The Ministry of the Keys

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of St. Titus

Small Catechism Review: The Ministry of the Keys

Sometimes, we can make Christian theology a little too complicated. It doesn’t have to be. It didn’t start out that way. Yes, there are portions of Scripture that are harder to understand, and fine distinctions that sometimes need to be made, and clear doctrines of Scripture that must be defended against false teachers. But the core of the Christian Gospel is so simple, summarized again by St. Paul in the First Lesson this evening from the book of Acts: Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that’s not the whole message of Scripture, but it is the core message.

That message is also summarized very simply in the Fifth Chief Part of the Small Catechism, entitled “The Ministry of the Keys and Confession.”

Confession is the only part that was actually in Luther’s Small Catechism and in the Book of Concord. We’ll focus on that part next week. But one of the assumptions of the part on Confession is that there is such a thing as a ministry that God Himself has established on earth, a position to which God calls certain men so that they can act on His behalf. St. Titus, whose day we celebrate today, was called into that ministry and appointed directly by the Apostle Paul to appoint others as ministers in Crete.

The words printed on the back of your service folder are not found in Luther’s Catechism, but they confess very simply what the Bible teaches about “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” and how God has commanded ministers to act in His place, both toward the penitent and believing, and toward the impenitent and unbelieving.

What are the words about the ministry of the keys?

The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained.”

What does this mean?

I believe in what the called ministers of Christ do among us, by His divine command—especially when they exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and when they absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways—that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

First, there is ministry established by Christ to which men are called. As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 4, Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Scripture uses various titles for those whom Christ has given: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, ministers, bishops (that is, overseers), elders, and deacons. The apostles were called directly by Christ, but the rest are called indirectly: by Christ, through the Church.

As we saw, it was the Apostle Paul, as a clergyman in the Church, who appointed Pastor Titus to his position in the Church in Crete, and it was Titus who was to appoint others there. We heard in the First Lesson how it was the Holy Spirit who had made the ministers of Ephesus overseers, to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood,” and yet the Holy Spirit hadn’t done it directly, but through the call that Paul and the churches gave to those men. So we have every confidence that, when a group of Christians issues a call to a man to their pastor, commending the decision to God in prayer, it is God the Holy Spirit who is actually calling that man to carry out the duties God has assigned to ministers.

In St. Paul’s epistle to Pastor Titus (as well as to Pastor Timothy), he lays out the chief qualifications and duties of ministers: A man must be blameless, the husband of one wife, (Yes, being a man is one of the Scriptural qualifications; Paul says, “the husband of one wife” and doesn’t add “or the wife of one husband”), having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

So ministers are called to preach, teach, administer the Sacraments, correct, rebuke, encourage, comfort, and shepherd God’s people, “holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught.” They are stewards of the mysteries of God, as Paul says to the Corinthians, and ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf (or, “in the stead of Christ or in the place of Christ”) be reconciled to God.

The authority to do those things is summarized in the phrase, “the ministry of the Keys.” Now, the “keys” aren’t mentioned in John 20, when Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained. But that command of Jesus is synonymous with what He said to Peter in Matthew 16: I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we speak of the “binding key,” that is, whenever a minister declares to any impenitent sinner that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, that he is locked out of God’s kingdom for his sins and for his refusal to repent and believe in Christ. But for those within the Christian Church we usually speak of the binding key as a synonym for excommunication, namely, when the called ministers of Christ exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation. It’s when a minister declares to a baptized member of the congregation who has fallen into sin and refuses to repent that he is bound to his sins and will have to pay for them eternally, that he is not forgiven, in spite of his previous Baptism, that he has broken away from Christ, and therefore no longer has Christ to answer for his sins, but will have to answer for them himself.

What’s the purpose of this binding key? It’s a stern preaching of the Law, the hammer of God’s Word with which God seeks to wake a person up before it’s too late, to drive him to righteous fear of falling into the hands of an angry God, to drive him to repentance and to Christ, so that he doesn’t perish eternally.

But then we also speak of the loosing key, that is, when the called ministers of Christ absolve those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways. To “absolve” means to release, in this case, to release a person from his sins, declaring to him that he no longer has to answer for them, because Christ answered for them on the cross, and this person is seeking refuge in Christ, who will never turn any sinner away who comes to Him for mercy. The loosing key is used both for the daily sins all Christians commit without falling away from grace—that’s the absolution I pronounce to you every Sunday at the beginning of the service—and also for those grave mortal sins that have separated a sinner from the Church and from God’s grace, sins that a person once refused to repent of, but that now a person has been brought to recognize and to reject, looking to Christ again for mercy and forgiveness.

