A word from the Alpha and Omega to His servants

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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.

 

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Two very different advents

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Ad Te Levavi – Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

We enter the Advent season again this year with purple on the altar, and on the pulpit, and on the pastor—the three symbols of Christ in our midst, calling on us, through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments, to live in daily contrition and repentance as we await His advent, His coming at the end of the age, which is nearer now than when we first believed, and much, much nearer now than when St. Paul wrote those words to the Christians in Rome.

That coming for which the Church has been anxiously waiting all these hundreds of years, that advent of the glorious King for which we’re even now preparing, will be very different than the advent we heard about in today’s Gospel, Christ’s coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We’re going to spend a little time this morning comparing those two advents of Christ.

First, consider the timing. No one knew the day or the hour of Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Not until He told His disciples to go and fetch those famous donkeys. But there were plenty of Old Testament signs pointing to the general timing of His coming into the world, signs that had all been fulfilled. The scepter had recently departed from Judah, according to Jacob’s prophecy. Christ had been born in Bethlehem, as Micah had said, and born of a virgin, as Isaiah had prophesied, and Israel was experiencing a time of peace. The 70 “weeks” or the 490 years of Daniel’s prophecy were just then coming to an end. And Jesus had opened His mouth in parables and had performed many miracles, fulfilling those prophecies, too. Not only that, but Palm Sunday and Holy Week took place in conjunction with the Passover, which may have been the greatest sign pointing to Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood shelters us from death.

The timing of the second advent will likewise be unknown, and yet the general timing of Christ’s coming has been announced with all kinds of signs, which we’ll consider further next week: Earthquakes, famines, wars, plagues, false doctrine and great apostasy within the Church. Not a time of peace for the Church, but a time of persecution of Christians, the love of most growing cold, and yet the Gospel being preached to all nations. Very different signs, but still signs that should make us look up!

Zechariah was the one who prophesied about Christ’s coming into Jerusalem. See, your King comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey. He had to come to Jerusalem the first time in meekness, to allow His enemies to reject Him, to plot against Him, to betray Him, to arrest Him, to torture Him, to try Him, condemn Him, crucify Him, and bury Him. He had to come in meekness, not to condemn sinners, but to be condemned by sinners. He had to come in meekness, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

But it will be very different when He comes again. The disciples brought that donkey to King Jesus for His ride into Jerusalem. King Jesus will bring His disciples with Him on a cloud at His second advent, as Daniel prophesies about His second coming: I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. He’ll come in power and great glory. He’ll have dominion and glory and a kingdom. He’ll come in judgment against His enemies, and no one will be allowed to reject Him ever again, but every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and every tongue will confess, either gladly or forcibly, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The King came the first time, as Zechariah’s prophecy continues, righteous and having salvation. But His righteousness wasn’t a matter of bringing justice to the earth, or removing tyrants from their thrones, or making people behave justly or fairly toward one another. The salvation He brought wasn’t about saving people from oppression or from poverty, from sickness, or even from death. Not at His first advent. Instead, He led a righteous life in how He obeyed His Father in heaven and in how He served His fellow man. He kept God’s holy Law in our place, and He brought salvation by earning a righteous verdict for us. He brought salvation by revealing the God of love, who doesn’t want to see anyone perish, but for everyone to come to repentance. He brought salvation — and brings it still! — by giving spiritual life to those who were dead in sins and trespasses, by creating and sustaining faith by His Spirit, by sending ministers to preach His Word and administer His Sacraments.

But when He comes again, the King will bring righteousness to the earth, and not only to the earth, but to His holy people, to the Christian Church, which is His precious Zion. Every lie will be exposed. Every injustice will be addressed. Every sorrow will be removed. And everything that has been taken away from His people in this world will be restored to them a hundredfold.

When the King rode into Jerusalem, His disciples’ garments and His people’s palm branches were the tokens of honor that prepared His way. When He comes again, His disciples will be wearing His righteousness as a garment by faith, and His way will be prepared with His people’s repentance and holy living and works of love.

When the King rode into Jerusalem, the multitudes received Him with great enthusiasm, not understanding at all the sacrifice He would make that week, the sacrifice of His own life so that sinners might live. But now Christians know just how great is the love of Christ, just how precious is the forgiveness He won on the cross, just how deeply He has loved His own. So when the King comes again at the end of the age, the praise will be that much greater.

