Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 3

+  Revelation 2:1-7  +

Remember the image of the Son of Man that John saw and that we talked about last week: One who was like a son of man, clothed with a garment reaching down to his feet, his chest girded with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like bronze, as though fired in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In this evening’s reading, that extraordinary, somewhat ominous figure, the Son of Man, speaks to His servant John with a message which John is to put down in writing and send to each of the seven churches in Asia Minor. And just as with all the New Testament epistles, even though this one was written to specific churches at that time, with specific circumstances and needs, it has been God’s will to preserve these apostolic writings so that the Spirit may continue to speak to all the churches and apply the same lessons to every church of every time.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. If this were a heavenly angel, then writing would be irrelevant. No, it’s the minister of the church to whom John is to write. Modern Evangelicals have a hard time understanding this. They think that God simply communicates directly with each believer, through the feelings (or the burdens) of the heart. The pastor is really just a motivational speaker, a sort of community organizer. But God has always chosen to speak to His precious people through men: occasionally through angels, for a time through Jesus Himself, but otherwise usually through prophets, through the apostles, and now through the ministers whom Christ has called to the churches, through the churches. God uses that call to turn a man into an “angel,” into a divinely appointed messenger to minister to His people. But by definition that means that the message is intended for the whole church, not just for him. He is responsible for passing on the message of the Lord to the Lord’s people, and he’ll have to answer for how he carries out his ministry.

Write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. Jesus wants His angel and His church in Ephesus to remember especially these two truths about Him: that He holds the seven stars, that is, the pastors of the churches, in His right hand. They are there because He has placed them there; they speak for Him; they are responsible to Him. And that He is present with His churches, walking among the lampstands. He placed each church where it is, as a man places a lampstand where he wants it. He inspects each one. He tends to each one. And, if He chooses, He has the right and the power to remove them, too.

What does His inspection of the church in Ephesus reveal? First, something to praise them for: I know your works, both your toil and your patience; and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil; and that you have tested those who say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them to be liars; and that you have endured and have patience; and that for my name’s sake you have toiled and have not grown weary.

What did the Son of Man see as He walked by the lampstand that stood in Ephesus? He saw a pastor, and by extension, a congregation, that was working hard. “Works” can include all obedience to the Ten Commandments. “Toil” is hard work, tiring work, meticulous work. Part of their toil was in rooting out the wicked from their midst, certainly by practicing church discipline and by excommunicating those who were “evil,” who failed to repent. Another part of their toil was in testing those who came claiming to be apostles, claiming to be sent by Christ, and their hard work paid off; they revealed many of those preachers and false prophets and liars. Not only did they toil for the truth, but they were patiently, faithfully enduring hardship because of it. They may have been blamed as loveless or heartless for insisting on purity of doctrine and life, but they endured those criticisms patiently, and they were praised by Jesus for it.

But then a word of rebuke from Jesus: Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have abandoned your first love. Your first love. Some 35 years earlier, the Apostle Paul had written this to the Ephesian Christians when their church was in its early days: I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. Apparently, that love had grown cold. Their devotion to purity of doctrine and life had become an external thing, perfunctory, loveless. They were doing the right things, but it wasn’t coming from love, and as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works. This is the message from the Head of the Church. Remember how you used to burn with the love of Christ, with the love that He showed you, which then produced love in you like a branch produces fruit on a vine, and remember how far you have fallen from that love. And repent, and return to it.

Then a warning follows: But if not, I will come to you soon and will remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. You may think that external obedience is enough for Me, Jesus says, but it isn’t. The result of remaining loveless will be the extermination of your church.

Then a positive observation: But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. The Nicolaitans, from all we can gather from history, were a group of people who promoted adultery, fornication, and, for lack of a better term, wife-swapping, terrible sins that have become almost commonplace in our culture, as they also were in the first century Roman world. But the Christians were expected to be different from the culture, and the Nicolaitans were a movement to normalize sexual immorality within the Christian Church. So even though Jesus criticizes the Ephesians for a lack of love, He praised them for their hatred of evil deeds.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Jesus said similar words during His earthly ministry after some of His parables: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Don’t hear these words and fail to act on them! Don’t hear these words and then go back to life as usual. Hear them and change! But notice how He connects this letter to the Spirit! The Holy Spirit was the one who would actually be speaking to the churches when the words of Revelation were read, and that means the Spirit would also be working through these words to produce repentance and renewal in all who hear them and take them to heart.

