Instructions for times of tribulation

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Third-to-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)

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

The last three Sundays of the Church Year are upon us, already. Advent is right around the corner. As always, these Sundays at the end of the Church Year have us preparing for THE end, the end of this earth and of this universe, watching for Christ’s coming, for the last day, for the day of judgment. We need these reminders to prepare for the end, because you know very well how easy it is to get caught up in the day-to-day things, in what’s going on right now in your life and in the world. It’s easy to focus on the here and now and forget about what’s coming, and what to look for.

Of course, you have to look for the right things. So many Christians have been deceived into looking for the wrong things, for certain political figures to arise, from certain nations, for certain events to take place around the city of Jerusalem, for an Anti-christ to step forward suddenly and start causing big trouble for Christians. But you mustn’t get dragged into those millennialistic fantasies. Instead, watch for the things Jesus tells you plainly to watch for, and follow His instructions.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks plainly about certain future events, while also speaking prophetically and somewhat cryptically about others. But the overall message is abundantly clear: Tough times are coming for Christians. Flee from the danger, if at all possible, as quickly as possible. Don’t be deceived by all the false christs who will come. But know for certain that the true Christ will finally come, at just the right time, and when He does, everyone will see it.

Tough times are coming for Christians. That was true in a specific way for the Christians to whom Jesus was speaking in today’s Gospel. He spoke these words during Holy Week, in order to prepare His disciples, and those who would become Christians through their preaching over the next few decades. The Christian Church would grow in Jerusalem, but it would never become the majority religion there. The unbelieving Jews would mostly remain unbelieving. But God gave them time, time to hear how Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies, time to recognize that He was the promised Messiah, time to be baptized, and to transition from the Old Testament Jewish religion into the New Testament Christian religion. For the most part, they weren’t interested in transitioning. And so their sacrifices on the altar in the temple in Jerusalem which had once been offered to the true God, the God of Israel, would eventually become idols and abominations to the true God. Because those sacrifices were supposed to point the people to Christ. But instead, they began to offer those sacrifices in defiance of Jesus the Christ, which is, to God the Father, an utter abomination.

At the same time, those unbelieving Jews kept thinking that they were God’s chosen people, and that they shouldn’t have to put up with the Roman occupation of the Holy Land, because they thought that land should be theirs. And so, eventually, in the 60’s AD, they would try to start a revolution. That revolution, in turn, would bring the full wrath of the Roman empire down on Jerusalem, and on the Jews who were living there, which included the Christians who were living there, even though the Christians weren’t the ones rebelling against Rome.

And so Jesus prepares His disciples ahead of time, so that they don’t get caught up in the destruction. “Therefore, 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. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to get anything out of his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to get his clothes. But woe to the women who are with child and who are nursing in those days! Keep praying that your flight does not take place in the winter or on the Sabbath! For then there will be great tribulation. Jesus foresaw the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place, which could refer to the Jewish sacrifices offered in defiance of Jesus, or to the Jewish revolt when it first began. And He tells His disciples, and the future Christians, to flee. Flee urgently. Hurry! Get out of Jerusalem, so that you’re not caught up in the horrific destruction that will come upon that city, and her temple, and her people.

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be. The Roman occupation of Jerusalem would be horrific and devastating, leaving Jerusalem desolate, with unbelievable atrocities. But we see here in Jesus’ words an indication that He isn’t only talking about the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, because He adds, nor will there ever be such tribulation And both the rest of Scripture and human experience make it clear that, for as bad as that destruction was, it wasn’t the worst tribulation the world has ever seen.

Now, every war brings terrible tribulation with this, tough times for everyone. Every pestilence, every famine—and the world will be filled with those things, too, leading up to Christ’s return for judgment. Christians have experienced and are experiencing many tough times, at various times in history, as even now many are being targeted in parts of the world, often by followers of Islam. And we pray for them in those tough times, even as we know they pray for us. But Jesus is referring here to the tough times that His Christians would experience in the end times, because of an “abomination of desolation” that’s set up in the “holy place.”

The true holy place is the Church of God, about which Paul writes to the Ephesians, Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her…, that she should be holy. And the true believers within the Church are holy, sanctified through the waters of Baptism and through genuine faith in Christ Jesus. But not all the baptized actually believe. Some of the baptized turn into wolves in sheep’s clothing. According to Jesus’ prophecy, an abomination of desolation would eventually be set up in the holy place, in the Church, an idol that God hates, and that will cause desolation within the Church, that will cause the external Church to be largely abandoned, and that will bring about God’s judgment upon that idolatrous Church, even as He brought judgment down upon Jerusalem.