Hosanna to the Son of David! was the song of the multitudes, and is still our song today. To that the Church will add, when He comes again, a loud, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, they sang, who came to give His life as a ransom for many! The new song will be, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, to rescue us from this world, from sin and from death and from the power of the devil, to live beside Him in glory forever! Blessed is He who came in the name of the Lord to establish an invisible kingdom of grace. Blessed is He who comes again to establish a visible kingdom of glory.

So what do we do in the meantime? What do we do while we wait for the return of the King? Well, we hope. We set our sights beyond the troubles of this present time, beyond the hardships that come with COVID and political unrest and personal trauma. Soon enough the King will appear, sooner now than when we first believed. And St. Paul, in today’s Epistle, gives us plenty to do while we wait: The night is over; the day is at hand. Therefore, let us set aside the works of darkness, and let us put on the weapons of light. Let us walk decently, as in the daytime, not with debauchery and drunkenness, not with sexual immorality and indecency, not with discord and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its desires. Live in daily contrition and repentance. Live as those who have hope. Live as those who don’t cling to a nice, comfortable life in this world, but who know that we’re citizens of a better country. Live as those who are expecting the King to come at any time, because He really could. May the King grant you peace and joy in His Spirit, and make you ever mindful of His imminent arrival. Amen.

 

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Giving thanks for being heard

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Thanksgiving

+  Psalm 116  +

I love that the LORD hears
my voice and my supplications,
that He has inclined His ear to me;
I will call upon Him all my days.
The pains of death surrounded me,
and the pangs of hell laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
Please, LORD! Deliver my soul!
The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
For You have rescued my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
I believed; therefore I spoke.
But I am sorely afflicted.
I said in my alarm,
“All men are liars.”
How shall I repay the Lord
for all His benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all His people.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of His saints.
O LORD, I am Your servant,
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
To You I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call upon the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all His people,
in the courts of the LORD’S house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!

While it wasn’t exactly what we planned, it’s fitting that this Thanksgiving service should also be our last service for this Church Year. We’ve seen some major upheavals over this past year. Some have lost loved ones. We’ve all had to deal with the fallout of COVID. Our lives have been turned upside down in so many ways, which I won’t bother listing for you—you know them well enough—and next year may not be better. But this evening we have intentionally set aside this time to hear the unchanging Word of the Lord, who both rebukes our thankless hearts for all the time they have spent in discontent and complaining while failing to recognize all the good things the Lord has still been providing for us every single day out of pure, undeserved mercy and grace to us poor sinners, and who comforts the penitent with forgiveness and the reassurance of His constant care and providence in all our needs. Let’s take a few minutes to consider the goodness of Lord as it’s presented to us in Psalm 116.

I love that the LORD hears my voice and my supplications, that He has inclined His ear to me. These opening words summarize the whole Psalm. What is dear to you? What is precious to you? What do you love more than anything? For the Psalmist, it’s that the Lord hears his prayers, that the Lord of heaven and earth, the Creator of all and the One who makes sure the galaxies keep spinning, has inclined His ear, not only down to earth, but down “to me,” to hear and to help.

That’s remarkable, if you think about it. To whom does it apply? Whose voice does the Lord hear? Who can say that God has inclined His ear “to me”? Well, God knows all things, sees all things, hears all things. He is omniscient, after all. But like a dear Father, He listens with a ready ear to the prayers of His dear children, every single one of them, none more and none less than another. His children are those who have been made members of His family through Holy Baptism and faith in His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. If you have been baptized into Christ, then God has claimed you as His own and has committed Himself to hearing your every prayer. If you haven’t been baptized, God invites you to repent and to call upon His name for salvation, to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Then you, too, can say with all confidence that He has inclined His ear “to me.”

Because of this, because the LORD cares about me and has chosen to listen when I ask Him for His help, I will call upon Him all my days. In every time of trouble, in every time of deliverance, in every time of bounty, prayer is a fitting part of a Christian’s thanksgiving for having a God who is always ready to listen.

The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of hell laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Does that describe you right now? Has it ever? Your troubles and sorrow may not be to the level of “pains of death” or “pangs of hell,” or maybe they are. Whatever they are, whether sorrow over sin and the guilt that you rightly feel for your sins, or sorrow over any number of earthly things that you have suffered or lost; whether trouble with spiritual enemies or with earthly calamities, the answer is the same: Then I called upon the name of the LORD: Please, LORD! Deliver my soul!

