The Seventh Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Small Catechism Review

The Seventh Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

In any need, in any trouble, facing any hardship or any dire situation, there are two little prayers a Christian can always pray, two little prayers that capture and beautifully summarize everything we might ask of our Father in heaven. The first is, Lord, have mercy! The second is the 7th petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Our Father, Deliver us from evil! Two short prayers that take all our needs in this life and lump them all together in one simple but profound request. At another time, we’ll talk more about “Lord, have mercy!” This evening, our focus is the 7th Petition.

The 7th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer is, as Luther says, a summary of the first six petitions.

Deliver us from evil.

What does this mean?

We ask in this prayer, in summary, that the Father in heaven would deliver us from every sort of evil of body and soul, of property and honor; and finally, when our last hour comes, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

So, from what evils are we praying for deliverance?

We pray, Hallowed be Thy name! Deliver us from the evil of false doctrine and from the evil of bringing shame and disgrace to Your name, O Father in heaven, by leading ungodly lives as those who call ourselves Christians. Deliver us from the evil of blasphemy!

We pray, Thy kingdom come! Deliver us from the evil of perishing outside of Your kingdom, from the evil of being trapped in the devil’s kingdom, from the evil of being without Your Holy Spirit, from the evil of not knowing You rightly, from the evil of following the devil as our king instead of Christ Jesus, Your dear Son, who gave Himself for us so that we might live under Him in His kingdom.

We pray, Thy will be done! Deliver us from the evil of falling into the hands of the devil, the world, and our flesh! Deliver us from the evil of carrying out the devil’s will by loveless behavior, by rushing into sin, by distrusting Your good and gracious will for us, and for the Church, and for the world.

We pray, Give us this day our daily bread! Deliver us from the evil of scarcity and want, from the evil of not having what we need for today, from the evil of storm and tempest, from the evil of bad government and ungodly rulers, from the evil of going through this life without the companionship we need.

We pray, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us! Deliver us from the evil of living under Your just condemnation for our sins! Deliver us from the evil of falling away from faith in Christ, from the evil of becoming Your enemy again, from the evil of losing the life and salvation You gave us when we were baptized in Your name! And deliver us from the evil of holding a grudge against those who have sinned against us and from the evil of losing Your forgiveness by despising Your forgiveness in failing to forgive others.

We pray, And lead us not into temptation! Deliver us from the evil of giving in to the temptations of the devil, the world, and our flesh! Deliver us from the evil of false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice! Deliver us from the evil of growing bitter under the cross! Deliver us from the evil of crumbling under adversity and from being defeated by our enemies instead of standing victorious in the end!

So, you see, that little prayer, Deliver us from evil!, really does cover just about every evil or bad thing we may encounter in this world. When you see the world crumbling, Deliver us from evil! When you think about all the things that threaten, Deliver us from evil! When you feel the weight of this world’s darkness pressing down on you, turn to our Father in heaven and pray, Deliver us from evil!

And He will. He’ll do it in any number of ways. He may keep some evil from touching you at all. He may lessen its effect on you or strengthen you sufficiently, so that you can bear up under it. He may take the evil away after allowing you to be tested for just long enough. And finally, He will take you out of this evil world entirely, out of this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven, where no evil is allowed to enter, ever.

Lord, have mercy! Deliver us from evil! Those are two good little prayers to say at any time. They go right along with that third little prayer, our regular Advent prayer, that’s also always relevant: Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

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Blessed are those who are willing to wait

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 3 – Gaudete

1 Corinthians 4:1-5  +  Matthew 11:2-10

The last two Sundays in Advent introduce us to the preacher of Advent, John the Baptist. In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls him a prophet, and more than a prophet. A prophet, because John prepared the people of Israel for the Advent of Christ, preparing the way of the Lord by turning men’s hearts to the things of God, to the readiness of repentance and faith. A prophet, because he foretold the coming of the Christ. More than a prophet, because John himself was prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. More than a prophet, because when Jesus was ready to begin His ministry, John proclaimed, not as a prophet, but as a herald, “The Christ is here!”