Finally, Jesus adds a promise: To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Who overcomes. Who wins the battle—every battle, against the flesh, the devil, and the world, through contrition and repentance, through a renewed faith in Christ and through obedience to Lord’s message, and not just once, but who continues to overcome until this life ends, either by a person’s death or by Christ’s coming. To that one, Jesus promises that he’ll be allowed to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. Eating from that tree in the Paradise of Eden would have given Adam and Eve eternal youth and the ability to live forever. So it will be in the Paradise of heaven for everyone who overcomes.

Now, how do Jesus’ words to the angel of the church in Ephesus apply to us? By His grace, He has kept this lampstand here in Las Cruces for about 40 years, about the same amount of time the church had existed in Ephesus at the time of John’s writing. Does He see works, toil, and patience? Does He see us taking seriously the doctrine that is preached from this pulpit and taught by the pastor? Yes, more seriously, I’d say, than any church in town. Does He see us taking seriously the life of our members, making sure that no one in our midst is living in impenitence and open sin without being disciplined for it? Yes, I would certainly say so. We have those things in common with the church at Ephesus.

What about our “first love”? Is our faith toward God and our love for one another and for our neighbor in general as strong as it has ever been? Or has our attention to good works, doctrine and life grown somewhat external, dry, automatic, as it were? Does it all flow from genuine love and is it all done in genuine love?

I don’t have a harsh rebuke for any of you in this matter, because I don’t see outward signs of lovelessness, but then, I can’t see what motivates you; I can’t see your heart. Only Jesus can. But that matters, because He walks among the lampstands, and He knows very well if love is or isn’t behind your works, behind your toil, behind your patience. At the very least, the temptation is always there, both from the devil and from your flesh, to simply go through the motions and make everything all about you, which is the opposite of what love does.

So hear His call to repent and take it to heart, and remember that you still have a road ahead of you, some time left in this world, whether long or short. And all of your efforts and even your faith will be in vain if you give up now, if you leave the fight before the end. But here is God’s Spirit, giving you all the words and the warnings and the encouragement that you need to stand firm in the faith and to be renewed in love, so that you may be among those who are given to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Populus Sion – Advent 2

+  Revelation 1:9-20  +

What was it Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into heaven? Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Or earlier: Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst. That’s what Jesus promised. That’s what He said. So it must be true. Even here, even now, before His coming at the end of the age, Jesus says He is among us as a gathering of Christians. But it’s hidden from our sight. It sure looks like, and often it sure feels like, we’re on our own. It must have looked the same way to the suffering churches at the end of the first century. But for a little while, on the island of Patmos, the hidden reality was uncovered for St. John to see. That is, after all, the meaning of the word Revelation: the uncovering of a hidden reality. In our reading this evening, it’s the hidden presence of Jesus among His churches that John got to see, and through his words, we get to “see” it, too.

Listen first to how John describes himself as he writes to the churches of God: I am both your brother and your companion in the tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. As far as John is concerned, all of us baptized Christians, we’re all “in this together,” under the cross of tribulation, beloved subjects of Christ’s kingdom, and united together as we patiently endure the sufferings of this world, just as Jesus did on earth, and as we patiently await the promised Paradise with Christ and the promised coming of Christ.

As for the vision John saw, he says he heard a loud voice, commanding him to write down the vision and send it to the seven churches. Then he turned around to see the voice, and the first thing he saw were seven golden lampstands. At the end of the vision, the lampstands are identified for us as symbols of the seven churches to which John was writing.

Again, while the number seven in Revelation refers literally to those seven churches, those seven churches are symbolic of all Christians churches. But what is the significance of symbolizing them with lampstands?