The Psalmist could pray that prayer with confidence, and so can we, because of this unchanging truth: The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is merciful. This is who our God is. Always. At all times. Gracious—showing undeserved favor, giving free-of-charge gifts. Righteous—always doing what is just and right and good, even covering us with His own righteousness through faith in Christ. Merciful—taking pity on the wretched, having compassion on the troubled, giving help to the needy. The LORD preserves the simple, that is, the childlike, those who don’t rely on their own wisdom or their own schemes to get out of their problems, but leave everything in the Lord’s hands, trusting in Him to make things right.

I was brought low. Sin is what had brought us all as low as one could go—sin and guilt and the condemnation that hung over us. And for any who still thought highly of themselves, who still thought they were fine, decent people, the Law came in and showed us just how loveless we were, just how self-centered, how ungrateful, how distrustful of our God. And so the Law did its work of bringing us low on the inside, too. But then what? He saved me. He sent someone to preach the Gospel to me, to show me my Savior, Jesus the Christ, crucified for my sins, and to declare the divine promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. He sent His Spirit in that Gospel to bring me to faith, and so He has done for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. As Scripture says, Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Here is where you can find the rest that your soul truly needs, not in things getting better in this world, not in life going back to normal, but in the fact that our souls have been rescued from spiritual death already. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Not only that, but God will literally rescue our bodies and souls from death through Christ, who will raise these mortal bodies to life on the last day, just as Christ was raised from death and lives and reigns forever and ever. He rescues our eyes from tears by assuring us, not only of our own resurrection, but also that of our brothers and sisters (and mothers and fathers) who have fallen asleep in Christ. He rescues our feet from stumbling by keeping us from being led into temptation, from being led astray into doubt and disbelief, by keeping us focused on Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That’s the greatest salvation, the greatest rescue: salvation from sin, death, and the devil.

But so great is the Lord’s salvation that it applies to our earthly needs, too. The Lord has been good to you, O my soul. How many times has the Lord failed to hear your prayer for daily bread? And even when you bear the heavy burden of the effects of sin’s curse on this world, the Lord always provides the rescue you need to face today, with hope for tomorrow, even if His deliverance isn’t always what you expected or exactly what you asked for.

Because of the Lord’s deliverance in this life, because of His faithfulness and His promises of future salvation, the Psalmist is ready to make a bold confession of faith: I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. In other words, I know that I will not die. I will live, no matter what happens. I will either go on living here on this earth because the Lord will deliver me from my present troubles, or I will live, even though I die. I will live after I die, because the Lord of life has made that promise, and He is not a liar.

I believed; therefore I spoke. It’s a matter of faith, to know that you can always call upon God’s name, and that He will always deliver you from your troubles, even from death. It’s a matter of trusting in His promises and in His faithfulness. And that faith in the heart, created and sustained by the Holy Spirit, leads to the confession of our mouth. It’s because we believe in the Lord’s faithfulness that we are bold to keep praying to Him to keep gathering together to worship Him, even when the world keeps telling us we should be staying home. It’s because we believe in the Lord’s deliverance that we don’t have to live in fear of what might happen to us out there in this scary world.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Right after confessing his faith, the Psalmist goes on: But I am sorely afflicted. Yes, we believe, but we still suffer, we still feel the weight of the cross and of the troubles of this life. We still hear the noisy din of the world’s cries, “You’re fooling yourselves! Where is your God? He isn’t in charge. He doesn’t even exist.” But just when it seems like all men are united against you in your faith, I said in my alarm, “All men are liars.” And how true we are finding that out to be! All men—all the sons of the devil—take after their father, the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies.

But our God isn’t a liar. He speaks only the truth. And so we give thanks. How shall I repay the Lord for all His benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people…To You I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the LORD.

The once-for-all sacrifice of atonement, the sacrifice that pays for sins and earns God’s favor, has already been made by Christ for us. So the only sacrifice left to offer is the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, which includes lifting up the cup of salvation, that is, recognizing all the good God has done to us and trusting in the salvation God has promised, including present help and future glory for Christ’s sake. Thanksgiving, which includes calling upon the name of the Lord, giving thanks to Him in prayer and in song, turning to Him in our every trouble, in our every need, and asking for His help. Thanksgiving, which includes paying our vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, that is, gathering together as a church to worship our God openly, celebrating His Sacraments, living a holy life, a Christian life, a life of self-sacrifice and love. Let that be the thanksgiving that you celebrate throughout the year.

