Devotion for Trinity 2

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

1 John 3:13-18  +  Luke 14:16-24

The Lord has prepared a supper for sinful mankind, a supper of grace and love, a supper of acceptance and eternal joy. To come to His supper is to enter His kingdom, to be adopted as a beloved child and heir of God the Father. That happens through faith in Christ Jesus, who suffered and died for the sins of all, that all might repent and believe in Him. And that repentance and believing come through the work of the Holy Spirit as He sends out the invitation to the supper through the preaching of the Gospel, the invitation to enter God’s holy Church through Baptism and faith in Christ and to live within His Church as those who have been called to live a life of love.

But many of those who are invited have better things to do, things that pertain to this earthly life. Jesus’ sacrifice means little to them. The love of God has no practical application in their lives. They imagine that they’re fine on their own. If they worship God at all, it’ll be on their terms, in their way. They don’t think they need His Church or the ministry that Christ instituted.

Still, the Father sends His Spirit to keep inviting people through the ministry of the Word. There is still room, for now. There is still time to turn away from sin and from a love for this world. There is still time to seek the things of God and to receive the ministry of His Church.

But that time will soon run out, and the invitation will expire. So  don’t be foolish. Come to the supper and live as a member of Christ’s Church! That means daily contrition and repentance. It means trusting in Christ every day. It means hearing and learning God’s Word and receiving His Sacraments. It means entrusting your soul and body to Him continually. And it means living in the world as children of God and not as children of the devil.

You weren’t worthy of the invitation. No one is. But now that you have been invited, now that you have come, live as those who are worthy of the invitation. Love as Christ loved. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ to the point of being ready to lay down your life for them. And if you love your brother enough to lay down your life for him, then what won’t you be willing to spare to help him in his time of need? Offer him your time. Your friendship. A kind word. A sacrificial deed. And, as far as it depends on you, make living within the Christian Church such a pleasant thing for your fellow Christians that the Church may serve, as God intended, as a peaceful and safe haven from the world’s hatred.

Posted in Devotion | Tagged | Comments Off on Devotion for Trinity 2

God’s favor isn’t always visible

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/721971594 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

You see a rich, healthy man enjoying life. You see a poor man so sickly and poor that he can’t work; he has to beg for his every meal. What does reason tell you about these two men? Reason concludes that God rewards the one whom He considers righteous; He “deals a good hand” to the one He loves. Well, the rich man is prosperous. Therefore, God favors the rich man. Reason concludes that God sends afflictions on the one whom He considers to be wicked; He deals a rough hand to the one He doesn’t love. Well, the poor man is afflicted. Therefore, God considers the poor man to be wicked. That’s the judgment of reason. Poverty and afflictions are a sign of God’s contempt. Riches and prosperity are a sign of God’s favor. That’s how reason reasons.

But reason’s reasoning is superficial and flawed, in several ways. but most of all, reason’s reasoning ignores this important truth: this earthly life is not the main venue for God’s rewards and punishments. What you receive here in this relatively short earthly life may be the exact opposite of what you will receive in the next life—and that life is the one that lasts forever.

That’s the point Jesus was driving home in His parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus. It’s not a simple warning for the rich to share with the poor, or else they’ll go to hell. Far from it! It’s a message to rich and poor. Don’t be deceived by appearances! God’s favor isn’t always visible. Prosperity in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s favor, and affliction in this life is not necessarily a sign of God’s contempt. Your lot in life here on earth, whether it lasts only a few months or whether it lasts a hundred plus years, is not all you get. It’s the proverbial drop in the bucket compared with the everlasting joys—or punishments—of the next life. Your lot in life here is not a reliable indicator of God’s favor or displeasure.

According to Jesus’ parable, the rich man was dressed in fine clothes and “feasted lavishly every day.” He received good things. Lazarus, on the other hand, spent his earthly life sick, poor and begging, yearning for the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He received bad things.

But death took them both, as death always does, rich and poor, male and female, celebrities and nobodies, kings and peasants. And in this case, their situations were completely reversed. Poor Lazarus wasn’t poor anymore. His soul was at peace and he rested comfortably in God’s presence with all the saints, with all the righteous who had gone before him, most notably, Father Abraham, as Jesus is talking to the Jews, who believed they were all destined to sit at the heavenly table with their Father Abraham. Well, for Lazarus, that was true. He was embraced by Father Abraham. He received his good things at Abraham’s side. The rich man’s soul, on the other hand, was in torment and flame, far removed from God and from Father Abraham. As Lazarus had yearned for the rich man’s crumbs in this life, the rich man yearned for a drop of water from Lazarus in the next life. There in hell he received his bad things.