That abomination, that idol, has been associated with the papacy and its errors, with prayers and offerings made to the saints, and with the turning of Christ’s Holy Supper into a sacrifice offered for the living and the dead, causing many to identify the papacy with the very Antichrist who was to arise from within the Church, to make not open war against Christ, but secret war, under the guise of being Christ-like. I would say that the abomination, the idol within the Church, includes more than that, though. It includes every teaching, every practice, and, ultimately, everything within the Church that draws people away from Christ and His Word, so that their hearts are more attached to the idol than to Christ. Look around at external Christianity as it exists in the world today. You can’t escape the truth: such idols are everywhere.

When Christians see those things, any of them, set up within the Church, Jesus’ warning to flee urgently applies again. Those things are dangerous in and of themselves. And, those things are dangerous because they will bring God’s wrath down upon the external Church, right along with the wrath He’ll bring down upon the rest of the unbelieving world.

What does it look to flee? It doesn’t look like indifference toward the Church, or toward going to Church, or toward the ministry of the Gospel, preaching, or the Sacraments. I believe that fleeing the place where the idol is set up means, basically, doing what we have done here, “running away” from the churches and the church bodies where the idolatry has taken hold.

This is serious business, isn’t it? One doesn’t practice this kind of Christianity casually, or for earthly comfort or advantage, as if going to church or joining a church were just another thing to put on the to-do list. But is there anything about Jesus’ warning in today’s Gospel that screams, “casual” or “comfortable Christianity”? Hardly. In fact, Jesus says it will get so bad for His Christians, toward the end of days, that if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. In other words, God knows how bad things are and how bad things could still become for His Christians. He knows the point at which even believers would break. But He will make sure that the days of trouble and tribulation are cut short, before they would become too much for us to endure.

Part of the tribulation includes false christs, false prophets, and false teaching. 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 ahead of time. There have been those, from time to time, who have actually claimed to be Christ. But there are many, many others who would point you to a false Christ—not one who is walking around among us, but to the false idea of Jesus, a false version of Jesus. Some will even do miracles to prove it! This is why I warn you often about anyone, in these last days, who points to miracles or signs, whether it’s an apparition of a saint, or healing, or tongue-speaking, or any other miracle. Because, while Jesus and His apostles certainly performed miracles during the first century, we have been warned that the latter-day miracle-workers will be false prophets. We were told ahead of time! And still, many people flock to where the wonders are.

Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out; or, ‘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. For where the carcass lies, there the eagles will gather.” Very simply, Jesus tells His disciples not to look for Him in this world, anywhere, at any time, after His ascension. He will only come back once, when the time is right, and not in secret. Every eye will see Him, as John also writes in the book of Revelation. And like eagles can spot a carcass lying on the ground from miles away and are drawn to it, so all men will see the Lord Jesus when He returns and will be drawn to Him. The unbelieving will be drawn to Him for judgment. But those who have remained faithful, in spite of all the troubles and tribulations, those who have held to His Word, in spite of the suffering that comes with it, will be drawn to Him to begin a life free of troubles, as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Stand firm in these times of tribulation and trouble, with the help and strength that the Lord Himself will provide. And don’t be discouraged, if it looks like the Church throughout the world is in shambles. Jesus told us ahead of time that it would be. But He also promised to be with us always, to the end of the age. You have His Word. Just keeping listening to it! Amen.

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Israel’s place in election

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Trinity 20

Isaiah 65:1-2 + Romans 11:25-36

On Sunday, we looked at the doctrine of election on the basis of Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet. Let’s do a quick review.

The king invited certain people, representing the Old Testament Jews, to come to the wedding banquet for His beloved Son. When it was time for the wedding, He sent for all those invited guests and called on them to come to the wedding. They refused and even killed some of the messengers. The king punished those evildoers, but then opened up the invitation to everyone on the streets (referring to the Gentiles) until his banquet hall was full. Those who were there in the end, wearing the provided wedding garment (the robe of faith in Christ), were the ones whom God chose, whom God elected in eternity. We learned how important it is to approach election, not from the beginning, and not from the end, but from the place where God speaks to us in His Word, telling us that it is His will that all men should be saved, that Christ died for all, HihHcalling us to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, to pray, to walk in step with the Spirit, and to use the gifts He provides along the way to keep us on the narrow path that leads to life. In such a doctrine, there is much comfort for the Christian.

Today’s second lesson from Romans 11 is not the key chapter in Romans that talks about election. That was presented more fully at the end of chapter 8. But chapter 11 does mention election, especially in the context of the Jews and how they fit into this doctrine. And, although we don’t have time to fully cover everything in this text, we will at least begin to address one of the burning questions that’s very much on the minds of Christians today: Should we believe that there be a mass conversion of the Jews before the Last Day?