Have you ever seen a Jewish menorah? It’s related to the larger golden lampstand that God commanded Moses to make for the tabernacle and, later, for the Temple. It was one lampstand with seven little lamps on it—one on top of the “trunk,” if you will, and three branches coming off the trunk on each side. It stood in the Temple, in the Holy Place, alongside the two tables with the 12 loaves of showbread, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Along with the other furnishings of the Temple, it was consecrated with the special anointing oil for sacred use.

The lampstand was to stand within the temple, in the presence of God. So Israel was to be holy to the Lord, with the light of faith ever burning and the fire of love ever blazing, one lampstand in the world as a beacon of light placed in the midst of the rest of the nations, which were shrouded in darkness. But now, in the New Testament, instead of one lampstand, one nation where God is present to reveal His Word, and to hear, and to forgive, there are seven lampstands, churches, gatherings of Christians in many places, in just the right number of places around the world, gathering in the midst of all the nations, with the light of faith ever burning and the fire of love ever blazing, with the light of the Gospel ever penetrating the darkness, with Christians letting our light so shine before men that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

Likewise, the lampstand in the temple was to be continually attended by the priests, to make sure it never ran out of oil, to make sure the lamps always stayed lit. So the churches are attended by divinely called ministers who are to be continually preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments, providing the oil necessary for the fire of faith and love to be kindled and kept alive, as in Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins.

In the midst of the seven lampstands, one who was like a son of man, clothed with a garment reaching down to his feet, his chest girded with a golden sash. A son of man can be any human being, or a prophet, or even an angel appearing as a man. But here the description fits on THE Son of Man, Jesus Himself. His clothing resembles the priestly garments of the Old Testament, showing Him to be our great High Priest who personally tends to the lampstands, making sure they are provided with a continual supply of oil.

His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. This is like the vision of the Ancient of Days that Daniel saw: I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. That was a picture of God the Father, but here it represents the Son of Man, who is the exact representation of the Father’s Being. His divinity and His eternal nature are being highlighted here, along with His wisdom.

His eyes were like a flame of fire. That’s a symbol of His omniscience, as His eyes burn right through the masks people wear, through the outward façade of goodness and decency, right down to our sinful, self-centered hearts. But that means He is also able to see where there’s still a smoldering wick of faith, to know who His true believers are.

His feet were like bronze, as though fired in a furnace. He is able to crush His enemies under His feet, as it says about the Messiah in Psalm 110, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.

And his voice was like the sound of many waters. If you’ve ever stood at the foot of a waterfall or near the rapids or on the seashore as the tide comes crashing in, or even if you’ve heard the sound of rainwater pouring off the roof or rushing through the streets in a flash flood, you have some idea what the sound of many waters is. It’s overwhelming. You can’t really talk over it. It drowns out every other sound. Such is the voice of Jesus when He insists on being heard. Such is the voice of Jesus when He has an urgent message for His churches.

He had in his right hand seven stars. Those stars are identified as the “angels,” that is the divinely appointed bishops or ministers of the seven churches. They’re symbolized by stars, because they shine with the light of Christ’s Gospel, and also because, unlike the planets that wander across the sky, the stars are “fixed in place.” So the doctrine of the ministers is to be unchanging and steadfast.

Jesus holds the ministers in His hand. He is the one who sends them, who places each one with the appropriate lampstand. But even as He sends them, He continues to hold them in His hand. He is the one who governs what they preach, who defends and upholds them against all sorts of illegitimate criticisms and attacks, and who will hold them responsible for faulty doctrine or a wicked life.

And out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. In other words, the words that come from His mouth are a weapon that cuts, that kills, that works repentance, and that also creates faith, even as St. Paul also called upon Christians to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. But for the moment, when He addresses His churches, the sword is still only in His mouth, not in His hand. As long as He walks among the lampstands, He isn’t drawing His sword to slay the wicked. He’ll keep using His Word to do His work in the world until the Last Day. Then the sword will be in His hand to cut off the wicked forever.

His face was like the sun shining at its brightest, as John had seen Him once before, at the Transfiguration. Divinity was His during His state of humiliation on earth, but it was hidden under His humble flesh. Now John is given another revelation of the hidden reality.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Fear not; I am the first and the last and the Living One. I was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore. Again, very similar to what happened at the Transfiguration, or what happened to Isaiah when he saw the Lord in a vision. To see God in His glory is too much for any mortal, especially because we’re sinners who can’t stand in His presence. But Jesus comforts John and us. Fear not, He says. I am Jesus who died for your sins and who was raised to life for your justification. I live forever, and (as John recorded in His Gospel), because I live, you also will live.