Now, knowing how things turned out, do you think Lazarus wished he could have gone back and traded places with the rich man? No, not for a second. His life on earth had been hard, but that was over now. He endured the hardships and made it through, and now there would never be any more pain or want to endure. Only the experience of God’s love and the eternal companionship of the saints.

And knowing how things turned out, do you think the rich man in hell was able to look back at his wonderful life on earth and bask in the happy memories of good times past? A lot of people want to believe it will be that way. But no. The rich man realized too late that he had squandered his earthly life, and it was not worth it in the end. Hell is a worse punishment and torture than anyone on earth imagines it to be. We may speak metaphorically of people who are “going through hell” right now. But let me assure you, hell itself is still unimaginably worse, because for as much as it may seem like our present troubles have no end in sight, there will most certainly be an end to them. Not so with the torments of hell.

The rich man learned from Abraham that there was no possibility of him receiving any help from anyone or of eventually being able to cross over from Hades to Paradise. As the writer to the Hebrews says, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Or as Abraham put it, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us. So his thoughts turned to his brothers, who were still alive on earth. What could be done for them? How could they avoid this place of torment? Maybe sending Lazarus back to them from the dead? No, says Abraham. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’ And he said, “No, father Abraham. But if someone were to go to them from the dead, they would repent.” But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.”

Listen to Moses and the prophets, the Bible, the Word of God. That’s what the rich man’s brothers needed. That’s what you need. That’s what everyone still alive on this earth needs. To hear the Law of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and to let it have its effect. Moses is the one who reveals how sin entered the world through Adam, and that all men born of Adam are born in sin and subject to sin’s curse, which includes all manner of sickness, suffering, poverty, and finally death, all of which is not necessarily a direct punishment from God, but the general curse under which all sinners live in this cursed world. So the poverty and sickness of Lazarus wasn’t a good indicator at all of whether or not God accepted him.

As for the riches of the rich man, here’s what Moses had to say: You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God. God does give wealth to some people. But He also requires those people to hear His voice and to obey His commandments, and that, the rich man never found time to do. He was too busy enjoying his life to care about God, or to care about that beggar at his gates, even enough to send him the crumbs that fell from his table.

So hear Moses and the prophets as they reveal your sin. And then hear Moses and the prophets as they call you to repent and look to God for mercy, not because you deserve it, but because of Christ alone. As the Psalm says, O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. That redemption is wrapped up in Christ, the Redeemer. Abraham knew that, one of the richest men alive at his time. In his case, God’s favor was visible in this life. But Abraham was righteous in God’s sight, not because of his goodness, not because of his obedience, but through faith alone in God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of the coming Christ. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And then, as a true believer in that merciful and forgiving God, Abraham’s life, though not perfect by any means, reflected the righteousness that was his by faith, and God did choose to reveal His favor toward Abraham in external, visible ways, as a testimony to the world that Abraham’s God was the true God.

Whether you’re rich or poor, prosperous or afflicted, it’s this same message of sin, repentance, and God’s forgiveness through Christ that you all need to hear and believe, because what you’re suffering here, or the life you’re enjoying here on earth, will soon be over. And the good things here and the bad things here won’t matter at all anymore. The real reckoning will be revealed in the next life.

So for now, if you’re impoverished or sick or otherwise miserable in this life, don’t automatically take it as a sign of God’s disfavor. Hear the Word of God! Repent and believe in Christ Jesus! Receive His Sacraments! And then take heart! Don’t despair! Don’t give up! Don’t imagine that God is displeased with you because of how difficult things are, or that you’re alone in your suffering. Lazarus appeared to have been abandoned by God, but in reality, God was there with him, ready to bear him home to Abraham’s bosom at just the right time. To endure hardship for Christ’s sake, without giving into despair, is a blessed thing, a precious good work that has God’s own seal of approval. It’s what Jesus did, after all. And you have God’s promise to help you persevere until the end, to enable you to bear the cross with patience, until the suffering is passed and the comfort of the next life is revealed.

Or, maybe you don’t suffer much, relatively speaking. Or maybe it’s just that you’re not suffering right now, but feast lavishly every day, like the rich man did, or as I daresay most Americans do, including most of us here. What will you do with this time when you have all you need and more? You could focus on enjoying life, like the rich man did, and maintaining this lifestyle, while ignoring both God and man. But then you would end up like the rich man in the parable, regretting it all in the end.