Next week we’ll look deeper into John’s ministry and preaching. But this week, the Gospel turns our attention to the final days of John’s life, after his preaching and baptizing were done. It shows us a minister of God who has done exactly what he was sent to do, who willingly set aside the comforts of life and society because he was thoroughly devoted to the mission God had given him. But now he sits in prison for doing what was right, for doing the very thing God had sent him to do, for preaching the truth to King Herod. He’s facing the end of his life, and he’s confused, because he spent his short ministry zealously pointing people to Jesus as the Christ, as the One who was to come, and yet to this day, Jesus has not done a single thing John said he would do, at least, not that John can see. But, again, he does exactly the right thing. Instead of trying to figure it all out on his own, or worse, giving up on Jesus, he sends two of his own disciples to Jesus, to ask Him for clarity and for help.

Through his disciples, John asked Jesus the question that was pressing on his heart and mind, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? Since the days of Adam and Eve, God had been announcing, through the Old Testament prophets, the coming of a Messiah, a one-of-a-kind Savior, a Man who would also be God, a Christ who would do a whole list of things: He would teach the people of Israel with divine authority. He would speak to them in parables. He would perform miracles of healing. He would preach good news to the poor. He would institute a New Covenant (or Testament). He would be rejected by the people. He would suffer and be put to death, as the Lamb of God, for the sins of the world. He would be raised from the dead. He would reign as a King and bring justice to the world and righteousness to Israel. He would gather people from all nations into His kingdom. He would pour out His Spirit on His Church. He would raise all the dead. He would create new heavens and a new earth. He would get rid of pain and suffering and sickness and death. He would gather His people Israel together to dwell in safety, and He would destroy the wicked forever. All of those things were prophesied about the coming Christ in the Old Testament, and many of those things were also preached by John the Baptist as things that Jesus, the Christ, would do.

But how much of it had Jesus actually done since He was baptized by John in the Jordan River? Not very much. And from Jesus’ words and actions, it didn’t seem like most of it was even part of the plan. Jesus was intentionally not running a political campaign, was not overthrowing the wicked, was not releasing His people, like John, from prison or from suffering at the hands of sinners. John had said about the Christ, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. But where was the fire? Where was the winnowing fan, or the cleaning out, or the gathering of the wheat, or the burning up of the chaff? John expected all of those things from Jesus, not only because he had proclaimed it, but because the Old Testament Scriptures had proclaimed it. How could Jesus be the One who was to come if He wasn’t doing what He was supposed to do?

Here was Jesus’ answer that He gave John’s disciples to bring back to their teacher: Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. You see, Jesus was doing some of the things that the coming Christ was supposed to do, and they weren’t little things. The miracles He was performing were unprecedented, and He performed them easily, usually with nothing more than a word. He performed them with grace and mercy—the grace and mercy that were so characteristic of God Himself. Even His preaching to the poor was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Anointed One: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.

But what were the good tidings Jesus was preaching to the poor? That they’re going to become less poor? No, Jesus never raised anyone out of poverty. The good news was for the rich and the poor who were poor in spirit, for those who admitted that they were poor, miserable sinners, that they had nothing to offer to God. To them Jesus gave the handout of the free forgiveness of sins, to all who believed in Him. And what about this “proclaiming liberty to the captives” and “opening the prison to those who are bound”? Even as John was sitting in prison! Ah, but that’s the thing. Many of the things that the Coming One was supposed to do were to be done in a figurative way, in a spiritual way. Those who had turned away from God had become captives of sin, slaves of sin, as Jesus puts it elsewhere. But the Son of God had come to set them free through the forgiveness of their sins, because having your sins forgiven by God is like having the prison doors thrown open, no longer held captive by guilt or condemnation, no longer destined to rot in hell, but made a child of heaven.

So some of the things the Christ was supposed to do, He was doing, either literally or figuratively or both. He was literally giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, cleansing to the lepers and life to the dead. But He was also doing those things for people on the inside, spiritually, removing spiritual blindness and deafness. He was preaching good news to the spiritually poor and freeing the spiritual captives from their slavery to the devil. These are the things Jesus wanted John’s disciples to witness for themselves and to go and tell John what they saw and what they heard.