When a minister uses either key, in accordance with God’s Word, we are to believe that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself. Does he correct you? It’s as valid and certain as if our dear Lord Christ corrected you. Does he warn you? Does he encourage you? Does he baptize you? Does he give you the Lord’s body and blood? Does he comfort you? Does he counsel you? Does he remove you from the Church? Does he absolve you and welcome you into it? It’s all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

That is what we mean by the Ministry of the Keys, and even as we give thanks to God today for St. Titus, we should all give thanks to God for every faithful minister and for the Office of the Ministry itself, because it’s the way God has given us to be certain of what He does in heaven. We can’t see God acting. We can’t hear God condemning or forgiving or teaching or guiding. But because He has established this ministry on earth and has bound Himself to it, we have a sure and certain connection to Him, and a firm foundation for our faith, until we need no more ministers, until Christ Himself comes, the Good Shepherd Himself, to take over the duties of the pastors whom He has temporarily left in charge of His house, who will gladly hand over the keys at that time to their rightful owner. Amen.

 

 

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A God of goodness, mercy, and love

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 3

Romans 12:16-21  +  Matthew 8:1-13

As I work through the Psalms in the original Hebrew, there’s a word that comes up again and again as one of God’s chief traits or attributes. The word is hesed. It’s often translated as “mercy.” Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Mercy is a fine translation, but it doesn’t capture the whole thought of the word. No English word really does. Some translate it with the word love. Others with the phrase steadfast love. Luther chose a word in German that means goodness or kindness. “His goodness endures forever.” Mercy. Love. Goodness. These are characteristics of God. And in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus revealing those characteristics in Himself as the Man who is God, yet another epiphany, a revelation of His divinity and of what that divinity is like. He is a God a goodness, mercy, and love.

Jesus had just finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7. Now, coming down from the mountain, Jesus would put into practice the things He had preached, first in His encounter with the man with leprosy, and then in His encounter with the centurion.

As he was coming down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Somehow, somewhere, this man whose skin was mottled with sores had heard of Jesus, had heard of His goodness, mercy, and love, and also of His power and authority over sickness and disease. And what he had heard had already sparked faith in his heart, faith so confident in Jesus’ goodness, that he simply lays his case before Jesus. Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. A much better way of approaching Jesus than we heard from St. Mary in last week’s Gospel. “They have no more wine,” with the implication, “You’re going to do something about it, right?” Whereas this leper starts with the perfectly submissive, “If you are willing,” leaving everything to Jesus to decide in His perfect goodness, mercy, and love.

And goodness, mercy, and love are exactly what we see from Jesus in His response. He touched the leprous man, which in itself was an act of great compassion, because the Jews were not to touch anything unclean unnecessarily, and lepers were ceremonially unclean. But as a caring physician touches his patient in order to diagnose and heal him, so Jesus wasn’t ashamed to come into contact with this man. He touched him and said, I am willing. Be cleansed!

Notice, He demanded nothing of the man. The man had already been humbled before God by his disease and the ceremonial restrictions that went along with it. If he had been clinging to sin or exalting himself before, then Jesus would have rebuked him. But since he came in humility and faith, Jesus was quick to comfort him and heal him, for free! Such is the goodness, mercy, and love of God for us poor sinners. And by that healing, so simple, so authoritative, Jesus revealed His divinity: to those who witnessed it, and to us who have read about it.

Jesus did give the man one instruction after healing him, though. See that you tell no one; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them. Here’s Jesus, again, practicing what He had just gotten done preaching in the Sermon on the Mount. In that sermon, He had said this: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. The Law of Moses commanded lepers who had been healed to show themselves to the priest, who would examine him and declare him to be clean. This man’s miraculous cleansing would be a testimony to the whole priesthood that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Then, the Law of Moses also required the cleansed leper to offer a special offering. Jesus’ instruction to the man to do what the Law commanded would also be a testimony to the whole priesthood, that Jesus wasn’t some rogue preacher, trying to start a new religion. No, He was the very Christ whom the Law and the Prophets had been pointing to all along. His ministry would not be in opposition to the Law. He would fulfill it, to the letter. And only after everything was fulfilled, after everything was “finished,” only then would the ceremonial commands of the Law give way to the freedom of the New Testament, and the office of the Old Testament priests would be replaced with the High Priesthood of Jesus the Christ, sitting at the right hand of God.