First let’s dispense with a truly blasphemous teaching that has invaded many, many so-called Christian churches around the world: the belief that the Jews are already God’s chosen people in their current state of unbelief and don’t even need to be converted to Christ. Did you know that’s the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church? It is. It’s also the teaching of practically all the mainline churches—liberal Presbyterians, ELCA Lutherans, United Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and others. They teach that the Jews shouldn’t be targeted for evangelism, since they already have their own covenant with the true God. But I’ll tell you, anyone who teaches that there is salvation for anyone apart from faith in Christ Jesus, is a servant of Satan and shouldn’t even be regarded as Christian.

But now let’s return to Paul’s words and the Jews’ place in election. Paul says in Romans 11, Concerning the gospel they (that is, those who are biological Israelites) are enemies for your sake. At the time of Paul’s writing, the Jews were actually the main enemies Christians had in the world. At that time, Rome wasn’t targeting Christians. The Jews were, because of the Christian belief that Jesus was actually the Son of God—the God of the Old Testament—sent to Israel as their promised Christ. In other words, the Christians weren’t just claiming to believe in a different god, like all the Gentiles did. They were claiming that the God of Israel was actually their God, that they, the Christians, were actually the continuation of the Old Testament Church, and that the Jews who rejected Jesus, who turned down the King’s invitation, to refer back to Jesus’ parable, had broken away from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That caused the Jews to hate the Christians, as Paul knew well from his own experience.

But, Paul says, concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. What does that mean, that the biological Jews are beloved for the sake of the fathers (that is, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)? Well, let’s go back to Jesus’ parable. Who were the first ones whom the king sent his servants to call to the wedding? It was the Jews. For 2,000 years of world history before Jesus was born, “the elect” were almost exclusively made up of Israelites. Then, of course, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were the primary recipients of His ministry. Then, in practically every city where Paul preached, the Jews got to hear the Gospel first. As Paul had said in Romans 1, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. And what Paul is saying here is that, because of the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had favored the Jews in the past, and, even though they had mostly rejected the Gospel, God would never give up calling the Jews to Christ. Yes, they had crucified and mistreated and blasphemed the Son of God. Yes, they were at that time savagely persecuting the Christians. But God would not, for that reason, stop sending preachers to the Jews. He would not issue a decree that the Jews were not permitted to repent and believe in Jesus. He would not refuse them the gift of forgiveness, if they came to Christ for it. God would continue inviting them, generation after generation, to come to the wedding.

That’s not a guarantee that large numbers of them would come. Some, in every generation, have heard the Gospel of Christ and believed it and have been accepted again into the kingdom of God. But never in the mass numbers that occurred in the first century, when the Gospel first went out to them. And yet some still read Paul’s words as prophesying that very thing when he says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. Here Paul calls it a “mystery” that “blindness in part” has happened to Israel “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” What does that mean? Referring back to Jesus’ parable, it simply means that, as a result of the blindness of Israel to the Gospel of Jesus, the king is turning his attention toward those in the streets, toward the Gentiles, until the king’s house is full of guests—guests who are unworthy in themselves, but who have been made worthy by the robe of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in this way, when the king’s house is full of guests, including some of the Jews and many of the Gentiles, all Israel will be saved, Paul says.

Modern dispensationalists and millennialists generally take this to mean that there will be a mass conversion of the Jews before the Last Day. But Paul doesn’t say “a great mass of Israel or a multitude of Israel” will be saved. He says “all Israel.” But two chapters earlier the same apostle had said that Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. How can both be true? How can only a remnant of Israel be saved, and all Israel be saved? And what about all the Israelites who have died in unbelief for the last 2,000 years? They certainly weren’t saved.

If we let Scripture interpret Scripture, then the “remnant of Israel” that will be saved must mean a small, leftover bunch of the biological descendants of Israel, while the “all Israel” in our lesson must be a reference, not to the biological descendants of Israel, but to those who are true Israelites, to all spiritual Israel, that is, to all true believers in Christ Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. As it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Jesus Christ, the Deliverer did come out of Zion, from the people of Israel, and He has been turning away ungodliness from both Jew and Gentile generation after generation, bringing more and more people into the great wedding banquet in the “New Jerusalem.” God has known from the beginning who would be there in the end, in the kingdom of His Son, and how He would get them there, and how He would keep them there. That group of guests whom God foreknew from eternity, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, are the ones whom God elected in eternity to be eternally saved. They are the ones whom God counts as the true “Israel.” And so “all Israel,” all the elect, will truly be saved.

But as we said on Sunday, we mustn’t try to reach back into eternity to look at that list, nor can we jump ahead to the Last Day to see it, either. There’s much we can’t fathom about the doctrine of election, leaving us in humble awe as we conclude with the apostle Paul, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. With that same humble awe, we have to simply cling to God’s revealed will in Scripture, that He wants all people to be saved, and that He offers forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who repent, who believe, and who are baptized. So trust in the forgiveness God promises through Jesus. Keep praying and using the Means of Grace that God provides. And tell everyone you can, both Jew and non-Jew, what the Lord Jesus has done for them, and what good things God promises to all who believe in the Lord Jesus. Amen.