No, if you have a moment of comfort, a moment of peace, a moment of prosperity, a moment of leisure where you’re not scrambling just to survive, use it. Use this time wisely. Use it to hear God’s Word, His Law and His Gospel. Walk in the new obedience of the children of God. Walk with the Holy Spirit and set aside your sinful desires and your self-centered goals, and devote your life—every moment—to God’s service within your own vocation. Turn your gaze outward. Turn toward your neighbor in need, and especially your brother in Christ, who sits at your gate, yearning for just a little help, for even the leftovers of the prosperity with which you have been entrusted.

Rich or poor, carefree or weighted down with cares, train your reason to submit to God’s Word and don’t assume God’s favor or disfavor based on how much or how little you suffer in this life. God’s approval comes for Christ’s sake alone and through faith alone in Him. And His favor toward those who believe and His displeasure with those who disbelieve, while it may not be visible in this life, will most surely be visible in the next. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on God’s favor isn’t always visible

Teach all the nations

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/720496374 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Holy Trinity

Ezekiel 18:30-32  +  2 Corinthians 13:14  +  Matthew 28:18-20

Long before Jesus gave the great commission to His apostles to go and make disciples of all nations, the LORD God gave the prophet Ezekiel a great commission, to preach a message from God to the rebellious and idolatrous house of Israel right in the middle of the devastation caused by the Babylonians and in the midst of the Babylonian captivity. You heard a part of his preaching in the First Lesson: I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways. And that judgment would be very strict, because the house of Israel had the very words of God handed down to them, had access to them for a thousand years. They were told what idolatry was, to fear someone or something more than God, to love someone or something more than God, to trust in someone or something more than God; and yet they turned to other gods for help in time of need. They were told how the name of their God was to be honored and not misused, and yet they took His name in vain by claiming that the Lord promised peace to the impenitent, when in reality He promised judgment. They were told about the Sabbath rest God intended to give them in the ministry of the Word that pointed ahead to the coming Messiah, and yet they broke the Sabbath and rejected that lesson that the Lord wanted to teach them. They were told to honor their father and mother, and yet they rebelled. They were told not to murder, and yet they committed murder, if not with their hands, then at least with their hearts. They were told not to commit adultery, but they engaged in sex outside of marriage and got divorces for unscriptural reasons. They were told not steal, and yet they stole. They were told not to give false testimony, and yet they engaged in deception and deceit. They were told not to covet their neighbor’s house or anything that belonged to their neighbor, and yet they allowed their sinful desires to consume them. And so God sent Ezekiel to tell them, Judgment is coming!

But judgment isn’t restricted to the house of Israel. It’s coming for the nations—for the Gentiles, too. Now at the time of Ezekiel, and at the time of Christ, the nations hadn’t been told right and wrong by God. The nations didn’t have His Word like the people of Israel did. And yet, as Paul writes to the Romans, the nations—the Gentiles—all had the Law of God written in their hearts. Yes, it’s obscured by sin, but mankind has always had a general sense of right and wrong, put there by God Himself, a basic understanding of virtue and of vice, and a strong sense that there is a God and that they are to seek Him, but not seek Him inside ourselves or in nature. No, we know by nature that the true God is above and outside of His creation. And yet, the nations didn’t worship Him in that way, and more often than not, they engaged in vice instead of virtue.

So judgment was coming for Israel, and judgment was coming for the Gentiles, for the nations, although Israel would receive a greater judgment, because they had been told explicitly from Holy Scripture about the true God and about His will, while the Gentiles hadn’t. The more opportunities a person is given to know the truth about sin and about the true God and about His requirements, the worse it will be for that person who continues in his or her sin.

Still, the nations must know, because knowing and repenting and believing is still the only way for anyone to escape the judgment that is coming, for “all have sinned,” both Jews and Gentiles.

And so the Lord Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, sent out the Eleven. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.

“Make disciples of” all the nations. The verb “make disciples of” is related to the noun for “disciple,” and a disciple is literally a “learner.” Other languages simply translate this verb as “teach.” “Teach all the nations.”

That teaching includes the call to repentance, just as Peter included it in his teaching on the Day of Pentecost as he taught the people of Jerusalem how they had sinned by being complicit in the crucifixion of Jesus. Ezekiel included that teaching, too. Turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. You can’t remain as you are! You can’t keep living as you are! Turn away from the things that God calls sins or transgressions, and get a new heart and a new spirit! In other words, repent!

