The first two words from the cross

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Holy Monday

There are always so many things we could focus on during Holy Week. The upper room. The Garden of Gethsemane. Peter’s denials. The trials before the Sanhedrin. The trial before Pontius Pilate. The walk to Calvary. The crucifixion. And the burial. This year, let’s turn our attention to the seven precious words (or sayings) that Jesus spoke from the cross.

We’ll focus on Jesus’ words, but there were other words spoken at the cross, and it wouldn’t hurt to mention them briefly.

There was Pilate’s word, inscribed on a sign above Jesus’ head in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. We abbreviate it INRI, Iesus Narazenus Rex Iudaeorum, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, words that Pilate refused to change, in spite of the complaints from the Jewish leaders, words that perfectly and, I might even say, poetically describe Jesus’ kingly act of giving His life as the ransom for the world’s sins.

There were the soldiers’ words as the quarreled over Jesus’ clothing, deciding in the end to cast lots for His one-piece garment, in fulfillment of Psalm 22.

There were the words of the chief priests, scribes, elders, and passersby who mocked Jesus cruelly and relentlessly. You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross…He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’

And finally, there were the words of the centurion and the guards who witnessed the unnatural earthquake, the rocks splitting, and the graves opening the moment Jesus died, and the truth was undeniable, even to those idol worshipers, Truly this was the Son of God!

But we turn now back to the words of the Son of God Himself, the final words He uttered in His state of humiliation.

Only Luke records the first saying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

For whom was Jesus praying? The “they” in the surrounding verses are specifically the soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross. They, of all people, really had no idea that they were nailing their God, their Creator, their Savior to the cross. They were doing their duty, carrying out the execution of a condemned criminal. Pilate knew better; he had spoken with Jesus and heard about His kingdom that is “not of this world.” He knew Jesus was innocent, and yet condemned Him anyway. Herod and the Jews who had called for Jesus’ crucifixion knew better. They had heard all about Jesus’ words and works. They had the Old Testament prophets crying out to them, telling them exactly who Jesus was.

Still, none of them really knew, really understood the ramifications of their actions. So Jesus prayed for them, prayed that His Father in heaven would forgive them. Now, a prayer for God to forgive is not the same thing as a declaration that God has forgiven someone. Praying for someone’s forgiveness doesn’t effect their forgiveness, doesn’t give them a clean slate before God or righteousness before God. That comes only through faith in Christ Jesus. But to hear that same Jesus praying for your forgiveness, as you’re nailing Him to the cross? That is the very word of Christ that breaks through stone-hard hearts and brings some to repentance, to trust in this Jesus as the One who now stands at the right hand of God interceding for us. His prayer for forgiveness is able to create the faith by which we’re forgiven.

And some of the Jews and some of the Romans were later converted; even the crucifixion of the Son of God was forgiven them in the waters of Holy Baptism, as Peter declared to them on the day of Pentecost. If Christ was willing to forgive those who tortured and killed Him, for whom will He refuse to pray, “Father, forgive”? Whom will He refuse to forgive in the cleansing waters of Baptism? It is Christ who pleads for us. Who will condemn?

The second word is also recorded only in Luke’s Gospel. While one of the two criminals who hung at Jesus’ side hurled insults at Him, the other rebuked his fellow criminal and said, the other defended Him and said, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus replied, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.

See how Jesus’ prayer for His enemies already had an effect on the thief hanging beside Him! See how the King of the Jews gives free entrance into His heavenly kingdom, and to whom He gives it. To the penitent sinner who confesses his sins and looks to Christ, not for earthly salvation, but for eternal salvation. The thief doesn’t beg for Jesus to help him down from the cross or give him earthly happiness or wealth. He knows he must pay the earthly penalty of death for his crimes. No, he looks over at Jesus, bloody and tortured and hanging on a cross, and he sees a King whose kingdom is not of this world, a King who is innocent before God and man, and yet willing to stay up there on the cross as the sacrifice for mankind’s sin, a King who was even at that moment paying for all the thief’s crimes, redeeming him with His own precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. There, hanging from a cross, that thief was reconciled to God through faith in Christ and became our brother in Christ.