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Understand election in the right order

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 20

Ephesians 5:15-21 + Matthew 22:1-14

It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled math problems. But teachers and students of math are familiar with a concept called “order of operations.” In certain math expressions, you have to multiply before you add. You have to do what’s in parentheses before you multiply by numbers outside the parentheses. You have to divide before you subtract, etc. If you do things out of order, you’re going to come up with the wrong answer.

“Order of operations” also applies when it comes to the doctrine election, which the Holy Spirit has set before us today in the Gospel, in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet, at the end of which He declares, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The choosing, the electing of certain people to eternal salvation, took place, from our perspective, before the foundations of the world were laid. The election happened “first,” as we view time, and then everything that was necessary for mankind’s salvation was done and is being done and will still be done. And so we’re tempted to use that “order of operations” to understand God’s plan of salvation, starting with our election, and then going forward from there.

But we make a huge mistake if we approach the doctrine of election in that order. You see, God isn’t bound to any “order of operations,” because His foreknowledge means that He sees all the past, present, and future all at once, including His own operations in history, including each person’s operations and decisions. From God’s perspective, election happened at the same “time” as everything else in history happens, because it all sits before Him in one giant picture—a picture we can’t begin to fathom.

So, we need to follow a different order of operations. We can’t think of our salvation as “starting with” our election. If we do, we’ll mess up the whole thing, because people will inevitably conclude that, since everything has already been decided by God in the past, nothing they do matters. If they were chosen before the earth was made, it doesn’t matter what they do now. They must be safe, no matter what, because they were chosen! If they weren’t chosen before the earth was made, it doesn’t matter what they do now. They can’t be saved, no matter what! What a horrible doctrine that would be! In fact, that’s what makes the doctrine of historic Calvinism so horrible. It makes the fatal error of using the wrong order of operations, starting with election, because that’s the logical, reasonable order. But this is one of those times when human logic and human reason causes nothing but trouble, because the revealed Word of God instructs us to follow a different order of operations.

Does this sound complicated? Let Jesus simplify it for you with the parable of the wedding banquet. If we simply follow the order of operations as it’s outlined for us here by Jesus Himself, we’ll understand the doctrine perfectly well.

In the parable, a king arranges a wedding banquet for his son—clearly a picture of God the Father preparing for His Son, the Lord Jesus, an eternal celebration of salvation in His heavenly kingdom. Already here at the beginning, the focus is on Christ, who is the Book of Life, in whom alone is salvation. The kingdom is His. And so is the celebration.

To this banquet the king invited certain people early on, and then, when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to invite those pre-invited guests to come to the feast. Well, who were the ones who were specifically invited ahead of time into the kingdom of the coming Christ? They were the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were told specifically throughout the Old Testament that God would send His Messiah to Israel, and that they should be looking for Him, and that they should be ready for Him and listen to Him when He came.

But what happened? The invited guests were unwilling to come. Why? Because the king didn’t want them there in the first place? Or because the king failed to call them when it was time? No, this wasn’t the king’s fault. Not at all. It was the fault of those who refused the invitation. It was the fault of those who refused to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.

Still, the king didn’t give up after just one try. He sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See! I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding!” God sent the prophets long before Jesus was born, to testify about Him. Then He sent shepherds from Bethlehem when Jesus had finally arrived. He sent wise men to Jerusalem, and Simeon and Anna, to tell the Jews the Christ had come. Later, He sent John the Baptist, and some of Jesus’ own disciples, and Jesus Himself, showing from Scripture that Jesus was the promised Christ, pleading with them to recognize this time of their visitation, this crucial moment when the kingdom of heaven was being opened to them, not because they had earned it or deserved it in any way, but because God was faithful to His promise, because God, out of pure mercy and grace, wanted them to come in.

But they disregarded it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The Jews, for the most part, stubbornly turned down God’s invitation to come into His kingdom through Jesus the Christ. Was it because God had failed to elect them in eternity? Was it because God’s invitation wasn’t intended for them? Wasn’t sincere? Had no power? No. The invitation was genuine and heartfelt and powerful. It was the Jews’ own fault for turning it down.

As a result, when the king heard about it, he was angry. And he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. It was Holy Week when Jesus told this parable, almost 40 years before the Roman armies came into Jerusalem and destroyed it. But already during Holy Week Jesus warned the Jews through this parable of what would happen if they continued to reject their Messiah. They weren’t worthy of God’s kingdom, not because God had failed to elect them, but because of their own stubborn rejection of His Word.