But what good would it do to turn away from sin if the sins remained unatoned for? If you punch someone in the face and then stop punching them in the face, you still have deal with the fact that you punched someone in the face. So, too, with the Law of God. Even if you were to stop sinning against God, which no one is entirely able to do, you still have to deal with the sins you have committed.

That’s why Jesus came, why He had to come. The only way to atone for the sins of man was for the Son of God to become the Son of Man and to atone for all the wrongs that mankind has done with His perfect life and with His innocent death on the cross. No other atonement for sins can be made. Jesus paid for them all, paid the price God requires for sinners to be justified.

And so the prophets and apostles taught the Jews and the nations to repent, and then taught them to know that God would give (in the case of the prophets) or that God had given (in the case of the apostles) His own Son as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And then the apostles were to teach people to believe in Christ and to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He who believes and is baptized will be saved! But whoever does not believe will be condemned. Teaching the nations included teaching them that, in Holy Baptism, the one God, who is three Persons, washes away their sins, places His name on them, clothes them with Christ, connects them to the death and resurrection of Christ, and makes them members of His beloved Bride, the Holy Christian Church.

And so we teach sin. We teach repentance. We teach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. We teach faith and Baptism. And then we baptize those who wish to be baptized, with the full authority that Christ has and has given to His ministers in the world to teach and to baptize anyone and everyone in all the nations.

But the teaching doesn’t stop with baptizing people. Jesus didn’t end the great commission there. He went on, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. No one who truly comes in faith to the Lord Jesus and receives His Baptism can then willingly walk away from His teaching, or intentionally go on living in sin. No, ministers are to teach the baptized, teach them God’s Word and God’s will, teach them to pray, teach them to keep turning away from sin and turning toward righteousness and holiness as God the Holy Spirit remakes the baptized children of God into the holy and pure image of Christ, teach them to observe the Lord’s Supper, where the Lord Jesus gives us His true body and blood to strengthen us all the way through this life.

Teaching the nations is still the work Christ has given His Church to carry out on earth, because judgment is still coming, and it’s coming even more powerfully now, because both Jews and Gentiles—all nations—have heard the Word of God, have been told right and wrong, have been commanded to repent and to believe in Christ for salvation, and most haven’t repented, haven’t turned away from their sins. Practically the whole world bears the guilt that Israel once bore, because practically the whole world has heard the teaching of Christ’s apostles and has turned it down. Still, as the Lord cried out through the prophet Ezekiel, so He still cries out, “Why should you die, O house of Israel? Why should you die, O you nations of the earth? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”

Turn and live! That’s what we teach all the nations. Turn and live! Repent and believe! Believe and be baptized! Be baptized and observe all the things that Christ has commanded. And we’re not alone as we teach, and we’re not alone as Christians in the world, because we also have that blessed promise of Jesus: Behold, I am with you always—literally, “all the days”—even to the end of the age. So turn and live! Repent and believe! Believe and be baptized! Be baptized and observe the teaching of Christ, who is still with His beloved Church, with all His grace and love and strength and help. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on Teach all the nations

The Trinity of Persons and Their saving work

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/719630095 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity Sunday

Romans 11:33-36  +  John 3:1-15

The first Sunday after Pentecost is always celebrated as Trinity Sunday. It makes sense. Since the Church Year began, we’ve walked through the life of Jesus, from His birth (which was God the Father’s greatest gift to the world), to His ministry, to His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, and last week we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the gift of both the Father and the Son. So now it makes good sense for us to pause and reflect briefly on the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in some abstract way, but in a very concrete and practical way, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work toward the purpose of saving fallen man.

Before we get into the Gospel, which will focus heavily on the “Trinity,” that is, the “Threeness” of God, we’ll say a word about the “Unity,” that is, the “Oneness” of our God. We speak of a Trinity of Persons and a Unity of Essence or Being. God isn’t three Beings working together as one. He isn’t one Being split into multiple parts. He’s one undivided essence. One God, not three Gods, with one mind, one will, one purpose. But there is also a threeness to this one God, a threeness of Persons, clearly revealed in Scripture, especially in the New Testament. Both aspects of our God are who He is, and so it’s vitally important that we know and confess both His oneness of essence and His threeness of Persons. As I say to the catechism students, whenever you focus on the oneness of God, be to sure keep His threeness in view in the background. And whenever you focus on the threeness of God, be sure to keep His oneness also in view.