The King gives an eternal place in His kingdom to this penitent thief. And He gives it to him “today,” immediately upon the sinner’s death. No purgatory. No paying for his sins before God or being further punished or cleansed after death. On that very day, at the moment of his death, that thief joined the soul of Jesus in Paradise, even as both their bodies rested in the tomb, the body of the thief, until the day of resurrection, the body of Jesus, until only the third day.

If Jesus was willing to pray for the forgiveness of those who mistreated Him, for whom will you not pray? For whom have you not prayed? And when you realize that you have not loved your enemies or prayed for your enemies as you ought, repent. And then remember the King of the Jews, hanging on the cross, not in defeat, but in victory, opening up His heavenly kingdom to all who repent and believe in Him, even to the worst criminals.

That’s why you need the atoning death of Christ and His perfect righteousness: First, to show you what true love looks like; second, to show you how you have fallen short of it and earned God’s wrath for yourself; third, to show how Christ made amends for your sins and makes you acceptable to God through faith in Him; and fourth, to show you how to love as your Savior did and does. That’s why we celebrate Holy Week. That’s why we remember the precious words our Savior spoke from the cross. Amen.

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A day of humility, comfort, and joy

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11  +  Matthew 21:1-9

Whether you’re thinking about the Passion History that you just heard from Matthew, or about the Epistle reading from Philippians 2, or about the Palm Sunday Gospel you heard at the very beginning of the service, the humility of Jesus shines through like a bright light. His Holy Week humility was the culmination of what our catechism students have recently learned as Jesus’ state of humiliation. We “watched together” this morning as Jesus lowered Himself further, and further, and further from where He began, which was in glory at the Father’s side as He was “in the form of God,” Paul writes. He was God by His very nature. He was equal with God, and yet His mind wasn’t on grasping and enjoying His highness. It was on emptying Himself, on lowering Himself. And He did lower Himself, not by simply becoming a man, but by taking on the form of man as servant, of man in the condition in which sin has left us: debilitated, needy, afflicted, susceptible to pain and anguish, subject to God’s Law, vulnerable, and even mortal. His Holy Week humility began with the intentional choice of two donkeys to carry Him into Jerusalem, accompanied, not by a conquering army, but by average Israelites, even children. His mind was not on seeking His own glory, but the good of those who were already His people, and the good of those who might yet become His people when they saw how He willingly humbled Himself and made Himself obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

So, as Paul wrote in the Epistle, there’s no room at all for pride among God’s saints, either. No room for looking out for yourself first, or trying to make yourself look good. Today is a day of humility, to watch in awe as Jesus rides humbly into Jerusalem, and to be of the same mind.

Today is also a day of comfort, not a time for fear. We had every reason to fear the wrath of God, the anger of God, the temporal and eternal punishments God sends into the world, because we were and, in a sense, remain sinners like the rest of the world. And those who refuse to acknowledge and repent of their sins still have reason to fear. But today we’re all being called by God to look up from our fear, to look at Jesus, riding into Jerusalem, not to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. It’s a day of comfort, as we ponder God’s zeal—that’s the only word that really describes it—God’s zeal to save sinners, His zeal to make atonement for their sins through the death of His beloved Son, and to call sinners to faith in Christ Jesus by holding His humility and love before our eyes. Today is a day of comfort, when all are invited to become part of Jerusalem, not the city, but the people, the holy Christian Church of God, to become part of it, and to remain part of it, God’s precious people who have God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s promise to get us through the worst of times on this earth, so that we may finish this life in faith and then await the resurrection from the dead.

Today is also a day of joy. Zechariah’s prophecy begins, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Your King comes to you! The prophet was talking about that day, still 500 some years in the future, from his vantage point, when the Christ would ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He really came. He really showed up as King to conquer the devil and to rescue sinners from the devil’s kingdom. And He is still here today, in a special way, where two or three are gathered in His name, and in another special way, where His body and blood are joined to bread and wine. Today is a day of joy, because Zechariah tells us that your King is righteous and having salvation. And that salvation is from everything—everything in its time, and in God’s perfect way. Salvation from sin. Salvation from the devil. Salvation from eternal death in hell. Salvation from earthly enemies, whether viruses, or tyrannical governments, or violent neighbors, or loneliness. Salvation that doesn’t mean we are no longer troubled by these things, but salvation in that they cannot snatch us out of God’s hand or threaten the joy we have in Christ’s victory for us. All our enemies must serve His good purposes for His people, and we must stand victorious in the end. And so today is a day of joy, to rejoice in the presence of your King and to know that He hears your Hosanna’s and is pleased with them, pleased to have every one of you here as His own, precious, blood-bought people, celebrating this day of humility, this day of comfort, this day of joy. Amen.