There’s one little verse tucked away toward the end of Psalm 116 that almost seems out of place: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints. How does that fit into the theme of thanksgiving? Well, remember how the Psalm began: I love that the LORD hears my voice and my supplications Just as it’s precious to us that the Lord hears our voice and delivers us out of trouble, so it’s precious to Him when one of His saints finishes this earthly race, because it’s when He can finally pull back the curtain for that child of His and show them that they were right to trust in the Lord, they were right to look to Him for help amid all the troubles of this life, they were right to live a life of thanksgiving. The short time of trials and troubles is over for that saint of His, and the life of pure joy and perfect thanksgiving in His presence can finally begin.

What can we say in response to all this? O LORD, I am Your servant. I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! And a blessed Thanksgiving to you all! Amen.

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The King will come for judgment

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Second to Last Sunday of the Church Year

2 Peter 3:3-14  +  Matthew 25:31-46

The world is, to use a term from psychology, bipolar in its reaction to the times we live in. It goes back and forth from extreme catastrophism and anxiety on the one hand (“The sky is falling! COVID’s gonna get us, climate change is gonna get us, an asteroid is gonna get us!”), to extreme uniformitarianism and indifference on the other (“Everything in the world is the same as it’s always been. There is no coming judgment. Everything’s fine”). In a few weeks, we’ll hear Jesus talk about the world’s anxiety leading up to His second coming. Today we hear St. Peter in the Epistle talk about the world’s indifference or, really, disbelief about it. “Nothing has changed since the beginning of time. Everything goes on as it always has. The sun rises every morning and sets every night. We go through the cycle of seasons every year. Where is this coming he promised?” They laugh at Christians for believing we have a citizenship beyond this world, for holding onto a hope of things unseen, for scorning this life and for preparing for a day no scientific instrument can detect or predict: the day of the Lord’s coming.

That day is coming. Peter describes it as a day of burning and destruction. But before the burning up of the elements takes place, something else even more ominous will happen. The Lord whom the world rejected, the Lord whom the world crucified, the Lord whose Word the world has despised, the Lord whose people the world has been persecuting for some two thousand years, will appear in the clouds and take His seat on His glorious throne. And everything else will come to a screeching halt as the time of judgment will finally have arrived.

Jesus had spoken of that day earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, promising that at that time He will reward each one according to his works. That’s exactly what we see unfolding in the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep are rewarded with immeasurable good for all the good works they have done to the “brothers of Jesus.” The goats are rewarded with unending punishment for all the good works they failed to do for Jesus’ little brothers. (We’ll talk about who those brothers are in a moment.)

The first question we need to answer is, who are the sheep and who are the goats? Was it the lack of good works that made the goats into goats, or did they fail to show love to Jesus’ brothers because they were goats? Was it the good deeds that made the sheep into sheep, or were they made into sheep in some other way that led them to do the good deeds? Everything hinges on those questions.

In one sense, from God’s perspective in eternity, the sheep were always sheep and the goats were always goats. Notice what the King says to the sheep: Come, you who have been blessed by my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. God knew in eternity those who would end up at the right hand of the Son of Man on this Judgment Day. More than that, He chose them for this day, and this gets into the doctrine of election or predestination. Very simply, God knew beforehand that Adam and Eve would sin against Him and plunge our race into sin and death. But in His mercy, He decreed that the whole human race should be redeemed and reconciled to Him. And He also decreed how He would accomplish that. His decree included the sending, suffering, and dying of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made atonement for the sins of all people of all times. God’s decree included the manner in which sinners would be brought into Christ—through the Means of Grace, by the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. It included His decision for His Holy Spirit to work through those means, to call sinners to repentance and faith, to bring them to faith, to justify them by faith, to sanctify them in love and to produce good works in them and through them, and to keep providing all the help and strength they need to persevere in faith until the end, if they would continue to pray and hear His Word and use the strength He would provide by His Spirit. Those whom He foresaw being brought to faith and persevering in faith until the end, He chose, He elected to be standing on the right side of the King. He knew them as sheep from eternity.