Now, on to our Gospel from John chapter 3. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night with his question. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing, unless God is with him. Nicodemus isn’t yet a believer, but he can hear the ring of truth in Jesus’ teaching. And so he concludes that Jesus has come from God. He doesn’t realize just how right he is. He thinks Jesus has come from God like the prophets who were sent by God. The truth is much deeper. The rest of us human beings only begin to exist when we’re conceived in our mothers’ wombs. But the Person of the Son of God existed already in the beginning with God the Father. He is the “only begotten” of the Father, born of the Father in eternity as light is born of the sun, and then sent by the Father into the world as a man. As Jesus says later, No one has ascended into heaven, except for the one who came down from heaven, namely, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. Or possibly, “who was in heaven,” that is, before the Word became flesh. Either way, Jesus “came from God” into the world.

But Jesus doesn’t thank Nicodemus for his words of praise. He doesn’t allow Himself to get sidetracked into small talk or obscure theological questions. Instead, He goes directly into a sermon that gets to the heart of the matter, for Nicodemus and for everyone. How can a person be saved? How can a person escape eternal condemnation? How can a person enter the kingdom of God?

Truly, truly I tell you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Seeing or entering the kingdom of God is the goal. The goal of every human being. It has to be. Because life is short, sometimes far too short. If this is all there is, this fleshly life, this earthly existence, then we’re no better off than the animals. And if this is all a person lives for, to survive for a few decades here on earth and to lead the happiest life possible here, then sure enough, that person will not see the kingdom of God. What he or she will see at the end is that this wasn’t all there was, that there is either the kingdom of God or the domain of the devil, and you will spend eternity in one or the other.

The only way to see the kingdom of God is to be born again. Born a second time. Even born “from above.” Your first birth wasn’t good enough. Why? Because “flesh gives birth to flesh.” And that flesh that we’ve inherited from our parents and they from theirs isn’t clean, isn’t pretty, isn’t innocent. It’s wicked, twisted, corrupt. By nature, we hate God—the true God, that is; man has always sought to worship and to curry the favor of a god or gods, but not the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You have to be remade, become entirely new, and that new life has to come from above. It can’t come from you, as little as a tiny baby gives life to him or herself.

Where does this remaking and new life come from? Jesus tells us: Truly, truly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Those who have been born of the flesh have to be born also of the Spirit. “Water and the Spirit,” a reference to one of the primary tools the Holy Spirit uses to give that new life and new birth, Holy Baptism, which is, as St. Paul calls it, a washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit, and “the washing of water by the Word.” The Spirit is the one who works faith in our hearts through the Word, as it’s preached by itself and as it’s connected to water in Holy Baptism. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. But just because the Spirit also gives new life through the Word alone doesn’t mean Baptism is less important or is optional. The very Word through which the Spirit works faith calls us to Baptism, points us to Baptism, and attaches promises to Baptism, the promise of the forgiveness of sins, the promise of being clothed with Christ, the promise of resurrection to a new spiritual life now, and the promise of a future resurrection to eternal life.

But what is it exactly that the Spirit draws us to, turns the eyes of our hearts to, brings us to trust in? To what does Baptism connect us? Jesus explains that to Nicodemus: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. This is why God the Father sent God the Son into the world. This is what God the Holy Spirit was teaching Israel all along in the Old Testament Scriptures and what He now preaches to our hearts through the Word of the Gospel: Just as Moses long ago made a bronze serpent and lifted it up on a pole, at God’s command, so that the Israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes might look up at it and be mercifully healed by God from the venom that was killing them, so Jesus, the Son of Man, had to be lifted up on a cross, so that all those who were destined for eternal death might look to Him in faith and be saved—look to Him, no longer hanging on a cross, but preached in the world as the One who gave His life on the cross, preached in the world as the One whose death we are connected to in the eyes of God through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, where the name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is placed on the baptized, and the one who once was lost in Satan’s domain is rescued and given entrance into the kingdom of God.

And that’s the goal of our one God, of the Holy Trinity. That’s what the history of the world has been about. It’s why the world hasn’t been destroyed yet, in spite of people’s multiple attempts to bring the wrath of God down upon themselves with their godless behavior and their endless idolatry, with their refusal to believe the Word and to amend their sinful lives. God the Father knows that He has children who have yet to be born, and to be born again of water and Spirit, sinners who will become His children by the work of God the Spirit who will bring them to the knowledge of God the Son that they may not perish but have everlasting life.