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Beware a false sense of security

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Judica

Revelation 3:14-22

In the first six letters to the angels of the churches in Revelation, Jesus has praised pastors and people for various things: for faith and faithfulness, for love and works of love, for hard work, for enduring hardship with patience, for maintaining pure doctrine, for disciplining those who err. He has also rebuked and warned pastors and people for various things: for lovelessness, for pride, for tolerating wicked behavior and false doctrine, and for hypocrisy. This evening we consider the final letter, to the angel of the church in Laodicea, with its harsh rebuke of apathy, indifference, what we’ll call “carnal security,” but also with its earnest plea for pastor and people to repent, and its gracious promise to those who do.

First, Jesus emphasizes this about Himself: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God. You know that the word Amen means more that, “The prayer is over now,” or, “The sermon is over now. Wake up!” It comes from a Hebrew word that means, “Yes! Firm! Trustworthy!” Or as we say in the Small Catechism, “Yes, yes, it shall be so!” What Jesus says is perfectly reliable. What Jesus says comes to pass. He gave witness to the truth throughout Scripture and throughout His earthly life. St. Paul refers to Him as Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate. And He is the Beginning of the creation of God, through whom all things were made that have been made, as word from the developer to “begin the house!” is the beginning of a house.

I know your works, He says to the pastor in Laodicea, that you are neither cold nor hot. If only you were cold or hot! So, then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Neither cold nor hot. Some people think “cold” means an outright, loveless unbeliever and “hot” means an ardent and true believer. I don’t think that works with Jesus’ words, If only you were cold or hot!, or with His threat to spit this pastor—and the people who were like him—out of His mouth. A cold drink is just as pleasant on a hot day as a hot drink is on a cold day. It’s the lukewarm drink that nobody ever wants.

The pastor or believer who is like a hot cup of coffee or tea has a fervent love for Jesus and for his fellow Christians. He’s eager and ready to serve. He has a faith that’s never satisfied with its knowledge of God but always has to be learning more, studying more, and boldly confessing the gospel of Christ in the world. When the world around is cold and uncaring, these believers remain zealous for the Lord. Jesus longs for His pastors and His people to be like that.

The pastor or believer who is like a cold glass of ice tea also loves Jesus, and when the world around starts heating up, in the midst of persecution and suffering and hardship, these believers have a refreshing stability about them, a tried and tested faith and demeanor that isn’t bubbly or overpowering, but that’s ready to soothe and refresh those who are frantic and worried over their sins or over the wickedness of the world. They offer quiet encouragement. They pray with a quiet trust. When life around them heats up, these believers stay cool, calm, and collected. Jesus longs for His pastors and His people to be like that.

To be “hot” may also mean to experience the comfort of the Gospel and to be rejoicing in God, and to be “cold” may also mean to be anxious, desperate, and in need of comfort. Jesus can work with us in either of those states.

What He doesn’t long for, what He can’t work with, is pastors or people who are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold.

He describes that lukewarmness a little bit further: You say, “I am rich and have become rich. I need nothing.” And you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. To be lukewarm, then, is to lack true contrition, to feel confident and “secure” in yourself, to see yourself as doing fine, as needing nothing. There is nothing worse than for a Christian to say, “I’m doing fine. I have plenty of faith. God and I are buddies. If I hear the Word of God, it’s fine. If I don’t hear it, it’s fine. If I go to the Lord’s Supper, it’s fine. If I miss it, it’s fine. I have all the knowledge of Scripture that I need. I have all the strength I need.”