The goats He knew, too. Not that He chose them to be goats. Not that He wanted them to disbelieve the Gospel, or to live in sin, or to end up on His left. He sent Christ to die for them, too. As Jesus said, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Or as Jesus says right here in our Gospel, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Not prepared originally for you! But the goats are those who stubbornly resisted the Holy Spirit working in the Means of Grace. They didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved. Or, if they believed for a time, they didn’t continue to use the gifts God provided to keep them in the faith, and so they fell away and refused to be called back to repentance. And so they ended up among the goats, as God knew in eternity they would.

But in another sense, from our perspective in time, all people start out as goats, as living under God’s condemnation, dead in sins and trespasses, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, by nature children of wrath. But then the Law is preached, warning us of the coming judgment and of our impending doom because of our sins, causing us to grieve over them and to fear God’s wrath. Then the Gospel is preached, that God loved us and sent His Son to live among us, to be righteous for us, to suffer and die for our sins, and to be raised to life for our justification. And when lost and condemned sinners hear that, some of them are converted and made into sheep.

When the Lord Jesus comes, He will first raise all the dead, and then He will immediately separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep on His right, the goats on His left. There will be only two groups: sheep and goats; believers and unbelievers; the genuine members of Christ’s holy Church and the rest of the humanity. As we learn earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, the sheep will be a relatively small group compared to the goats, because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Now, of all the thoughts, words, and deeds the King could bring out into the open on Judgment Day, He focuses in this parable on one very specific set of deeds: the difference in how the sheep and the goats behaved toward His “brothers.” Who are His brothers? In a sense, all men, as human beings, are His brothers. In a sense, those who are Israelites by birth are His brothers. And in a sense, the other children of Mary and Joseph were His brothers. But in most of the New Testament, Jesus’ brothers are those who have been made children of God by faith, who have been born again of water and the Spirit, adopted into God’s family by Holy Baptism, and made members of His body, the Holy Christian Church. He’s exposing the works of the sheep and the goats toward His precious Christians.

He praises the sheep for the acts of kindness and love they showed to His brothers, that is, to one another, giving help and comfort to one another, providing for the needs of their fellow Christians, in hunger, in sickness, in prison, in need of clothing, in need of shelter. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus had said this: Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. Here He reveals something even more astonishing: Whatever you did for one of the least of these My brothers, you did for Me.

On the other hand, Jesus accuses the goats for the acts of kindness and love they failed to show to His dear people. He could have brought up all the evil deeds unbelievers have done in the world. There’s plenty of wickedness to expose. But here He shows that even the lack of help and comfort given to Christians is sufficient grounds for the unbelieving to be eternally condemned. If they’re condemned for not helping, how great will their condemnation be for all the hurting they’ve done?

So today’s Gospel is a stern warning to unbelievers and to the impenitent. Judgment is coming, and if they wish to escape the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, they had better listen to His calls to repent and to flee for refuge to the arms of the Good Shepherd, who will gladly receive them and make them into sheep by forgiving them their sins.

It’s also a great comfort to believers, that God knows those who are His, that He is pleased with their good works, and that He is not blind to the unbelievers’ hatred and mistreatment of His people. He will not allow it to go on forever, nor will He let it go unpunished.

But there is also a warning to believers here, not to grow complacent about loving one another. Jesus shows us how important it is to Him. To fail to give help and comfort to Jesus’ little brothers is to fail to give it to Him. To speak meanly to His little brothers is to speak meanly to Him. To hurt any of His little brothers is to hurt Him. And to fail to repent of those sins is to leave the sheepfold and rejoin the goats.

But with repentance there is forgiveness again. And with forgiveness comes the inspiration to love as you have been loved by God, to be all the more zealous at serving one another in love, because with every deed of kindness to our fellow believers, we are serving Christ Himself. And the reward He promises to His sheep is His own word of praise, at the end if not before, and a glorious, eternal kingdom if we remain faithful until the end.

“What sort of people ought you to be?” St. Peter asked his readers in today’s Epistle, knowing that Judgment Day is coming, knowing that all this, all you see here, will soon be burned up and removed? You ought to practice holy living and godliness, awaiting and yearning for the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed with fire and the elements will burn up and melt. But we, according to his promise, await new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, make every effort to be found spotless and blameless before him in peace. Amen.