But then! Then the king in the parable did something unheard of, unimaginable, really. Instead of calling off the banquet, instead of inviting other good friends, or deserving people, he sent his servants and told them, Go into the streets and invite to the wedding whomever you find. So those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good, and the banquet tables were filled with guests. That’s exactly what God did when He sent out His apostles and said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Or again, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. That’s what God did when He had Peter announce on the Day of Pentecost, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Jews, Gentiles, rich, poor, male, female, old, young, bad, and good. Everyone who hears this Gospel invitation to repent and be baptized, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus is being called by God into His kingdom, because God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world—all people!—might be saved through Him. Truly, as Paul writes to Timothy, God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Now, the parable ends with a kind of warning. Because just being there in the wedding hall wasn’t everything. There was a special wedding garment, provided by the host to all the guests, that they were to be wearing when the king arrived. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who was not wearing a wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

This “wedding garment” isn’t something you have to buy in the store or knit together on your own. When God brings a person to faith, He recreates the person, giving him new birth and new life. A new man emerges from the waters of Holy Baptism. And that new man is always wearing the robe of Christ’s righteousness. But the Old Man, the sinful nature, doesn’t go away. Old Man struggles with New Man to regain control of the Christian. And if he’s successful, if he’s allowed to smother faith and sin freely, without repentance, if the Christian stops relying on God’s strength, on God’s promises, if the Christian doesn’t use the Means of Grace that God provides, if the Christian fails to pray for God’s help in these life-and-death spiritual battles, then that person returns to a state of unbelief, and the wedding garment, the robe of Christ’s righteousness, is removed. That person will not be eternally saved. That person who didn’t keep wearing the wedding garment, like all those who turned down the invitation in the first place, will not be found among the elect.

You see, here, at the end of the story, is where Jesus teaches us to view election. For many are called, but few are chosen. Yes, our election took place, from our perspective, before the foundations of the world were laid. But that’s not where you go to see if you’re one of the elect, or to make your calling and election sure. You use the order of operations that God teaches in His revealed Word. So let’s lay it out as simply as possible.

God wants all men to be saved. And so God gave His Son into human flesh, to suffer and die for the sins of all people, that all men might be saved through faith in Christ Jesus. God accomplishes this salvation through the preaching of the Gospel, working powerfully through His Word and sincerely calling all people to repentance and faith in Christ, so that all men might be saved. God justifies all those who believe in His Son. God works in those whom He has justified, so that we live according to the New Man that He has created in us. God hears the prayers of His people and continues to provide His Word and His Sacraments to believers, along with His continual help and strength, so that we have all the help and strength we need to finish our race, to keep the faith until the end, at which point we will see that, all along, God had been there, working out this plan of salvation that He made before the foundations of the world were laid, when He first chose us, in Christ, to be eternally saved.

Follow that order of operations, and you won’t despair, nor will you foolishly turn down the Gospel invitation, nor will you slack off in your prayers, or in struggling against temptation, or in using the Means of Grace that God provides for your help. Follow that order of operations, and you will know the comfort that God intended with this doctrine all along, that everything having to do with your salvation, from start to finish, was planned in eternity, and that God has committed Himself to seeing it through, all the way to the end. Amen.

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Blessed because of the blessing that awaits

Posted on October 29, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Festival of All Saints

Revelation 7:9-17 + Matthew 5:1-12

Our celebration of All Saints’ day (transferred from Nov. 1 to today) always includes the Beatitudes from Matthew 5, which is a wonderful text for such a day, because it prepares us all—all the saints on earth—for what awaits us after, if we remain faithful. And it gives us a picture of what the faithful departed have now begun to experience. I say “have begun to experience” because even the faithful departed, those souls who departed this life in faith, haven’t received it all yet. The full measure of our heavenly inheritance won’t be received until the Last Day, until the Day of Resurrection. But even before then, the souls of the saints in heaven have begun to receive the blessing that made them blessed even here in this life—the same blessing that makes us blessed, if the words that Jesus spoke apply also to us.

“To be blessed” in the context of the Beatitudes here in Jesus’ sermon on the mount means “to have a good reason to be happy.”