Now, to know that you, a poor, miserable sinner, are safe and secure in Christ Jesus, because of His merit, because of His gracious forgiveness and promised protection, is one thing. To feel secure in yourself, though, is something else, something deadly. To view yourself, by yourself, as a not-so-wretched, not-so-poor, not-so-miserable sinner—or as no sinner at all—is nothing short of delusional. By nature, that’s what we all are! By nature, we’re impoverished when it comes to the righteousness of God, blind to the things of God, and shamefully naked before God, naked with all our selfish motives and shameful desires and words and deeds, without the covering of Christ’s righteousness. While we live in daily contrition and repentance, while we take refuge in Christ by faith, we’re covered with Him, even as we were first covered with Him in Holy Baptism, and we’re no longer seen by God as wretched, miserable, poor, blind, or naked. But if we step outside of the security of Christ and imagine that we’re “doing fine” on our own, or that we’re not so sinful anymore, then that’s the very definition of a false sense of security.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may be clothed and so that the shame of your nakedness may not be seen; and to anoint your eyes with eye salve so that you may see. No one is rich until God makes him rich with pure gold, with true humility, with true wisdom, and genuine faith. We “buy” it from God, not with money or good works, but with genuine pleading and prayer, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” The white garments are the righteousness of Christ which only covers us by faith, the only thing that makes us able to stand before God without shame. The eye salve is the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, to heal our blindness toward the things of God, and toward our own miserable condition without the white garments of Christ’s righteousness.

Whomever I love, I rebuke and discipline. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. If you see any of this lukewarmness or carnal security in yourself, for the love of God, don’t brush Jesus’ words aside. Don’t go away angered or despairing because of his rebuke. He rebukes those he loves, not to harm, but to save. If he didn’t care about you, he’d let you be. He’d let you go on in your self-destructive indifference. He’d let you keep living under the delusion that your faith is alive and well when it’s actually lukewarm. But He does care, and so He pleads with you to be zealous and repent. Get serious about your spiritual life, about your soul, about your deep and desperate, constant need for Christ.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have supper with him, and he with me. He knocks with His Word. He’s knocking right now. You open the door of your heart, not by your own natural powers, but by listening to His Word. Those who don’t dismiss or stubbornly reject what they hear will have Jesus come in and dwell with them and make a home with him.

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. Further incentive to watch out for and to set aside deadly carnal security and lukewarmness toward God and the things of God. Not only do you get Jesus as a dinner guest in your heart, but you get to sit with Him on His throne; you get to be associated with the King of creation for all eternity.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. I hope that our review of the seven letters to the seven churches has been an encouragement to you, to keep hearing the warnings and the praises of Jesus, the threats and the promises, the urging and the inspiring. With the tool of His Word, the Holy Spirit will continue, on the one hand, to demolish everything that threatens your faith, and on the other hand, to build you up in faith and love, and to keep you steadfast until the end. May His Spirit keep you hearing and heeding every day, but especially as we head into Holy Week. Amen.

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Assertions that must be vindicated

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

You see the picture on the front cover of today’s service folder? There’s Jesus, walking away from the crowd of Jews who were picking up stones to throw at Him. That’s how angry they were. But why?

If you listen to the modern scholars (and politicians) talk about Jesus and His message, you’d think Jesus had come to get rid of strong statements, to get people to stop talking about things like sin and God’s commandments, to stop talking about divisive things like doctrine and religion, and to focus just on doing good deeds and improving human society, or maybe to focus on rising up against the oppressive government and implementing social justice.

But you who have actually read the Gospels know the truth, that Jesus was always making strong statements, bold assertions that dealt with the very truths that get at the heart of the matter of man’s relationship with God. He told the truth about God’s commandments, man’s sin, God’s condemnation of sinners and God’s mercy toward sinners, and about Himself as the Savior from sin, the one and only Reconciler of man with God. He spoke of faith in Him, and He spoke of showing love in this world, not as the goal, but as the preparation for the goal of eternal life in the presence of the God of love, eternal life that is reserved for those who believe in Him and only for those who believe in Him. Strong statements!

But that’s why He was hated. Listen to some strong statements Jesus made in the words leading up to today’s Gospel:

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

It was that last statement that came right before the words of today’s Gospel, and it’s followed by several more:

Which one of you convicts Me of sin? That’s not a statement, obviously; it’s a question. But it’s a question with a clear implication: I am sinless, and you all know it. Now, Jesus wasn’t even talking here about His perfect holiness as God and man. He wasn’t talking about His pure, sinless heart and desires and motives, which no one else in all of history can claim. He was talking about outward sins, sins that other people can see and recognize and condemn. But He hadn’t committed any of those sins either.