Then we come to the second part of today’s Gospel as Jesus dealt with the centurion. This Roman centurion, as we’re informed by St. Luke, was a friend of the Jews. He had even built them a synagogue for their worship. So he had been paying attention to word about Jesus that was going around Capernaum. He came to Jesus and presented his case before Him. Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” Again, we see the Lord’s readiness to help, even to help this Gentile soldier. And we see how Jesus dealt differently with each one, giving him exactly what he needed. He offers right away to go with the centurion to his house, to heal the man’s servant. At around the same time in Jesus’ ministry, in roughly the same place in Galilee, a Jewish nobleman had come to Jesus begging Him to come and heal his son. Come! Come quickly! You have to come with me to my house! And in that case, Jesus refused to go with the man, teaching him the importance of believing in Jesus’ word alone, without having to see anything.

But in this case, Jesus was the one offering to go to the centurion’s house, and the centurion was the one telling Jesus it wasn’t necessary. Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. And then he compared his authority over other soldiers with Jesus’ authority over—over what? Over the bodily functions of everyone on earth. He confessed Jesus’ power to speak a word, commanding a body to be healed, and the body would simply obey, as a soldier obeys his commanding officer.

It’s astonishing faith, and Jesus was astonished. The Jews had been hounding Him for signs to prove His authority to them. They were slow to believe His word, and most never did. But here is a Gentile, a Roman soldier, who has simply believed the report about Jesus, that He was full of goodness, mercy, and love, that He was both willing and able to help in any need.

When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Truly I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel. And I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and will sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go now. And as you have believed, so let it be done to you.”

St. Matthew is especially the writer to the Hebrews, to the Jews. And the Holy Spirit used Matthew to reach out to them more than any other Evangelist did. Look, people of Israel! You were slow to believe in Jesus as the Christ, and the Gentiles were quick! God’s judgment against the Jews is just, and so is His inclusion of the Gentiles in His kingdom. So wake up! You are the original children of the kingdom! Repent before you are cast out for your unbelief, even as the Gentiles are welcomed at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! You were the original recipients of God’s goodness, mercy, and love! Don’t forfeit all that you’ve been given! If you do, it won’t be God’s goodness, mercy, and love that fail. It will be your impenitence and unbelief that get you thrown out into the darkness.

And so today’s Gospel is yet another appeal on God’s part to all who hear. Our God is a God of goodness, mercy, and love. He has proven it time and time again, most notably in giving His Son into death on the cross for the sins of the world. We are sinners who don’t deserve to be in His kingdom at all, and the moment you start thinking you deserve a place in God’s kingdom, that your sins aren’t that bad, or that Jesus isn’t good, merciful, and loving enough to help, that’s when you’re on the brink of perishing eternally.

So you who have come into God’s kingdom from the West, just as others have come into His kingdom from the East, through Baptism and faith in Christ Jesus, see again Jesus’ goodness, mercy, and love in today’s Gospel. See how He helps those who come to Him in humility and faith, who trust in His will, who trust in His word. And be one of those who approach Him in such humility and faith. Trust in His goodness, mercy, and love toward you, and then show that same goodness, mercy, and love toward everyone you encounter today and throughout the week. May God grant it by His Holy Spirit! Amen.

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Baptism: Fourth

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Small Catechism Review

Baptism: Fourth

In Baptism: First, we confessed what Baptism is: the water included in God’s command and connected to God’s Word. In Baptism: Second, we confessed what it does: It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. In Baptism: Third, we confessed both what it is and what it does: It is a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, with the Word of God and faith as the things that make Baptism effective. Finally this evening, in Baptism: Fourth, we confess what Baptism signifies. In other words, it not only does something. It implies something. It points to something. It pictures something. It signifies something.

What does such baptizing with water signify?

It signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires, and that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

Where is this written?

St. Paul says to the Romans in chapter six: “We were buried with Christ through Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in a new life.”

So, again, what did Baptism do? It united us with Christ. It clothed us with Christ. And, therefore, it washed away sin, as a bath washes away dirt and grime. It regenerated; it gave new birth. It worked forgiveness of sins, delivered from death and the devil, and gave eternal salvation to all who believe this. Baptists and other Evangelicals deny that Baptism does anything. To them, it’s man’s work done for God, only a symbol, only a sign of a regeneration and salvation that supposedly takes part entirely apart from Baptism. So we emphasize the first three parts of Baptism and mustn’t yield an inch on what Baptism truly does.