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit have a good reason to be happy. We always need to take note here of the “in spirit” part of “poor in spirit.” God has compassion for those who are materially poor and wants us to have compassion for them, too. But they aren’t the ones Jesus calls “blessed.” It’s the “poor in spirit” who have a good reason to be happy. It’s those who are humble before God, who are penitent, contrite, sorry for their sins, those who struggle against their sins, those who are humble before God, those who trust in Him, and not at all in themselves—these are the ones who have good reason to be happy, because the kingdom of heaven doesn’t belong to those who, like the Pharisees, are “rich in spirit” or “proud in spirit,” who think they have something valuable to offer God, their own decency, their own goodness. The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, even now. In other words, it is assured to them, guaranteed to them. No one can take their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven away from them, as long as they remain poor in spirit. And that’s a good reason for them to be happy, even now.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Not all who mourn have good reason to be happy. Unbelievers mourn, too, and they will not be comforted if they remain in their unbelief. But those who mourn as Christians, who mourn with godly sorrow, whether over their own sins, or over the rampant wickedness they see all around them in the world, whether they mourn over the losses they suffer for following Christ or over the losses they suffer just for living in a world so tainted by sin and its consequences, they have good reason to be happy, even as they mourn, because comfort is coming, ushered in by the Holy Spirit of God, now already through the Word of God, and soon when the Lord Jesus returns to take care of every problem that causes Christians to mourn.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

To be meek is to be gentle, like Jesus. To be “meek” is not to be timid or fearful. To be meek is to not take matters into one’s own hands, but to wait for the Lord and to suffer with patience. It means to commit your way to the Lord, to trust in Him and wait patiently for Him, refraining from anger and wrath. Such people have good reason to be happy, because without lifting a finger to save themselves or to “fix the world,” they will inherit the earth, because God will worry about defeating the devil and all the wicked. Christians can remain meek, because we know that our God will fight for us, and because He does, no one can rob us of our inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Notice again, it’s not hunger and thirst for food and water that makes a person blessed. It’s hunger and thirst for righteousness. There are two ways to hunger and thirst for righteousness. You hunger and thirst for righteousness by craving to be righteous in God’s sight by faith alone in Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who died for the unrighteous, that we might become righteous in God’s sight through faith in Him. You have good reason to be happy, if that’s what you crave, because God fills you with Christ’s righteousness even now, and then molds you into righteous people throughout this life, until He will perfect you in righteousness after this life, as the faithful departed have now been perfected.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

You remember the parable of the unmerciful servant. The king forgave him his incredibly large debt, and then he went out and mercilessly mistreated the one who owed him just a little bit. So the king threw that merciless wretch in prison until he could repay everything. God first shows us that kind of great mercy by forgiving our sins and bringing us into His kingdom. But once we have received that mercy, God is serious about wanting us to show mercy to others. And when we do, we have good reason to be happy, because God has promised to keep His mercy coming to us, so that you never have to worry about losing out because you were merciful to someone. God will replace whatever mercy you show to others with mercy of His own toward you.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

David wrote in Psalm 24, Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. A pure heart is an honest heart that genuinely fears, loves, and trusts in God above all things. Where the Gospel penetrates a heart and brings a person to faith, there the heart has been purified. There the Holy Spirit creates a new heart, from which proceeds a new kind of obedience, with new and pure motives, where the believer genuinely and gladly seeks to please God and to serve our neighbor. Having a pure heart like that isn’t a waste of time. The pure in heart have a good reason to be happy, because, although at the moment they don’t see the God in whom they so genuinely believe, they will see Him and rejoice forever in His presence.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

The opposite of making peace is not just making war, but causing discord and strife, allowing bad feelings to fester and divisions to get wider, refusing to forgive when a brother repents. But God has called us to peace, and to live at peace with people, to the extent that it depends on us, and to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Those who work toward peace, and maintain peace, and who forgive those who trespass against them, have good reason to be happy, because they will be called sons of God, because in doing these things, they are imitating their dear Father in heaven.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You have good reason to be happy…when you are persecuted? That’s what Jesus says. Yes, Blessed are you, when for my sake they insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who came before you.”

Rejoice when people insult you. Be glad when people lie about you. Consider it pure joy when people target you, imprison you, or even kill you. Why would anyone rejoice in the face of such evil? Only because this life isn’t all there is. There is a great reward reserved in heaven for all who suffer for Jesus’ sake. The prophets were persecuted. The apostles were persecuted. Jesus Himself was persecuted, insulted, and put to death. No one at the time of Jesus saw how that worked out well for the prophets. But when Jesus rose from the dead, they did finally see. It’s ok to be insulted. It’s ok to be killed, for the Christian. Because after Christ, our Savior, was insulted and persecuted and put to death, He came back from it and was exalted to the highest place. In Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the believers at that time witnessed the victory that awaited them after following in Jesus’ footsteps. Two thousand years later, you and I haven’t witnessed it. We’re left having to simply take Jesus at His Word that everything we suffer here and sacrifice here will be more than worth it, because of the great reward that awaits.

Will you take Jesus at His Word? Will you believe Him, that you are blessed in all of these circumstances, that you have good reasons to be happy, regardless of whatever else is going on in your life? Our fellow believers did, the ones who are now dressed in white robes, standing before the Lamb of God, with palm branches in their hands and a song of praise on their lips. That doesn’t mean they always experienced that happiness here, just as we don’t always experience it. But those who relied on God’s promises and kept the faith until the end—they did take Jesus at His word and counted themselves happy and blessed, even when it didn’t feel like it. But now, now it’s crystal clear to them, that you Christians, who fit the descriptions given here by Jesus, definitely have good reasons to be happy. Because it will be more than worth it when you finish your race here and see with your eyes what they now see, that living in the presence of this good and gracious God is better than anything that this world ever had to offer. Amen.