And then He spoke a word of encouragement and of warning, Blessed is he who does not stumble over me. In other words, “I know I haven’t done all that you expected, all that I’m supposed to do. But I will, when the time is right and in the way that I intend. So don’t allow your expectations to dictate what I must do or when I must do it or how I must do it. The Scriptures will all be fulfilled wonderfully, perfectly. Don’t stumble over Me just because you don’t understand everything yet. You will be blessed if you don’t stumble, if you have patience. Because all will be fulfilled in due time.”

And more of it has been fulfilled since then. John proclaimed Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus hadn’t yet been offered up as that sacrificial Lamb when John sent his disciples. But within a year or two, He would be, at just the right time and in just the right way. He hadn’t yet been raised from the dead, but He would be. He hadn’t yet instituted the New Testament in His blood, but He would, soon. He hadn’t yet poured out the Holy Spirit, but He would. He hadn’t yet gathered the Gentiles into His kingdom, but He was about to begin that lengthy task.

As for the rest, the other things we are to expect in the Coming One, in the Christ—for those things we still wait, for the judgment of the wicked, for justice for the righteous, for the removal of pain and suffering and sickness and death, for the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus will do those things, too, just as He has already done all the other things that were rightly expected of Him. He’ll do it at His Second Advent, when He comes again at the end of the age.

What do you expect from Jesus? Be careful not to lump together all the good things He has promised to those who love Him, as if He had to give it all at once, and make everything better all at once, and do everything He has promised to do all at once, or else He won’t do it at all. He has done enough, hasn’t He?, to prove that He is the Christ, and that He’s faithful and trustworthy and good? Blessed are those who are willing to wait. Blessed are those who patiently wait for Jesus to do the rest of the things Scripture says He will do. Blessed are those who see all that He has already done and who take comfort in His promise to come again, as He said He would, to accomplish all that remains to be done for the good of His Church, for the good of each baptized believer. Amen.

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The Lord’s Prayer: Sixth Petition

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for midweek of Advent 2

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Prayer, Sixth Petition

Including this evening, there are three Wednesdays left in the Advent season. And it so happens that we have three sections left to consider in the Lord’s Prayer: The 6th and 7th petitions, and the Amen at the end. So tonight let’s turn our attention to the 6th Petition. Our Father, Lead us not into temptation.

What does this mean? God surely tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our flesh may not deceive us, nor mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and although we are troubled by these things, that we would, nevertheless, overcome and stand victorious in the end.

What is a temptation? In Scripture, there is a single Greek word that is sometimes translated “temptation,” sometimes translated “trial,” and sometimes translated “test.” It all depends on the context. For example, Scripture says that God does test people, as He tested Israel in the wilderness. At the same time, it says that God tempts no one. To test someone is to put him through some hardship in order to see what comes out on the other side, not unlike a test at school. More than once the Bible gives us the analogy of a lump of gold ore which is heated up in the fire to a very high temperature. All the impurities are burned away in the fire and heat, while the gold comes through it unscathed and purified. That’s testing. And a trial is just a time or an instance of testing.

So God does test or try people, and the purpose of that testing is never to harm, but only to help, to teach, to discipline. It’s never to drive someone away from Him, but always to drive them closer to Him, to depend on Him and Him alone.

So God tested Abraham when He told Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. His purpose was to put Abraham through that trial, through that hardship, so that, not God, but we could see the purity of Abraham’s faith (and Isaac’s faith, for that matter!) on the other side. As we know, it was never God’s intention for Abraham or Isaac to be harmed, but to be stronger in the end, to become examples of faith, and even to be praised by future generations for their devotion to God above all things.

God tests believers. But God doesn’t tempt anyone. As James says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Temptation is the attempt to get someone to sin against God. The devil tempts us. The world tempts us. Our own flesh tempts us. These enemies afflict us with some hardship, or they entice us with some promised benefit held out in front of us like a carrot on a stick in front of a horse, with the intention of getting us to disobey God, to curse God, to give up on Him, to turn away from Him.