And I have the keys of hell and of death. So don’t be afraid, John. Don’t be afraid, any of you, my dear believers, to know that I am walking among the churches. Not even hell or death can hold you, if you cling to Me in faith, because I hold the keys to let you out. But to those who reject Me, I have the power to lock you up in hell and death forever.

This is the one who walks among the lampstands, true God and true Man, the same Jesus who became our Brother, who died for our sins and who came back to life. John’s Revelation reveals the hidden reality, that this Jesus is present in the midst of all His churches throughout the world, inspecting, tending, shepherding, defending, teaching, governing and guiding. We don’t see Him, but we aren’t supposed to. We’re supposed to believe in what we don’t see but in what has been revealed to us by His Word: that Jesus reigns as God and Lord in the midst of His holy Church, scattered though it is throughout the world and composed of all the individual churches that still confess His pure Gospel and administer His Sacraments rightly. Truly He is with us always, until the end of the age. But if that’s true, then let us also be courageous Christians, as those who know that Christ our God is right here in our midst, tending to us through the ministry of the Word. And let us also lead holy lives of repentance, obedience, and love, as those who believe that our hearts and our deeds lie open before Him at all times, to inspect, to rebuke, where necessary, and to comfort with His forgiveness. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Advent 1

+  Revelation 1:1-8  +

In the spirit of our end-times preparations, especially given the world-events that are taking place, I thought it would do us good to turn to the book of Revelation for our midweek Advent services this year, and also for our midweek Lenten services. Over the course of these nine midweek services, we won’t be able to cover the whole book of Revelation, but we will be able to cover the first three chapters, which include the introduction to the book and the seven letters to the seven churches.

Tonight, the introduction. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things which must soon take place. He sent it by his angel and made it known to his servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to everything that he saw. It was somewhere in the 90’s AD when John was exiled on the island of Patmos, almost certainly while Domitian was emperor. There is some evidence that John was released from his exile by Nerva, who succeeded Domitian in the year 96, so it’s likely John saw the Revelation before then, although he may have not have written it down until later. It seems that he had already written his Gospel account, since he refers to himself as John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to everything that he saw.

By this time, all the Apostles, including the Apostle Paul, had carried out their great commission to make disciples of all nations, in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, in Spain, Armenia, Africa, and India, and as far as we know, all of them had already been martyred. Some 25 years earlier, Emperor Nero had begun the first government-level persecution of Christians in Rome. Jerusalem had been decimated by the Roman armies and the Christians scattered. And for about five years or so leading up to John’s vision, Emperor Domitian had been persecuting Christians in Rome and the surrounding areas, including Ephesus, where John had been before being exiled to the island of Patmos.

There, according to the introduction, God the Father gave this Revelation, this apocalypse or “uncovering of hidden things,” to Jesus. It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, the revelation given to Him to show his servants the things which must soon take place. Why is the Father giving a revelation to Jesus, now that He has entered His state of exaltation? Because Jesus remains the great Prophet, the One who reveals the Father to mankind.

To whom was Jesus revealing these things? To his servants, to all Christians, both preachers and hearers, to the seven churches in Asia and to all the churches that would gather in world ever since, since the number “seven” is a number of perfection, the number for just the right amount, for everything that is needed. What things were being “uncovered” or revealed to them? The things which must soon take place. It’s always interesting when God uses the word “soon,” isn’t it? Sometimes it really is “soon” from our perspective, as some of the things in Revelation were about to take place while John was still alive, including the words directed to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Other times, “soon” in spoken from God’s perspective and in comparison with eternity. From that perspective, these past 1,925 years are like a day gone by. And yet most of the things discussed in Revelation have been happening repeatedly over the centuries, so that in every generation, they take place “soon.”