But there is also something symbolic, something figurative about Baptism, something that is pictured, namely, death, burial, and resurrection. We don’t usually bury a person under water for our Baptisms anymore, also known as Baptism by “immersion,” but there was a time when it was common practice in the Church, though never the exclusive practice. (Anyone who tells you that the Bible requires Baptism by immersion is either ignorant or lying.) But since the Evangelicals have come along with their insistence that Baptism must only be by immersion for it to be a valid Baptism, since they insist that Baptism is only a symbol, we usually refuse to baptize by immersion, as a confession against their error, and to keep people from being deceived into thinking their Baptism was “better” if it was done by immersion.

Still, the picture of being “buried” under the water and “rising” up out of it again is both Scriptural and meaningful, because regardless of the manner in which we were baptized, we were actually buried with Christ through Baptism into death, as Paul says in Romans 6.

But what does that picture of death and resurrection signify? What does it point to? What is it supposed to remind us of on a daily basis?

First, it should remind us that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires. The Old Adam is the same thing as the Old Man, Original Sin, the sinful nature with which we’re all born, which we inherited from fallen Adam and Eve, which is always hostile toward God, never truly loves or believes in God, and is full of evil desires.

It’s providential that we heard the lesson this evening about Sodom and Gomorrah, because it really helps us to understand what we’re talking about here. You and I and every human being naturally born carries around with him or her an Old Adam that is no less wicked than the men of Sodom were. People hear of an especially egregious sin, and they wonder how people can be so evil. Well, the symbol of Baptism cries out to you, “You have that same evil growing inside of you!” You may control it better—or hide it better. But we all carry the same strain of disease.

In the Sermon on the Mount, part of which we also heard this evening, Jesus lays bare the thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions within us that must be drowned and die: Murder. Adultery. Theft. Pride. Malice. Deceit. Lovelessness. Selfishness. Whether those sins burst forth on the outside or whether they are only harbored as desires and attitudes on the inside. For these there must be daily contrition and repentance.

And we’re talking about the baptized here, not the unbaptized and unbelieving. We’re talking about the daily putting to death of the Old Man in the believer, daily allowing the Law to “crush” you (that’s what “contrite” really means) and make you sorrowful over your sin, daily “repenting,” turning away from sin in your heart, saying “no” to it, recognizing it for the repulsive evil that it is, instead of something you want to keep nurturing and obeying.

But, since we’re talking about the baptized, the believers in Christ, that daily exercise doesn’t end in despair. It ends in fleeing in faith to Christ for refuge, for forgiveness, and firmly trusting in His merits and in His promise of full and free forgiveness.

Then, on the other side of repentance are the fruits of repentance, the rising to life of the New Man, the one who was born of water and the Spirit. Baptism also pictures that as the baptized “comes up out of the water under which he was buried,” a picture of rising from the grave, of rising from the dead, to do, what? To sit around? No, but to live! To live one’s life. To live it now as a new person, with godly motives, godly attitudes, and godly purposes. Baptism signifies that a New Man, in turn, should daily emerge and arise, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

So each day, remember your Baptism, both what it did for you, and what it pictures for you, how it urges you each day to repeat that process of drowning the Old Adam and getting up again as the New Man, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. Because you who are baptized and believing are the true born-again Christians. And you were born, not to wallow in sin, but to walk in a new life. Amen.

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The God who makes good wine in abundance

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Epiphany 2

Romans 12:6-16  +  John 2:1-11

The Epiphany season has us looking at various ways in which Jesus’ glory as the Son of God was revealed, even though He appeared to be just a man. The visit of the wise men, where He was revealed as the God of both Jews and Gentiles. In the temple when He was twelve, where He was revealed as the God who, though a human boy, knew the Scriptures better than all the teachers of Israel. His Baptism, where He was revealed to be the beloved, well-pleasing Son of God the Father and one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

After Jesus’ Baptism, He went into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days. Then He returned to the Jordan River, at which time John declared Him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—an epiphany in its own right. And then just a few days later, Jesus and His mother and His very first disciples attended a wedding in Cana. That’s the epiphany we have before us this morning, where Jesus was revealed as the God who has power over the elements, and who uses that power—to do what? To make good wine at a wedding, and to make it in abundance.

Actually, Jesus revealed several things about Himself as the God-Man on that occasion. Let’s take a look at some of them.

You remember what John the Baptist was like, right? Lived alone in the desert. Dressed strangely. Ate strangely. Didn’t participate in society, except to preach to people who came to him out in the wilderness. John had been the teacher of Peter and Andrew, James and John, and maybe also of Philip and Nathanael, Jesus’ first disciples. How would He compare to John? How would the God-Man interact with the world?