So why did the Jews hate Him? Why didn’t they believe in Him? Jesus gives us the answer: You do not hear Me, because you are not of God. A powerful, damning assertion and accusation. Oh, these Jews were religious. They worshiped God with their lips, but they rejected Jesus. And Jesus’ assertion is this: You can’t worship God while rejecting Me. It’s like trying to go north and south at the same time. If you reject Jesus as God and Lord, then you reject the Father and the Holy Spirit, too. And the only way to hear and believe Jesus is for God the Holy Spirit to give you faith, and with it, new birth and new life. The Holy Spirit of God has to make a person to be “of God,” because by nature, none of us sinners is “of God.” We all belong to the devil by nature.

The Jews came back at Him with an accusation of their own: Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon? The Samaritans did have false beliefs about God. But instead of trying to instruct the Samaritans in the truth, the Jews grew haughty and loveless toward them, viewing themselves as both doctrinally and racially superior.

Well, Jesus blew off that insult of being a Samaritan. In fact, Jesus was, in a sense, a Samaritan, the Good Samaritan of His own parable. But He doesn’t get into that here. He does deny having a demon, though. I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and who judges. The Jews claimed Jesus dishonored God with His teaching that all men are sinners, and that salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Him. Jesus claimed to honor His Father. And more than that, He claimed that God the Father sought honor for Jesus and would judge all those who failed to honor the Father’s Son. What an assertion! If you don’t honor Me, God will judge you! It sounded crazy. It sounded extremely arrogant. And it would have been, if Jesus weren’t the very Son of God.

Jesus goes on to make a strong statement and a promise so bold, so incredible, that He must either be insane or He must be the very Son of God: Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. The Jews mistook that to mean physical death, as if Jesus were promising that no one who kept His word would physically die. They laughed. The prophets died, and they kept the Word of God. Abraham died, and he kept the Word of God. What they didn’t understand is really the heart of the Gospel: that Jesus, the innocent Son of God, would willingly taste death for everyone, that He would make atonement for the world’s sins, that He would pay for sins once for all, so that all who believe in Him will live, even though they die. They will never experience the torments of hell. They will never suffer God’s abandonment or wrath or condemnation. They will never cease being alive in their soul, even when their lungs stop breathing and their hearts stop beating. And on the Last Day, those who kept the Word of Christ will take part in the glorious resurrection of the righteous, when death is swallowed up in victory for all who believe in Jesus.

That’s what He meant. That’s what He was asserting. That He had authority over sin, power over life and death. That He was the High Priest of the good things to come, as you heard in today’s Epistle, that His blood is able to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God, that He is the Mediator of the New Testament.

Oh, they hated Him for that! Because they were so in love with their Old Testament. Well, not the real Old Testament. The real Old Testament agreed with Jesus, that man can’t save himself by doing good deeds or being a good person or being of the right race. The real Old Testament pointed to the coming Christ and to the New Covenant or the New Testament He would institute, a testament of forgiveness, of redemption from transgressions under the First Testament.

The Jews thought the First Testament, the one God made with Abraham, was all they needed. They were Abraham’s children, after all. What more did they need? Surely not this latecomer, this young man named Jesus. But now Jesus makes the boldest claim of all: Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced…Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus claimed to be greater than Abraham, greater than the Old Testament, greater than the temple, greater than King David, and certainly greater than the Jews who confronted Him that day. “I am” is the holy name of God, the LORD, Yahweh, He who is, and it’s exactly who Jesus claimed to be. I can’t think of a stronger statement than that. And it’s why the Jews started picking up stones to throw at Jesus, because He was claiming to be their God, and they refused to believe that He was.

They weren’t successful in killing Him that day. His hour had not yet come. It would be a few more months until that final Passover, when their God would allow Himself to fall into their hands, to be mistreated, condemned, and crucified. But the Son of God would be vindicated by His Father, as we sang in today’s Introit, Vindicate Me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. He was vindicated by God, in two ways, by the Word of God itself, which Jesus fulfilled to the letter in preaching, and in His suffering and death. Even more, He was vindicated by the Father in His resurrection from the dead. But the final vindication of Jesus, the ultimate “proving Him right,” will come on the Last Day, when He shows Himself openly to the world to be the very God He claimed to be, the great I AM.

