this life, for supporting one another in this life, and for raising godly children in this life. Marriage is one of God’s greatest blessings. But it isn’t a blessing that God intends to last beyond this life. He has different plans for us at the resurrection, even better ones.

To be “like angels of God in heaven” just means that we, like the angels, won’t be married after the resurrection. But notice how Jesus threw that in there as a subtle rebuke to the Sadducees, who also deny the existence of angels.

Then Jesus goes on to rebuke them for their denial of the resurrection, proving it from Scripture. He could have used a Scripture like the one you heard earlier this evening, from Job 19, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And that after my skin is destroyed, in my flesh I will see God. That’s one of the clearest teachings of the resurrection in the Old Testament, placing it at the Last Day. Instead, Jesus chose a verse from Exodus, one of the few books that even the Sadducees fully accepted as inspired and true. You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God…Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘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.

Underneath that simple, well-known statement that God spoke to Moses, which every Israelite knew, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” lies the very simple truth that Jesus revealed to the Sadducees: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. In other words, God doesn’t claim to be the God of dead men, who once lived, but who are now long gone and have ceased to exist. When He claims to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He is proclaiming that their souls are still alive in heaven with Him, and that their bodies and souls will eventually live again at the Last Day, at the resurrection of the dead.

Oh, Jesus could have added other passages, where it says that, when Abraham died, he was “gathered to his people.” It says that same thing about Isaac when he died, and about Jacob when he died, and even about Ishmael when he died. That’s not something Scripture says about everyone who dies. But for those men whom we know to have been believers in the true God, the Holy Spirit made sure to let Israel know that there is life with “our people” after we die.

But the Sadducees weren’t actually interested in learning from God’s Word, or in living to please God. They didn’t actually believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their religion was for this life. Their aspirations were for this life. And Jesus was getting in the way of it. So they would do their part to get rid of Him for good. By the end of the week.

Even though the sect of the Sadducees died out quickly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, it’s really the beliefs of the Sadducees that dominate modern Judaism, and, really, most of the world, including “progressive Christianity.” Very few people believe they will have to answer to a holy God after this life. Very few believe they will face everlasting torment in hell for their pride, or for their greed, or for their sexual sins, or for their failure to worship the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And for the few who still believe heaven exists, most of them don’t believe that perfect love for the God of the Bible and perfect love for one’s neighbor are required for entrance into heaven.

Perfect obedience is required. But for those who know that God, and heaven, and hell are real, and who know and mourn over the fact that they haven’t provided the perfect obedience required to avoid hell and to reach heaven, there is a Savior from heaven who will help, who has helped by coming to provide that perfect obedience in the sinner’s place, so that all who seek forgiveness through Him are given eternal life here and now, and will be raised to life on the Last Day, safe from the resurrection of condemnation that unbelievers will most surely have to face.

Jesus did not suffer and die so that you could have a better life here on earth. He suffered and died for your sins, so that, after this short life is over, you can participate in the resurrection of life at the end. I am the resurrection and the life, He says. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. That’s why we’re Christians. That’s why we practice our religion. Because we do believe in the Lord Jesus as the resurrection and the life. We do live for God. And our aspirations are not primarily for this short life, but for the next eternal one, because we are confident that, through faith in Him who conquered death at the end of Holy Week, we, too, will conquer death and live forever. Amen.

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Jesus and His Spirit will keep the demons at bay

Posted on March 8, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Oculi – Lent 5

Ephesians 5:1-9 + Luke 11:14-28

Of the first five Sundays in the Lenten season, only one of them, the 4th Sunday in Lent, doesn’t mention the devil, or the demons that follow him. All the rest do. That’s to remind us who our real enemy is in this world. It’s easy to identify the human enemies. But the devil attacks us in ways unseen, through temptations and through trials, through causing such chaos and violence and deception and celebration of wickedness in the world that the Christian almost wants to give up.

And, yes, the devil can attack people in more invasive ways, too. When Jesus was conducting His ministry on earth, we come across almost an explosion of demonic possession, something experienced neither before nor since, at least on that scale, where demons took control of people’s bodies, sometimes spoke through a person’s mouth, and sometimes, as in today’s Gospel, prevented a person from speaking at all. Now, demon possession is not impossible today, but those who cling to Jesus in faith, who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them since the time of their baptism, don’t have to worry about outright possession. Still, that doesn’t necessarily rule out lesser physical, or even non-physical afflictions, where a demon targets people to annoy them or frighten them. Truly we are living in enemy territory, ruled by Satan, the prince of this world.

Still, no matter how much and in how many ways the devil and his demons attack, today’s Gospel holds out the comfort and the strength we need. We may be living in enemy territory, but Jesus and His Spirit will keep the demons at bay.