They use deception as their primary tool. Think of the temptation of Eve in the Garden. The devil deceived her, tricked her, told her things that were either only partially true or completely false. He held up a fake hardship in front of her eyes, as if she and Adam were lacking some good thing in the Garden because they had been deprived of the fruit of that one tree. His intention was obvious: to get her to disbelieve God’s Word and to disobey God.

They also attempt to lead us into false belief, either believing something about God that isn’t true, or even believing something about our neighbor that isn’t true. And you know how dangerous that is, to believe something that’s false, to rely on something that isn’t reliable, to lean on something that won’t support your weight.

Our enemies also attempt to lead us to despair. The devil would gladly deceive us so that we despair, so that we lose hope, lose hope in God, lose hope in His forgiveness in Christ, lose hope in His good and gracious will for us, lose hope in His mercy.

And then there’s the great shame and vice to which temptation leads, all the filthy sins of the flesh, idolatry, blasphemy, lawlessness, murder, adultery and sexual sins, theft, drunkenness and drug abuse, and the list goes on and on. These are things toward which the devil would lead us with his temptations, and the world and our flesh are his willing allies.

We are so weak in the face of all these temptations. But we have a Savior who is strong. As it says in Hebrews, We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so we pray, Our Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation! Spare us! Deliver us! Have mercy on us! Don’t punish us on account of our sins by allowing our enemies to be successful in their temptations.

But when you pray, Lead us not into temptation, don’t mean the wrong thing by it. Don’t ask God not to test you. He must test you for your good. And don’t ask Him not to allow you to face hardships, or to spare you from all earthly troubles, or to keep the devil, the world, and your flesh from tempting you at all. As the Apostle Paul said (after being nearly stoned to death), “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” And Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” What’s more, St. Peter says this about the devil: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

No, the devil is not going away until Christ’s second Advent. He will tempt you to sin against God. And you will face troubles and crosses and testings and temptations throughout your earthly life. But we pray in the 6th petition that although we are troubled by these things, that we would, nevertheless, overcome and stand victorious in the end. That’s what we’re praying for in the 6th petition, for God’s help to resist the devil, to resist temptation, to enable us to bear our crosses with patience. And our Father in heaven will certainly hear us when we pray. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. May our Father grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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Signs to keep you watching and praying

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

The Lord is coming. But we don’t know when. And not knowing when can be both a blessing and a challenge. If you knew He was coming in five years, would you really be too concerned with getting yourself ready over the next 4-1/2 years? Wouldn’t you wait until closer to His coming to get ready? If you knew He wasn’t even going to come back during your lifetime, how would that affect how you live? Your sinful flesh would surely take advantage of such knowledge. There would be no urgency to repent when you sin, or to confess the faith, or to help your neighbor. And by the time you decided you should start getting your heart and your life together, there would be no faith left to revive. And you would be caught unprepared, and the snare of Christ’s coming would close around you, and you would be eternally trapped. So Jesus’ decision not to tell us when He’s coming was really a blessing.

But it’s also a challenge, because there’s plenty going on down here on earth to keep our attention. We have homes here. We put down roots here. And it’s not easy to view our homes and our earthly lives as just temporary stops along the way to a greater destination. Our homes and our earthly lives can easily become our destination—the goal around which we make all our decisions, the things our hearts are tied to.

So to help us watch and pray, to keep us from being caught unprepared, to keep us from getting so bogged down here that we forget about our heavenly destination, Jesus gave us some reminders which He calls signs, to keep us looking up, to keep us watching and praying.