Now, if you would follow Jesus, if you would be His disciples, then you also have to echo His strong statements and bold assertions. I believed, therefore I spoke, says the Psalm. You already make those strong statements here every Sunday. Your very presence here in a Christ-confessing Christian church is a statement to the world. The entire liturgy that you say or sing is a bold assertion of truth, culminating in the great Nicene Creed, “I believe…,” and again in your participation in the Supper of Him who died and rose again. Outside these walls, the life you live and the words you speak must also reflect the bold claims of Jesus as you speak the truth about all things, but especially about mankind’s sin and God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

You know how you’ll be treated when you speak like Jesus spoke. You’ll be hated like Jesus was. You’ll be lied about, slandered, falsely accused, and maybe worse. And the devil will tempt you to feel like you’re all alone in the world, like there is no hope for your vindication.

But your vindication will come from God. It already comes through His Word, which proves the Christian faith right against all who deny it. It often comes in other ways, too, as God supports His people and never lets the righteous fall. But sometimes, God does allow the world some temporary victories over His people, as even Jesus was allowed to be crucified. In the end, you will see, all will see, that God has loved you and that you were right to believe in Christ Jesus. In the end, you will vindicated, just as Jesus was. Until then, may God preserve you in faith and inspire you to keep confessing Him boldly, no matter the consequences. Amen.

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Comfort from the one who has the key

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Laetare

Revelation 3:7-13

Jesus’ second-to-last letter, to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, has no criticism or condemnation, only comfort, encouragement, and uplifting promises. Just as we have taken to heart all the rebukes and warnings in the previous letters, let’s also take this comfort to heart.

What image of Himself does Jesus want the pastor and people in Philadelphia to remember? He says, first, These are the words of him who is holy and true. Jesus is holy as both God and Man. He is set apart from the creation and set apart from sin. He is perfect love, perfect mercy, and perfect justice, in perfect harmony. He is also true, the essence of truth, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Everything He says is true and trustworthy. He never deceives, never fails to do what He promises, never lies.

And He has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens. This image is pulled straight from Isaiah 22. Around the time of King Hezekiah, there was a wicked steward over the royal house of David, a scribe named Shebna. We aren’t told much about his bad behavior, just that he managed the royal house and, by extension, the city of Jerusalem with pomp and pride, seeking glory for himself and not caring for the people whom he was supposed to be serving. But God promises to take the stewardship away from Shebna and give it instead to a better man, to a man named Eliakim, whose name means, “God will arise.” God says through Isaiah, ‘Then it shall be in that day, That I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah; I will clothe him with your robe And strengthen him with your belt; I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem And to the house of Judah. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place, And he will become a glorious throne to his father’s house.

So the Old Testament Eliakim was a type or a pattern of Christ, who has the key of David, that is, the key of the house of David, which is the Church on earth and the Church in heaven, the new Jerusalem. He is the One charged with letting people in or keeping them out, charged also with distributing the goods of the house to the people of God, where and when He chooses.

Jesus tells the pastor in Philadelphia, I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. The pastor is already in the Church Militant, the Church on earth. Here Jesus promises him that the Church Triumphant is also open to him after this life, and none of his earthly enemies can keep him out of the Paradise that awaits.

What has this pastor done well? For you have little strength, but you have kept my word and have not denied my name. This isn’t a powerful pastor or congregation. They aren’t big. They aren’t influential. It may seem like they’re barely surviving in their daily struggles against the devil, the world, and their sinful flesh. But this pastor, unlike several of the others, has kept Jesus’ word and has not denied His name. He’s preached the Word purely and faithfully, both the Law and the Gospel. He has warned the impenitent. He has comforted and absolved the penitent. He hasn’t tolerated wickedness among his members. He hasn’t tolerated false teachers in their midst. He continues to treasure God’s grace to him as a poor sinner, and so he still loves God and the flock entrusted to his care. What’s more, he hasn’t denied Jesus’ name or any of Jesus’ teachings in order make other people happy or to save his own skin.

Some of those who were obviously trying to get him to deny Jesus’ name were the leaders of the local Jewish synagogues. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but are lying — behold, I will cause them to come and bow down before your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Again in this letter Jesus identifies the Jews who rejected Jesus as the Christ as not real Jews. The real ones accepted and welcomed the Christ who had been promised to Israel, the Christ who gave His life as a sacrifice of atonement on the cross and who was raised back to life, according to all the Old Testament prophecies. The real Jews became Christians. Even those who were not Jews by birth became spiritual Jews when they became Christians, as St. Paul explains so beautifully in Romans and in Galatians. But the ones who rejected Christ were severely persecuting the Christians and lying about them. In the end, maybe not until the last day, in some cases, the false Jews will have to acknowledge the true ones, the Christians, and fall down at their feet.