As the first act of His ministry, He would attend a wedding and participate in a wedding feast. That tells us something about Jesus, and therefore, about our God. He approves of marriage, that is, of the lifelong union of one man and one woman. He instituted marriage, after all, and He still gives it His blessing. What’s more, He shows us that God wants to interact with us in our day-to-day lives. He’s happy to be present at our weddings and our celebrations, in the earthly joys we still experience, even though this earth is, in a sense, the devil’s territory and has more than its share of troubles. Even now, during our pilgrimage here in this valley of the shadow death, on our way to the new heavens and the new earth, God grants us moments of joy and happiness.

But the joy and happiness of that particular wedding in Cana was going to be hampered, just a little bit, because they ran out of wine early. Not a big deal, really. A little embarrassment for the bridegroom, possibly, for poor planning or for humble resources, a few disgruntled guests. Surely it wouldn’t be important enough for the God who had taken on human flesh to do anything about it!

Well, Mary thought that it might. But she overstepped. She informed Jesus that they had run out of wine, obviously expecting Him to do something about it. Now, if you think about it, if Jesus has the power to produce wine out of nowhere, then surely He doesn’t need anyone to inform Him of the problem. He certainly doesn’t need His mother’s advice, and His answer to Mary makes that very clear. Woman, what do I have to do with you? In other words, “You have nothing to do with how I conduct My ministry or with how I choose to use My divine power. You are My earthly mother, but you are no longer in a position to advise Me. My heavenly Father is the only Counselor that I need.” And so Jesus gently but firmly taught Mary her place, now that He had begun His ministry, now that He had begun revealing His glory as the Son of God. Christians throughout history would have done well to note this about the relationship between Jesus and Mary. Once she had done her job in raising Him, she no longer had a special role in His plan of salvation, and she has no continual role as the mother of God. She wasn’t allowed to be His adviser while on earth. Much less is she His adviser in heaven! She is our sister in the faith and a wonderful example for us in many ways, and that’s enough.

Jesus also added, My hour has not yet come. Which hour? Obviously He’s not talking about the hour for performing His first miracle, because that’s the very next thing He does. No, throughout St. John’s Gospel, Jesus is often telling His disciples about an hour that is coming, and it’s during Holy Week when He finally announces, The hour has come. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The true glorification of Jesus would be in connection with His death on the cross for the sins of the world. That was the greatest epiphany of all. God wanted to reveal Himself to the world in the Person of His Son as the God who loves the world so much that He’s willing to be tortured, abused, and crucified in order to save us from our sins.

The hour of that great revelation hadn’t come yet. Jesus still had a whole three and half years of preaching and teaching to do first, and during that time, He would reveal His glory in bits and pieces, to a few here and a few there. He wanted Mary to understand that He was the One who would decide how He would reveal His glory and when. It wasn’t time to reveal it to everyone at the feast. But He would choose to reveal just a bit of it to His disciples (and to the servants).

So He told the servants to fill six stone jars with water, “up to the brim.” John is careful to give us the number of jars and the volume of each, which is estimated at 20 to 30 gallons a piece. Then He told the servants to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. There’s no hocus pocus here. Jesus didn’t even touch the water or the water jars. But by the time it got to the master of the feast, it had become wine. Shockingly fine wine. “The good wine,” to the amazement of the master of the feast, though his amazement came, not from knowing the source of the wine, but from the fact that the good wine had apparently been held back until the feast was almost over.

120 gallons of water changed by the will of Jesus into enough fine wine to fill over 600 wine bottles. That’s how Jesus chose to reveal His glory to His first disciples, His glory as the God who has power over the elements, and who uses that power to make good wine in abundance at a wedding. And they believed in Him.

So unlike John the Baptist, who came neither feasting nor drinking wine at all, ever! That’s how God wanted John to behave, as John’s primary message was one of Law, of accusation against the sins of the people of Israel. John’s message wasn’t primarily one of joy, but of sorrow—sorrow tainted with hope, but still sorrow over sin.