There will be signs, He says, in the sun and the moon and the stars. And He adds, The powers of heaven will be shaken. What does all that mean? It’s intentionally vague. But very simply, it means that every time you see something out of the ordinary in the sky, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

On the earth there will be distress and anxiety among the nations, and the sea and the waves will roar. And men will lose heart from fear and dread of the things that are coming on the world. Every time you see “the nations” distressed and anxious—worldwide distress and anxiety—whether it’s due to war or pandemic or fear and dread of climate change or asteroids, every time you hear of a hurricane or a typhoon or a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a famine, or a war (which Jesus mentions elsewhere as signs of His imminent coming), it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus adds this sign: Lawlessness will abound, causing the love of many to grow cold. It’s hard to watch lawlessness and injustice abound in the world. It’s hard to watch loveless people screaming about their right to kill unborn babies, gangs carrying out violence and destruction, sex traffickers and drug dealers and the streets of our cities being lined with filth. But instead of fixating on those horrors when you hear about them on the news and wringing your hands over them, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

Also from Matthew’s Gospel: They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Yes, terrible things will happen among Christians and to Christians. They’re already happening. But when you see the Church fractured and broken by false doctrine and the multitude of denominations that are the result of it, when you see the world coming for Christians to silence us and to marginalize us, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

A final sign recorded in Matthew: This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. That’s a good sign, isn’t it? And it’s happening, too. The gospel has been and is still being preached in all the world. In fact, sixteen children were baptized just last week in the tribal villages of the Amazon jungle in Peru. When you see that Christians are still gathering all over the world and that the gospel is being preached at all, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

These signs may intensify as the Lord’s second Advent approaches. We expect that they will. But they’ve already been in place for a long time, so that Christians have never been without the constant encouragements to watch and to pray. That’s why Jesus said, When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! These things began happening since almost the beginning of the New Testament era. And Christ’s coming is much nearer now than it was then.

Now, there’s another sign, or even two signs, Jesus gives to demonstrate the truthfulness of His words. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. “This generation” can refer to at least two groups of people. It could refer to the people alive at Jesus’ time, and that would make sense, because really the signs Jesus gives did already start happening in the first century AD. Or it could refer to the unbelieving race of the Jews. That’s how Luther took it, and that would make sense, because contrary to all probability, the Jewish race does continue to exist still today, and most sadly continue in their unbelief. Either way, the signs have been and are being fulfilled, just as Jesus promised. And the fact that Jesus’ words have not passed away, but are still being heard and read and fulfilled even today, is yet another sign that should lead Christians to watch and to pray.

And to drive home the urgency of constantly watching and praying, Jesus adds a warning: Be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Therefore, always watch, and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man. Be on your guard. Why? Because earthly things are heavy. Like weights on the heart. Carousing is basically partying, and while it may seem uplifting, it can actually weigh a person down to avoid watching and praying for a while. Drunkenness puts you in a state of mind that makes it nearly impossible to watch and to pray and to be filled with the Spirit. Cares of this life are always there, but if you get wrapped up in them, they’ll consume you, body and soul. And suddenly Jesus will appear, and you’ll realize you hadn’t given Him a thought in quite a while. Believers in Christ are destined to be lifted up from this world. But if your hearts are weighed down and entangled in earthly things, you won’t be ready to be lifted up away from it. You’ll sink down into the earth like a rock sinks to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again.

That day will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. That’s an interesting analogy. A snare is hidden until the last moment, when an animal that was just running along, going about its business, runs right through it, and it traps the creature. The animal didn’t see the snare, how close it was. In the same way, leading up to the last day, people will be going about their business, doing harmless things like eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage, and also doing sinful things, thinking they’ll get away with it again, maybe thinking they’ll have time to repent later. And then, in the next moment, the snare closes around them. Christ will appear, and it will be too late to repent.

So always watch. Watch and pray. Pray that you may be counted worthy to escape “all these things.” Escape what? Escape the signs? Hardly. We’re meant to notice the signs. That means we have to live through them. No, pray that you may be counted worthy to escape being caught in the snare at the coming of the Lord, and pray that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. To stand, not in pride, but to stand as in to pass the test, to pass through the judgment unharmed, uncondemned, righteous, innocent, to stand as one of those who will be allowed to accompany the Son of Man into His glorious kingdom.