Jesus casts out another demon in today’s Gospel, one that was keeping a man from being able to speak. Most people were amazed. No one had seen anything like the power Jesus was displaying, casting out demons, not with prayer, not elaborate spells or incantations, but with a simple, powerful word. They knew there are only two possible sources of supernatural power: Either God, or the devil. Many of the Jews believed Jesus’ power came from God, but some started to claim it was coming from the other source. He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Still others remained skeptical and would only believe God was the source if Jesus gave them (still more) proof from heaven.

Jesus addresses their accusation. He said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to ruin, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? In other words, it makes no sense to claim that Jesus’ power comes from the devil. That would mean the devil was divided against himself, which can’t be true. A divided kingdom soon falls. But Satan’s kingdom isn’t falling, at least, not from self-destruction. His kingdom stands, and will stand until the end of the age. That argument alone should have made it clear how ridiculous their accusation was.

But Jesus offers another argument: And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. No one, try as they might, had been able to do what Jesus was doing, casting out demon after demon. If the devil was giving Jesus the power to cast out his own demons, then the devil was doing more for the Jews than God was! But that wasn’t the case. It was God, the Finger of God, the Spirit of God who was empowering Jesus to cast out the demons, and that meant, “the kingdom of God has come upon you.” The reign of God in the world had already begun, with Jesus as the King in this kingdom. So those who accused the King of being on the devil’s side? They should take care! As it says in Psalm 2 about the Messiah, I have set My King, the Son of God, on My holy hill of Zion. So Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Jesus goes on to demonstrate just how strong He was—not in order to boast, but because people needed to get on the right side of things. There are only two sides in this cosmic battle: God’s side, with Jesus at the head, and the devil’s side, which is destined to be destroyed, but which will take down as many people with it as possible. He presents the devil as a strong man, holding men prisoner in his fortified house. But Jesus is stronger. He comes against the devil, overpowers him, strips him of his armor, and sets his prisoners free, by freeing men’s bodies from demons that were possessing them, yes, but on a much grander scale, by removing the devil’s power to accuse any who trust in Jesus, or to drag them away to hell. Jesus came to destroy the devil’s works. And all who believe in him can say with the apostle Paul: God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Another warning to get on the ride side, before it’s too late: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. There is no fence-sitting when it comes to Christianity. Either you follow Jesus alone as the King of the kingdom of God, and trust in Him alone, who suffered and died for your sins, or you’re on the losing side, the devil’s side.

And it’s not enough to have a demon cast out of you. That doesn’t make you safe forever. Jesus goes on to describe what happens when a demon is cast out. It wanders around for a while, and then checks back on the person from whom it was cast out. And if it finds the person’s heart swept and put in order, then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. As long as we live in enemy territory, that is, as long as we live on this earth, during this last age of the world, everyone is susceptible to the devil’s attacks. And if a person’s heart is vacant, then the devil will be happy to fill that empty space. And the only way to fill it so that the devil can’t get in, is by letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, by which the Spirit of God will also dwell in you richly. The Word of Christ and the Spirit of God will keep the demons at bay.

Jesus drives home that point in the last part of today’s Gospel. A woman in the crowd, who was so overcome with emotion by Jesus’ words, so impressed with His knowledge and wisdom, thought she should praise Him by praising His mother. A certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” Yes, Mary was blessed, but she wasn’t more blessed than anyone who knows and trusts in Jesus. He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” Only one woman in the world had the chance to be Jesus’ mother. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. In fact, God gives everyone this way to be truly blessed: by hearing, and also keeping, the word of God. That you can do! That, by God’s grace, is within your grasp!

Now, reading the word of God is very good, and something all of us can do in our homes to a much greater extent than anyone could in Jesus’ day. But it’s still “hearing it” that He focuses on. That includes hearing the reading of Scripture itself, but also what you’re doing right now, hearing the preaching of God’s word, on the basis of God’s word, filling your heart with it, and your mind, while battling against the devil’s temptations to turn your thoughts elsewhere.

Then there’s the keeping of the word of God, which is just as important. That means recognizing what sins are and repenting of them. It means faith in the Lord Jesus and approaching God only for His sake, who died for your sins and who lives as your Mediator and Advocate before the Father. And it means walking as children of the light, as Paul said in today’s Epistle, thinking about how you live, the things you do, the things you think and say, and guarding your life, so that you put aside all the deeds of darkness, and selfishness, and filthiness, to walk in the light, to walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God, to be a sweet-smelling aroma.

The demons that roam the earth are fearful and cruel. But you don’t have to fear them, if you rely on the One who is far stronger than they. Through His Word and through His Sacraments, Jesus and His Spirit will keep the demons at bay. And you’ll make it safely through enemy territory to the safety of your Father’s heavenly home. Amen.

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