 

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The ominous threat of fake Christianity

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Third to Last Sunday after Trinity

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

Starting today and continuing until Christmas, the Lectionary begins to turn our thoughts to the end of the world. Of course, I think our thoughts are already there, aren’t they? We already seem to be living in apocalyptic times—that is, the times described by the Book of Revelation, closer and closer to the end of the world. What will we face in this world before Jesus finally returns?

Well, you know what we’re already facing: a pandemic that seems like it’ll never end, a government that’s only becoming more oppressive, a society and a system of government in our country that appear to be hopelessly corrupt and falling apart at the seams. We’ll talk about those and other signs of Jesus’ coming when we get into the Advent season next month. They’re all part of the “great tribulation” Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel, which will get so bad that no one, not even the elect children of God, could hang on, unless the Lord shortened those days, which is what He promises to do. But for as bad as those parts of the great tribulation are, the Holy Spirit warns us today about something more devastating and more dangerous, one major contributor to the great tribulation of the end times. Today the Word of God warns us about the ominous threat of fake Christianity, the deadliest threat of all, because it doesn’t just make life on earth more miserable. It threatens our eternal salvation.

Today’s Gospel from Matthew begins with Jesus mentioning a prophecy from Daniel. He says, When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Incidentally, the great Lutheran Reformer Philip Melanchthon wrote a commentary on the Book of Daniel back in 1543, and based on Daniel’s prophecies in the last few chapters, Melanchthon calculated that the world would end somewhere around the year 2025. So we would do well to take all these end time prophecies even more seriously.) Now Jesus, like Daniel, is speaking in prophetic language here. And one thing we have to understand about prophetic language is that there is often an immediate, literal fulfillment and a more distant, figurative fulfillment.

The immediate, literal fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy about the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place” happened about 40 years later, around 70 AD, when the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem, besieged it, and then ravaged and destroyed it. Luke’s account makes that very clear, where Jesus says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. It was a time of unprecedented suffering for the people in Jerusalem, a time of God’s severe judgment against the Jewish people for rejecting His Son, the Christ. So Jesus’ warning ahead of time to His faithful people to watch for the armies coming to Jerusalem and to get out as quickly as possible surely saved the lives of countless Christians who remembered His words and took them to heart.

But the more distant, figurative fulfillment of that prophecy is what we’re going to focus on today. First, what does the “holy place” refer to? Literally it was Jerusalem, or the temple in Jerusalem. Figuratively, the holy place is the Holy Christian Church, which is the true Temple of the Holy Spirit. And what is the “abomination of desolation” that will be set up there? An abomination is something that God hates, an idol of some sort, and this one causes desolation. That is, it wipes out the people who were there so that the place is left desolate and deserted. What idol, standing within the Church, will cause countless Christians to abandon the true faith? St. Paul describes it best in 2 Thessalonians 2: That Day, that is, the day of Christ’s return, will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

What St. Paul is saying is that there will be a “falling away” within the Church, a rebellion, otherwise known as “apostasy.” And a “man of sin,” a “son of perdition,” or as St. John calls him, the “Antichrist,” will set himself up in God’s temple, within the Holy Christian Church, or at least, within the external, visible Christian Church, exalting himself above God, pretending to be God.

But the “man of sin” isn’t just one man; he represents an institution, an institution that was already trying to emerge during the days of the apostles, but was still restrained by their preaching and their presence. As Paul writes, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now restrains it will do so until is taken out of the way. That antichristian institution would grow until one day the lawless one will be revealed, and then, Paul says, he’ll remain in place until the Lord will consume him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him with the brightness of His coming.

The only institution that matches Christ’s prophecy and St. Paul’s description is the Roman papacy. Just as it would be the Roman armies standing in Jerusalem and causing it to become desolate, so it would be the Roman papacy, standing in the midst of the Church, causing it to become desolate, leading countless Christians away from Christ, not by physical violence, but by spiritual false doctrine.

We already looked at many of those false doctrines on Reformation Day; we won’t repeat them all. Just understand that what the Roman pope symbolizes, what he stands for, is the raising up of a man, with his manmade doctrine, to the place of Christ—the “vicar of Christ on earth” as the pope is called—even as that man—every man who assumes the office—teaches destructive things that lead Christians away from Christ. In other words, he is the worldwide, world-renown representative of a fake Christianity, which is an abomination to God and causes desolation within God’s holy Church.