How will you be counted worthy? By still believing at the end, by still mourning over your sins and relying only on Christ crucified as the One who paid for your sins and who offers you eternal life as a gift. So watch out for all those things that would entangle you in sin and keep you distant from Christ and His Word and His Sacraments. And as you watch, pray for God’s mercy, to keep you from going astray. And as you pray, recommit yourself to leading a holy life in the time you have left, a life of love and service, a life that confesses Christ before the world, a life that testifies to your hope in the Lord Jesus.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The Lord’s Prayer: Fifth Petition

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of St. Andrew

Romans 10:8-18  +  Matthew 4:18-22 + Small Catechism Review

This evening we’re combining our celebration of St. Andrew’s day, which was yesterday, with our study of the Lord’s Prayer. As usual, there’s a connection to be made between the Small Catechism and just about any lection in the lectionary.

Let’s start with the Lord’s Prayer. In the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve asked our Father in heaven that His name may be hallowed among us, that His kingdom may come to us also, and that His will may be done among us. Those three petitions dealt mainly with our spiritual needs. Then we were taught by Jesus finally to ask for something we need for the body, for today’s bread. But why should God listen to us at all? Why should He grant these first four petitions? Because we’re worthy of the things for which we ask? Because we’ve earned them or deserved them? Have we, as God’s children, done all our chores according to God’s Law? Have we loved Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have we loved our neighbor as ourselves? No, in fact, if we look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Law, we’ll find that we have absolutely no right to expect any good thing from God. He has every right to deny us the things we’ve asked for because of our sins.

But the Lord, in His mercy, has taught us to go ahead and ask for those first four things first. “It’s all right,” He teaches us. “I know you’re sinners. But you are penitent sinners, aren’t you? You are sinners who have put your faith in Me, Jesus Christ, who have been baptized, who have been made children of God the Father. And so, for that reason, it’s all right to approach Him and to ask for those first four things and to expect that your Father hears your petitions and is attentive to them. But that doesn’t mean you’re sinless. And lest you begin to think too highly of yourselves, lest you start to depend on your own goodness or think of yourself more highly than others, there is a fifth petition you must pray: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

What does this mean?

We ask in this prayer that the Father in heaven would not look upon our sins or deny these petitions because of them; for we are not worthy of anything for which we ask, nor have we earned it; but we ask that He would give it all to us by grace; for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. We, in turn, will also truly forgive from the heart and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Let’s say a word about the translation “trespasses” and “those who trespass against us.” If you read Matthew 6, it says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” That’s the equivalent of how Luther translated it into German. But William Tyndale, the first real translator of the Bible into English in the early 1530’s, translated that phrase, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespassers.” And that early translation stuck (more or less) when the Anglicans put together their Book of Common Prayer in 1549, where many of our liturgical phrases still come from.

Now, trespasses aren’t exactly the same thing as debts, but the debts we’re talking about here aren’t financial ones anyway. They’re the spiritual debts incurred when one person sins against another. When that happens, the sinner owes a debt—a payment, or a punishment, or both—to the one sinned against. A trespass is just another picture of sin. It’s to go where you don’t belong, to violate someone else’s property or person, to do harm where you had no business doing harm, to fail to help where you owed help. If our trespasses against our neighbor are serious, our trespasses against God are far more serious, because the only payment that satisfies that debt is suffering and death—not just the death of the body, but the eternal suffering of the soul. There is no forgiveness of the trespass or of the debt, there is no letting the trespasser or the debtor off the hook, without that payment.

But along came Christ Jesus to the Jordan River, to where John the Baptist was baptizing. And John called out to everyone listening, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Like the Passover lamb, which was spotless and innocent, but which was put to death, so that its blood could save the Israelites from the destroying angel. Or like the lambs that were sacrificed constantly on the altar of sacrifice—innocent creatures who paid with their death for the sins committed by the Israelites. That’s what Jesus was, according to John the Baptist. The Lamb of God—offered by God—to pay for, to make atonement for the sins of the world. As Isaiah prophesied about Him, The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

So He is the payment, the atoning sacrifice, the Mediator, the Lamb. Now there is a basis for God to forgive any sinner in the world. All that is needed now is faith in the Lamb. But where does that come from? As Paul wrote to the Romans in the First Lesson tonight, Faith comes by hearing what is preached. But where does preaching come from? It comes from preachers. And where do preachers come from? They must be sent. They must be called by God to preach and to be His instruments of forgiveness.