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A Reformation about truth and freedom

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation

Galatians 2:16-21 + John 8:31-36

Today we’re celebrating the Reformation here in our beautiful church building. A few weeks ago, some of your fellow members and I celebrated it in a member’s living room on the other side of the country. But it’s a single celebration, among Christians who believe and confess the same truth of the Gospel, who share the same power of the Spirit, and the same Christian love for one another, and who are all determined to hold fast to the Word of God, and, thereby, to grow in faith and in knowledge, together.

As you know, we celebrate the Reformation, not as a way to “new Christianity,” but as the way back to true Christianity. How dare I say that? How dare we call the Christianity of the early Lutheran Church “true” Christianity, implying that there was something false about the Christianity being practiced by the Roman Church of that era? It goes back to what Jesus told us in today’s Gospel, You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. As we apply the Gospel to the Reformation, we’ll see that the Reformation itself was about truth and about freedom.

In the Gospel from John 8, Jesus said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Who, then, are the true disciples of Jesus? Answer: The ones who remain in His word. Who remain in His word. What does that mean? What is “the word” of Jesus? It includes everything, really. Everything Jesus said. Everything Jesus taught. And how do we know what He said and taught? From the Holy-Spirit-inspired Scriptures that God has preserved for us throughout all these centuries in the four Gospels. In fact, the word of Jesus includes also those Holy-Spirit-inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament, and the rest of the Holy-Spirit-inspired words of the New Testament, which we generally call the “epistles.” In short, the word of Jesus is the Bible itself, the Holy Scriptures. Other men have said and written and taught lots of good things over the centuries, based on the word of Jesus. Some have said and written and taught false things, not based on the word of Jesus. We can read and evaluate the writings of any men, but it’s not by following what other men say and teach that makes us or marks us as truly Jesus disciples. If you remain in My word, you are truly My disciples.

Yes, but, how do you know that you’re understanding Jesus’ word correctly? Don’t you have to rely on what someone else tells you about them? Don’t you need the witness of the leaders of the Church and the traditions that the Church has commanded you to follow? We honor the witness of the Church. That is, we “give weight” to it. We value it. But, if we compare the witness of the Church over the millennia with the word of Jesus in Holy Scripture, we find that many new things were added by men, such as purgatory or prayers to the saints, that do not come at all from the Spirit-inspired word of Jesus, and we find teachings, like offering the Mass as an atoning sacrifice for the living and the dead, that directly contradict the word of Jesus. Men, popes, and councils have erred, have made errors. But, thankfully, Jesus never once said, “If you remain in the traditions of the Church, you are truly My disciples.” He never said, “All who submit to the Church’s decrees are truly My disciples.” No, He said, “If you remain in My word, you are truly My disciples.”

What does it mean to “remain in” His word? It means to know it—everything God says in His holy Word—to know it, in context, to believe it, and to steadfastly hold onto it, to hold onto it, even when powerful men try to move you away from it, when powerful leaders in the Church tell you you have no right or ability to understand Jesus’ words rightly, that the interpretation of this or that gathering or synod of the Church is infallible, even when hundreds of years of tradition try to convince you that the Church herself is just as good a source of truth as the inspired word of Jesus.

But with so many different voices, and denominations each claiming to be telling the truth, what Jesus’ word really means, who is to know? If Jesus keeps His word, then you have your answer: If you remain in My word, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth. This leads to one of the most basic Lutheran principles of Bible interpretation. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Or, put another way, let the Holy Spirit be His own interpreter. That may require study. That may require effort. But the truth can be known.

I think I’ve told you this before. Years ago, when I was struggling to understand the truth about the article of justification, and to determine whether or not UOJ was true, as all the Lutheran synods were teaching, it wasn’t easy. Practically all the Lutheran churches in America insisted that UOJ was true, that it had always been taught by the Christian Church and, specifically, by the Lutheran Church, and that it had to be believed. That’s not as much pressure as Martin Luther experienced 500 years ago, facing the whole Holy Roman Empire, but it was still a lot of pressure. I studied this church father and that church father and found plenty of support there. But you know what finally gave me peace? The only thing that gave me peace and that convinced me of the truth? It was just going through the word of Jesus, passage by passage, that talked about justification. And after being immersed in the word of Jesus, looking at all the passages together, the truth became clear. I knew the truth, just as you have known it.