This is not to say that all Roman Catholics are fake Christians. Not by any means! On the contrary, the Antichrist can only be set up within the actual temple of God, within the Christian Church, in the midst of true Christians who cling to Christ alone for salvation. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat to those who remain attached to him. Listen to what else Paul writes: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And so Jesus’ warning to His holy people who remained in Jerusalem, when they saw the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, when they saw the Roman armies threatening Jerusalem, was not to stick around within the city, but to flee, without looking back, without any delay for any reason. So, too, He still calls out today to His faithful people who remain attached to the Roman papacy that has been revealed as a teacher of antichristian doctrine, to flee the apostate Church, to Come out of her, my people, as it says in Revelation 18, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Now, before we imagine that we are safe from all threats, having fled from the Roman Church, we should pay attention to the rest of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel. Because it wasn’t only in Jerusalem that the Christians would face great tribulation. It was outside of Jerusalem, too, and it would last until the day of Christ’s coming. The ominous threat of fake Christianity is very real outside of the Roman Church, too.

What does Jesus say to those who have fled Jerusalem and escaped the abomination of desolation? Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will perform great signs and wonders, so as to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you beforehand. Fake Christianity takes many forms, but certain things it always does. It distorts what God has said in His Word. It promises things God doesn’t promise in His Word. It promotes lies instead of the truth, or even worse, lies alongside the truth, making it harder to tell the difference.

In the end, anyone who stands up in the name of Christ and teaches false doctrine is presenting a fake Christianity, whether it’s a “major” doctrine or a “minor” one. A Christianity that distorts the Ten Commandments is a fake Christianity. A Christianity that teaches that sinners are justified in any way but by faith alone in Christ is a fake Christianity. But so is a Christianity that denies Baptism to babies or that teaches the real absence of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. For that matter, any Christian who lives in such a way that his words or behavior misrepresents Christianity to the world is presenting a fake Christianity to the world, whether it’s the Biden/Harris ticket in very obvious ways, or the Trump/Pence ticket in more subtle ways, or you yourselves when your words or behavior don’t reflect the words and behavior of sons and daughters of the holy God.

So repent and look to Christ crucified for forgiveness! You have it. It’s yours. And then pray the First Petition in earnest, Hallowed be Thy name! How is God’s name hallowed among us? When God’s Word is taught purely and correctly, and when we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But whoever teaches or lives differently than God’s Word teaches, he profanes God’s name among us. Guard us against this, O heavenly Father!

As for the “great signs and wonders” Jesus says the false prophets will perform, signs and wonders that are so impressive they almost end up deceiving the elect, they can be prophecies. They can be miracles. They can be speaking in tongues. But they can also be things like great size, great influence, great wealth, great glory, great feelings, great social programs. How many Christians have been deceived by a church’s great size, or beautiful building, or emotional music! Christ must be here!, they think.

But Jesus warns, If they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out. ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes out of the east and is visible in the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. Christ will return only once, at the end of age, and everyone will see Him when He comes. Until then, don’t be seduced by great signs and wonders. Be sure you’re only looking for Christ in the one place where He has promised to be present in an invisible way before His visible return at the end of the age: where two are three are gathered together in His name, where His Word is preached in its truth and purity, where bread and wine are consecrated so that they are His true body and blood.

But what does Jesus mean when He says, For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will gather? Just as eagles look down intently from up above to spot their next meal, and then flock to it when they see it, so Christians are to be looking up intently from down below, waiting for Christ, our source of life, to appear in the clouds, where we will be gathered to Him, as Paul wrote in those beautiful words of today’s Epistle: The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord always. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

So be looking up! And comfort one another with these words, not with pep talks about salvaging what we can of this life. Everything you see here is passing away. And one day soon, possibly very soon, Christ, who is our life, will appear. Keep your heart focused on His return, keep your eyes focused on His Word, and keep your hands focused on serving your neighbor in love. The ominous threat of fake Christianity is real. But the comforting truth of real Christianity will be an immovable rock beneath your feet on which you can stand while the whole world crumbles around you. May God, in His grace, keep us standing on that rock! Amen.

 

 

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