Now, realize, to say that, even to read these words of Revelation in public, would bring accusations of “anti-Semitism” against you from the world. So understand the difference. There is a sin of “anti-Semitism,” that is, hating a person or mistreating a person or even thinking less of a person because he or she is of Jewish descent. That’s not what true Christianity has ever taught or practiced. But true Christianity also doesn’t fail to speak the truth: The Jews who reject Jesus as the Christ have made themselves enemies of God and of God’s precious Holy Christian Church. The world will still call that statement “anti-Semitic.” But the world is wrong.

Jesus continues, Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. There are lots of words that can describe or summarize the word of Christ. How often do you think of it as the word of His patience? A word that, first and foremost, describes Jesus’ own patient endurance in suffering. But then, also a word that requires patience for Jesus’ sake. That requires endurance and perseverance. A word that tells Christians ahead of time that this life will be full of troubles and hardships and persecutions and struggles against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, and that calls on us to bear up under those things and to “produce fruit with patience,” as Jesus said in the parable of the sower and the seed.

At the same time, Jesus’ word is that which gives us patience, that which gives us the strength to patiently endure all the troubles of this world.

Jesus promises the pastor and people in Philadelphia that He would spare them from “the hour of trial” that was—or is?—coming on the whole world. The next two hundred years would see some of the most vicious, most horrifying persecution of Christians there has ever been. This promise to spare that church may have been a promise to shield them from it so that it didn’t harm them, or it may have been a promise to bring them out of this world, safely to their heavenly home, before life on earth got really bad. Either way, God promises to “keep” His people, and that gives us reason to hope and to be at peace.

Behold, I am coming soon! Hold onto what you have, that no one may take your crown. Hold on, Jesus urgently calls out. That implies that there will still be temptations to let go, to let go of His word and of faithfulness to it, to let go of your zeal and of your diligence, of your love and, ultimately, of your God-given faith, which would result in your crown of life being taken away. There’s a warning there, but there is also comfort, because you are not alone in holding on. You don’t hold on by your own powers. “You have little strength,” Jesus said here. But His Means of Grace, His Word and Sacraments, are able to keep you holding on.

Finally, we have those beautiful promises made to all who overcome this world, to all who remain faithful until death: The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. A pillar in God’s heavenly temple, steady, firm, and immovable. And just as, in ancient times, patrons or conquerors would inscribe their names on pillars, so Jesus promises to inscribe several names on those who overcome: the name of His God, the name of the city of His God, the new Jerusalem, and His own name, His “new” name, His name of victory over every enemy, His name as the exalted and victorious Son of God. And so Jesus claims these believers as His own, special people, purchased by His blood, made His own in Holy Baptism, and sealed for His own after they overcome this world, to spend eternity with Him in the New Jerusalem.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. You’ve heard and taken to heart all the warnings that the Spirit has given so far, and you’ll hear another warning next week. But for today, hear the comfort that the Lord Christ is offering to you! I would say that we have relatively “little strength” here, like the church in Philadelphia, but I would also say, humbly, that we have kept His word and have not denied His name. Now, you and I aren’t sinless. Neither was the angel of the church in Philadelphia, and neither were its members. But keeping Jesus’ word, as they did, doesn’t mean being entirely sinless in this life, for as much as it is our goal and desire to be. It means struggling against sin, and repenting of it when we fall, and trusting in Christ alone for forgiveness, and then abiding in His Word, holding onto all the doctrines of it, including the unpopular ones, including the ones that the world would have us deny in order to fit in better here.

Will we be spared from the hour of trial that is coming on the world? In a way, we already have been for a time. As I’ve said at times, it’s like we’re still “flying under the radar,” too small and too insignificant to draw too much of the world’s anger and persecution. But it’s really God’s doing, as He has allowed us to continue here more or less unharassed by painful persecution. Will that continue? Only God knows. But if He allows us to be tried, He will also provide the strength we need to prevail.

So keep holding onto Him and His Word! And know that the promises Jesus sets forth here apply to you: An open door that no one can shut, divine help to face the world’s hatred, and a permanent place in the house of God, reserved for you by Him who has the key of the house of David. Amen.

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