Then John adds his own divinely inspired beatitude: Blessed—fortunate, enviable—is the one who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things that are written in it, for the time is near. So blessed are you, blessed are we, because God is telling us ahead of time what we can expect in this world leading up to His coming: In summary, we can expect that it will look very much like God is not ruling in this world, but we can be assured that, in spite of it all, He is.

John, to the seven churches in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come. We’ll hear more about each of those seven churches in the weeks to come. John is the writer, but the grace and peace he delivers to his readers don’t come from him, just as they don’t come from me when I begin my sermons with similar words. Grace and peace come from the Triune God: From him who is, and who was, and who is to come, here referring to God the Father, since the Spirit and the Son are mentioned next. That’s essentially the meaning of His name, the LORD, Jehovah, or Yahweh. While the world changes around us, while people come and go, God the Father is, just as He was, just as He will be. Always faithful. Always dependable. Never changeable or changing. The unchanging Father bestows His grace and peace on His Church as it faces all the changes of this world.

And from the Seven Spirits before his throne. With the Father and the Son so clearly identified in this greeting, it seems clear this is a reference to the Holy Spirit, who is said to be “seven” here because of the sevenfold gifts He gives: wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and godliness, and the fear of the Lord. Also seven, because He gives them in perfect measure, in just the right measure, everything His Church on earth needs as it waits for Christ’s appearing.

And from Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, and the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Jesus also bestows His grace and peace on His Church. He is the faithful witness who stood before Pontius Pilate and allowed Himself to be killed rather than to deny the truth of God, which would have been to deny Himself. But Jesus’ martyrdom didn’t end in death. He was raised from the dead, the “firstborn,” the first one to be raised from the dead, never again to die. And if the kings or presidents or governors of the earth trouble you or oppress you, know that this same Jesus Christ ,whose servants you are, is the Ruler of the kings of the earth.

We join the Apostle John in the words of praise that follow: To him who loved us. Who loved us, past tense, because John is talking about that great act of love on the part of the Son of God that began with His incarnation and continued all the way up to His death and burial, all one great act of love. That act of love was done for all people, but what John says next doesn’t apply to all people. He washed us from our sins in his own blood. That’s Holy Baptism, the washing with water by the word, the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Spirit. It’s that strange washing with the blood of Christ—the “rosy-red water of Baptism,” as Luther called it—that leaves a person, not dirty, but clean, justified, forgiven. And since He has washed us and made us clean, He has also made us kings and priests to God his Father. It doesn’t look that way right now. But just as Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate and confirmed that His was not an earthly kingdom, so He has made you kings in a much better kingdom, and priests who have direct access to God with your prayers and with your sacrifices of thanksgiving. To him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds; and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. Not yet, but soon. Soon He is coming with the clouds. Soon every eye will see Him, including those who pierced Him on the cross, because He will raise them from the dead and they will have to answer for it. Including also those who pierced Him by attacking His body, the Church. All the people who mock you and marginalize you now for believing in the God of the Bible will see Jesus coming with the crowds. And all who mocked and persecuted Him, all who mocked and persecuted His people, will mourn because of Him. Because when they see Him, their time of grace will have ended, and they will experience His wrath and punishment. Then, finally, the words of Jeremiah that we heard this evening will be fully fulfilled: He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. To that John adds a, Yes, amen! to that. It isn’t wrong for Christians to yearn for the day when our enemies will mourn and be condemned. At the same time, it has to be our goal now for our enemies to repent before that day, so that they are converted from being our enemies and reconciled with God through faith.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Nothing comes before Him. No one can get rid of Him, no matter how hard they try. And no one has power to thwart His plans, because He is the Almighty. The Lord—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is really there, behind all the terrible things that happen in the world, ruling unseen, waiting to show Himself visibly in the end. Everything really is going according to His plan. Everything really will work together for good to those who love Him. Everything really will be fine in the end, and, actually, far better than fine. But that’s not something you can see now. It has to be believed. It requires faith.

But that’s what the book of Revelation is for. It’s the Word of the Word, the Word that creates and strengthens faith. Take these words with you out into the world. Take them with you tonight, and let them give you hope and joy and peace. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. If the Alpha and the Omega is for us, who can be against us? Amen.