And that truth, that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ Jesus, is the other main theme of the Reformation. It was a Reformation about truth, and about freedom, which is directly related to the sinner’s justification.

You will know the truth, Jesus said, and the truth will set you free! The problem was, the unbelieving Jews, the ones who had, up until this point, rejected Jesus’ word as truth, the ones who stood on the traditions of the Jewish Church even more than they stood on the inspired Scriptures, didn’t think, didn’t realize they needed to be set free. The Jews answered him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” The Jews of Jesus’ day had that idea in common with many Jews still today, that, because they were physically descended from Abraham, they were and must always remain the chosen people of God, enslaved to no one, always acceptable in God’s sight because of who their ancestor was, and because of how obedient they were to the Law of Moses. They concluded that for those two reasons, because of their ancestry and because of their obedience to the Law, they were and would always be free.

Then along comes Jesus and bursts their bubble. He answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin. Now, even the self-righteous Pharisees didn’t go around claiming that they never sinned. It takes a special kind of self-delusion for anyone to say, “I don’t sin. I’m sinless and perfect in every way.” But here, Jesus lays down the hard truth: If you commit sin, then you are a slave. A slave of sin, without the ability to work your way out of that slavery, without the free will to choose your way out of that slavery. Slaves don’t have free will to stop being slave, do they? Your ancestry doesn’t help you, if you practice sin. Your obedience doesn’t free you, if you also disobey, at times, if you also sin. There’s only one way to escape this slavery of sin. Now, a slave does not remain in the house forever. In other words, you Jews who practice sin, and put your confidence in your ancestry, or in your obedience, even now you’re only in God’s house as slaves, slaves who will eventually be sent away from God’s house entirely. But a son remains forever. Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Free, not to be dismissed from God’s house, but to remain in God’s house forever, not as slaves, but as sons. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is only one who can free you from the slavery to sin, who can give you the right to become free children of God, who have a permanent place in His home.

He does that “setting free” in two ways. He does it, first, by forgiving us our sins, by setting us free from the guilt of those sins that we commit, when He calls us to repent of our sins and to believe in Him, who has promised to set us free. That’s what justification is, God setting us free, Jesus setting us free from having to pay for our sins, from having to suffer for our sins, from having to work off or make atonement for our sins. He Himself is the Atoner, the Sacrifice of atonement, the Reconciler. His blood was the full price of our freedom. Faith in Him is the means by which He applies that atoning price to our account and sets us free.

But for all who have been set free from the slavery to sin, who have been justified and forgiven and made children of God, permanent members of His household, and heirs of eternal life, Christ’s act of setting us free, of justifying us, is also the beginning of something else. It’s the beginning of a new life of freedom. It’s the beginning of a new kind of obedience, not as slaves to sin anymore, but as slaves to righteousness—an entirely different kind of slavery, a good kind, even as Christ Himself was a willing “slave” or “servant” of His Father in heaven. By setting us free from sin through the forgiveness of sins, through the washing of Holy Baptism, He has freed us to become imitators of Him, the true Servant of God, as He both calls and enables us to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. We call this the freedom of “sanctification.” It’s an ongoing process as we are renewed, day after day, in the image of Christ, as the Holy Spirit guides us and pulls us along toward doing and thinking what is righteous, and good, and loving. It’s not a freedom to go on living in sin. It’s a freedom to serve God in righteousness and holiness that begins here and now, and that will be completed when we reach our heavenly home.

These two issues—the source of truth and our ability to know it; and freedom from sin, what it is and how to achieve it—were at the center of the Lutheran Reformation, and they remain central issues still today. The Roman Church and the Eastern Church, and many who call themselves Lutheran, would have you look to Church Councils and Church Fathers and synods as a source of truth alongside the Word of God. Other churches would have you look inward, at your feelings and opinions about things. Still others would have you look for direct revelation from the Holy Spirit. And many of those same churches would have you seek freedom from sin in your own good works, in your own obedience, or, in the case of the synods, in an imaginary justification of the whole world. But here we are, along with still many in the world, left standing alongside Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, pressured on all sides to give in: “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture and plain reason… my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Be content to keep standing here beside Luther, especially on these issues of truth and freedom. It may seem lonely at times, and it will continue to require many sacrifices, on your part and mine, to remain in Jesus’ word, no matter what anyone else demands, and to embrace the freedom of justification by faith alone, no matter what anyone else teaches. Jesus calls these sacrifices “bearing the cross.” And if our dear Lord was willing to bear the cross of shame, suffering, and death for our sins, to free us from slavery, to grant us eternal joy and eternal life, how could we shrink back from bearing the cross that comes from faithfulness to Him? Remain in His Word. Remain in the freedom that comes from the truth. And let us all give thanks to God for bringing us back to true Christianity, and to this blessed fellowship with one another. Amen.

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