Do you remember what happened the next day, after John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Jesus walked by again. And two of John’s disciples were standing next to John, and he pointed to Jesus and then spoke privately to those two disciples, “Look! The Lamb of God” One of those disciples was likely John, the brother of James, since it’s recorded in his Gospel and he often doesn’t identify himself by name. The other disciple was named Andrew.

Andrew, a fisherman like several of the Apostles, was Simon Peter’s brother. But Peter wasn’t there that day. It was Andrew who first went to Jesus, with that other disciples, and spent the day with Him, listening to Him, hearing the Gospel preached by Jesus Himself. And then Andrew brought the good news to his brother Simon Peter. We have found the Messiah!

So Andrew was one of the very first to hear Jesus’ preaching, and he then became the first to invite another to hear it for himself. At that time, Andrew wasn’t yet preaching the gospel; he hadn’t been sent to preach the gospel. But having heard the gospel, first from John the Baptist, then from Jesus’ own lips, and having believed the Gospel, he did what every believer is called to do: he confessed Christ with his lips.

Isn’t that how St. Paul summarizes the Gospel in Romans 10? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For if a person believes from the heart, he will be justified; and if he confesses with the mouth, he will be saved. See, the Gospel doesn’t say, “Here’s what you must do in order to be saved!” No, the Gospel says, “Here is the One in whom you must believe in order to be saved! Here is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All who believe in Him will be forgiven, justified, and saved. So follow Him! Believe in Him! And then confess Him before men.” That’s the Gospel call that goes out to all men.

Some, like St. Andrew, are called to do more than that. They’re called, not only to follow Jesus, but to be “fishers of men,” as you heard in the Second Lesson. Preachers, like Andrew, who preach the Gospel in the name of Christ and who administer the Sacraments and forgive sins in the stead of Christ, who point sinners to Christ and cry out, “Seek forgiveness in Him!”, who point sinners to the Word and Sacraments and cry out, “Find forgiveness here!” And in this way, they bring people out of the sea of condemned sinners and into the boat of forgiven sinners, believers in Christ Jesus.

But even forgiven sinners still commit sins. Even though believers in Christ carry the status of “forgiven” at all times, as long as we remain in the faith, Jesus still teaches us in the Fifth Petition to continue to ask, daily, for the forgiveness of our trespasses, for “we daily sin much.” And He attaches both a warning and a comfort to that prayer. Father, forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us. God has not withheld His forgiveness from us poor, miserable sinners but has freely granted it for Christ’s sake to us who have repented and believed in Christ, though we provided no atonement of our own. So we are not allowed to withhold our forgiveness from those who trespass against us. We may not require our neighbor to make atonement for his sins against us, to make up for what he did before we forgive him. No, as Jesus teaches Andrew’s brother, Simon Peter, If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.

The one who is unwilling to forgive his neighbor who repents has broken away from Christ and should not expect God to forgive him his sins any longer. What wretches we would be if we were to say, “I want free forgiveness from God for my countless sins against Him, but I’m unwilling to show even a fraction of that forgiveness to my neighbor.” No, the one who believes in the free forgiveness God offers in Christ will also truly forgive from the heart and gladly do good to those who sin against us. That doesn’t mean your sinful flesh enjoys it or finds it easy. But the New Man will fight against the flesh and forgive, genuinely and sincerely.

And that’s the comfort. When we notice that there is a New Man within us, who treasures God’s forgiveness and wants to be like God in forgiving others, who struggles against the sinful part of us that wants to hold a grudge and remain bitter and angry—when we notice that the New Man is alive and trying to put to death the sinful desires of our Old Man—then we have evidence that we are, in fact, forgiven children of God, because only children of God have a New Man. And when the New Man forgives the one who sinned against us, we have God’s assurance that He will forgive us our sins in exactly the same way.

And so tonight we give thanks for St. Andrew, the first disciple of Jesus, who was later called to be an Apostle, a fisher of men, and who willingly faced death for his confession of Christ. He could only do that, and we can only do that, because of our Father’s promise to hear and grant our petition: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.

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