So don’t get bogged down in philosophical questions about the nature of the Holy Trinity. We will understand Him better when we see Him face to face in His kingdom. For now, the goal has to be entering His kingdom, remaining in His kingdom until Christ comes again, living as holy children of God within His kingdom even now, and urging the lost to enter His kingdom, too, to know and believe in the one true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Trinity of Persons and Their saving work

In this way God loved the world

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/718543410 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for the week of Pentecost

Isaiah 32:14-20  +  Acts 10:42-48  +  John 3:16-21

The readings you heard this evening are the historic readings for the day after Pentecost. It’s sort of the continuation of the theme of celebrating the Holy Spirit’s coming. As Isaiah prophesied in the first lesson, Israel would be a wasteland because of their unrighteousness, Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then Israel would prosper. In what sense? In the sense that, on the Day of Pentecost and in the decades following, Israel became a fruitful field of believers in Christ who were devoted to the true God, a fruitful field of genuine faith and sincere love.

Not everyone in Israel, of course. Many—most!—remained enemies of God, remained a desolate wasteland with regard to faith and love. But a good number of them—3,000 of them on the Day of Pentecost—received the Word of God and, with it, the gift of the Spirit from on high.

And not only Israel in the sense of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also including believing Gentiles, as we heard in the Second Lesson from the book of Acts. When Peter went to the house of Cornelius the Gentiles, he preached a clear message of Law and Gospel: Jesus commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Yes, Christ will judge all people, even those who have already died, since He will raise all the dead on the Last Day. Who will escape condemnation? Who will not have to answer for all their sins? Whoever believes in Him. Really? “Whoever”? Jew or Gentile? Israelite by birth or non-Israelite? Yes! What sign do we have that Peter’s “whoever” really meant “whoever”? We have this sign: The Holy Spirit was poured out in a visible way on the Gentiles who believed, as they began to speak in other languages, just as the believing Jews in Jerusalem had on the Day of Pentecost when they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And that brings us to the third lesson this evening, the familiar words from John chapter 3. For God so loved the world… Whom did God love? “The world.” All people. All men. The love of God extends to everyone in the world.

But not as many people today understand “love.” It isn’t the love of attraction. It isn’t the love of really liking a person, loving who they are or what they do. It isn’t the love of always being nice to people. It isn’t the love that overlooks people’s character flaws and evil deeds and sins, and it certainly isn’t the love that celebrates people’s wickedness and people’s sins. Rather, it’s the love that deeply desires to rescue people from their wickedness and from the painful and eternal consequences of it. It’s the love of a Creator who pities His miserable creation, even though our misery is entirely our own fault. Still He loved the world.

How did He love the world, then? What did He do for the world in His love?

He “so” loved.” Not “so much,” but “in this way.” In this way God loved the world: He gave His only-begotten Son. Gave Him into our humanity, to be our Brother. Gave His life as a living sacrifice for us, and then gave His Son into death for us, for the world.

So that, what? Everyone goes to heaven? No. Everyone is spared from earthly tragedy and pain and suffering? No. So that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. God desires the world’s salvation. His purpose in sending His Son was the world’s salvation. All mankind. All people. That all people should believe in His Son and escape perishing, escape being condemned to everlasting death, be saved from eternal exile and suffering in hell. That was God’s purpose. That’s how He loved the world.

And He did more than give His Son. He also gave His Spirit to work through the preaching of this Gospel to persuade men and to empower men to believe it, to believe in Him. He gave His Spirit in the Means of Grace so that believers can be strengthened and preserved in faith. And He gave His Spirit in the Church so that believers might live as children of the day and children of the light and no longer walk in the darkness of sin and depravity and disobedience. What’s more, He continues to give His Spirit so that, as the Church continues to confess the Gospel in the world, still more of the world’s population might hear and believe and be saved.

Not all men will believe, and so not all men will be saved. Not all will be justified. Not all will escape condemnation. Most won’t, in fact. Why? Why won’t they come into the Light of Christ and His forgiveness and salvation? Why won’t they tolerate the Light that’s being shined through His Gospel? Because men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

What a strong warning this is, not to be found among those who prefer to wallow in sin than to be cleansed with the blood of Jesus and to live a clean life, a life of love, true love, like the love of God who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. May Jesus’ words about the Father’s love keep you firmly grounded in the faith. May they inspire you to walk in the light, to stay in the light, to live as children of God. And may they also motivate you to tell anyone who will listen about the God who loved the world in this way. And when you do, there will be the Spirit of God doing His all-important work of persuading sinners to believe, and turning the desolate wasteland of this world into the fruitful field of His Holy Christian Church. Amen.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on In this way God loved the world