John was the forerunner, pointing to the Christ. What would the Christ be like? As we see in today’s Gospel, He would come with the good news, with the Gospel of peace and of joy, preaching forgiveness to the penitent as His primary focus and His primary purpose. Not that He wouldn’t sometimes preach the Law and accuse and condemn. Both the Law and the Gospel are divine teachings. But as St. John tells us in chapter 3, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

And so another great epiphany in today’s Gospel is the Gospel-oriented purpose of God, that our God is a God of love, a God of family, a God who cherishes humility, a God who makes good wine in abundance, that we may be encouraged to seek Him, and to trust Him, and to live with Him forever. May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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Small Catechism Review: Baptism, Third

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Epiphany 1

Baptism: Third

This evening we heard the account of God’s call to Abram when he was 75 years old, 25 years before Isaac was born, 24 years before God made the Testament with Abraham of which circumcision was the sign. On New Year’s Day, we talked about the connection between the New Testament Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Old Testament Sacrament of Circumcision, both of which are tools which God has used to bring sinful little children out of the devil’s kingdom and into His own family.

When it comes to Old Testament circumcision, people who rely on human reason have often wondered, how can the cutting away of a little skin make someone into a child of God and an heir of eternal life? How can anything that’s done to the body affect the soul and one’s relationship with God?

The same question is asked about the water of Holy Baptism. God promises, with the application of a little water in His name, some tremendous things. You remember what they were from Baptism: Second. What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. But some ask, How can water do such great things?

Our answer is stated very simply in Baptism: Third. Clearly it is not the water that does it, but the word of God that is in and with the water, and the faith that trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism; but with the word of God it is a Baptism—a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says to Titus in chapter three: “Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs of eternal life according to hope. This is most certainly true.”

Water does a pretty good job cleansing the body; by itself, it does nothing for the soul or for one’s relationship with God. But God has taken that common cleanser of the body and has attached His word to it, His command and His promise to use it in His name as a tool and instrument of applying all the benefits Christ won for us on the cross to the individual who is baptized. The word of God that is in and with the water is like a tool or an instrument, like the very hand of God, holding out all the benefits of Christ to the one who is baptized.

Meanwhile, the faith that trusts this word of God in the water is also like a tool or an instrument, like the hand of the one being baptized, receiving and accepting the benefits of Christ being held out by the hand of God. And what is it that prompts that hand to be lifted up toward God to receive, but the very kindness and goodness of God as His hand reaches down with the help the sinner needs, holding out the blood of Christ and the promise of forgiveness? And so it’s the Gospel itself, the Gospel encapsulated in Baptism, that creates the faith that’s needed for Baptism to be effective in working the forgiveness of sins, delivering from death and the devil, and giving eternal salvation to all who believe this.

Without the word of God, of course, it’s just water. If I take water from anywhere, whether from the sink or from the baptismal font itself, and I go pour it on someone or wash my car with it, that’s no Baptism. The water itself isn’t sacred; it has no power. But with the word of God—when the water is applied by the minister to the one who comes to him to be baptized, when the baptizer calls upon God in prayer and speaks the word of God and applies the water in the name of God for the purpose of washing the person’s sins away and bringing him or her into God’s family, then it is a Baptism, a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit.

The word Luther uses for “washing” is the same word used in German for a “bath.” Baptism is a spiritual bath, a bath in which the Holy Spirit does the washing, like a mother bathing her little child, a bath in which the Holy Spirit does the “regenerating.” “Regeneration” is just a fancy word for “rebirth.” Baptism is the washing of rebirth, the washing of water and the Spirit by which a person who was born naturally outside of God’s kingdom is born into it.

So every baptized believer is a “born again” Christian, in spite of the misuse of that term by those who deny the fact that Baptism actually does something. And just as a child doesn’t do the work of being born, but the mother does all the work, so we aren’t the ones who do the work of Baptism or who give birth to ourselves by some decision to follow Jesus. No, God is the true Baptizer. He does the work. The Holy Spirit gives birth to us, and now we are God’s children.

In the catechism’s citation of Titus chapter 3, it mentions other important benefits of Baptism, too. …that we might be justified by His grace. Yes, justification is tied to Baptism. That’s where God justifies a poor sinner. It’s where and how God forgives sins. So, again, pretending that God has already justified all people, baptized or unbaptized, seriously undermines the Scriptural doctrine of Baptism.

…and [that we might] become heirs of eternal life according to hope. Of course Baptism makes us heirs. Because Baptism makes us God’s children, born of God. And as a good and faithful Father in heaven, He won’t leave His children as penniless orphans. He has made us heirs of His kingdom, heirs of all that is His, heirs of eternal life. That is the hope of the baptized, and it is a sure hope, because it has God’s own promise behind it. And so we say, together with Luther, and together with the Apostle Paul, This is most certainly true. Amen.

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