The testimony of the Spirit, the apostles, and all Christians

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

On Thursday, we heard the promise Jesus made to His apostles just before He was taken up into heaven. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit was a promise that Jesus repeated over and over again to His apostles, beginning on Maundy Thursday, as you heard in the Gospel. So it was also with the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples just before He ascended into heaven: And you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. That was also something that Jesus repeated on various occasions and in various ways. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Go and make disciples of all nations. The Spirit’s testimony was promised; the apostles’ testimony was foretold. The salvation of sinners, the entire building of the New Testament Church, hinged on that twofold testimony, a testimony that still goes out into the world today, through those who have believed the testimony of the Spirit and of the apostles. That’s you and I, isn’t it? But there is also a warning label attached to this testimony. So let’s dig into this testimony a little bit and receive the Lord’s teaching about it.

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

One of our members recently asked why our lectionary seems to be jumping around John’s Gospel, out of order, during these weeks after Easter. The answer is that, the further away from Easter and the closer to Pentecost we get, the more the readings focus on the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that makes sense. Because, for as vitally important as Jesus’ resurrection is for our salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit is what brings the truth of Jesus’ resurrection to the world for this entire New Testament period. That’s why Jesus calls Him the “Spirit of truth.” He testifies to the truth. “He will testify about Me,” Jesus says. The Spirit’s testimony is the truth about Jesus. As the Spirit who proceeds from the Father, as the Spirit whom Jesus sends into the world, the Holy Spirit knows and has witnessed the whole truth about God, and about God’s plan of salvation, which centers on Jesus. And so, after Jesus’ ascension, the testimony of the Spirit would be God’s gift to the apostles, to the Church, and, by extension, to the world.

How would the Spirit of truth testify about Jesus? He would do it in three ways. First, He would testify through the signs and wonders that happened on the Day of Pentecost and that were seen here and there among the Christians of the first century. The miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages, special visions, prophecies about the future, healing miracles, things like that. The Spirit would be responsible for all those outward signs, testifying to the truth that the Gospel of Jesus, preached by the apostles, was true.

There is a second testimony of the Spirit, in the hearts and minds of the apostles, enabling them to teach (and to write!) about Jesus accurately. The Spirit of truth, who understands the truth about Jesus perfectly, guided the apostles into all truth, just as Jesus said He would do. He also emboldened them to preach the Gospel of Jesus with Spirit-worked courage and conviction—just as He had done, by the way, with the Old Testament prophets, as Peter writes: the Spirit of Christ who was in [the prophets] testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

Then there is the testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of the hearers of the Gospel as He works through the preaching of the Word, enabling the hearers to both believe and understand the Gospel of Jesus, that Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that He truly died as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that He is the one Mediator between God and Man, who reconciles sinners to God through faith in His name. As Paul writes, No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And again, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, enabling us to cry out to God as our dear Father.

But the Spirit’s testimony is always, always connected to the testimony of man’s preaching. As Jesus says in our Gospel, And you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. Peter’s preaching, His eyewitness testimony, was the main event of Pentecost. The preaching of the Gospel of Christ was the main event at the house of Cornelius, too, where Peter preached, and then the Holy Spirit testified with miraculous signs, showing that Christ’s salvation was also for the Gentiles.

But notice, these words aren’t spoken directly to all people, or to all Christians. They’re spoken to the apostles who were, as Jesus says, “with Me from the beginning.” The apostles were the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, of His teaching, of His demeanor, of His attitude, of His suffering, death, and resurrection. Theirs and theirs alone is the eyewitness testimony. The rest of the Church is built on that initial, first-century testimony.

You and I are not called by Jesus to “testify” in the same sense, to the same things, because we aren’t eyewitnesses of those things. What we are witnesses of, the testimony we can provide, is the testimony we have received from the Spirit, through the apostles. We can testify to the faith that has been given in that testimony. We can and should tell the world that we have been convinced that the apostles’ testimony is true, and that Jesus is risen, and reigning, and returning. That’s a testimony we give in the world with our words. And it’s also a testimony we give with how we live our lives. But when we invite people to church, when we invite people to know the Lord Jesus, we’re not inviting them to come and hear our personal testimony. We’re inviting them to come and hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the apostles (and prophets), because, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we have been convinced that this testimony is true.

But as the apostles were about to go out and testify before the world, Jesus wasn’t about to deceive them. He told them plainly what would happen as the result of their testimony. And what He told them wasn’t pleasant.

They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming, when whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father nor Me.

Jesus knew that the majority of the Jews would not believe the Spirit’s testimony, or the testimony of the apostles. He knew that the Sanhedrin would haul them off to prison and beat them. He knew that Stephen would be stoned to death by the Jews, that James would be put to death by Herod’s sword, and that His apostles, and His Christians in general, would face opposition and persecution by the hands of both Jews and Gentiles. And maybe the most bitter pill to swallow was the fact that they would do it in the name of “service to God.” They would think that God wanted them to put these Christians to death. Why? Because even though they claimed to believe in the God of Israel, their actual god was a false god. Because, as Jesus says, They have not known the Father, nor Me.

And yet, the apostles, knowing the hardships and the suffering that lay ahead of them, still waited for the promised Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven, still testified in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, still went into all the world and preached the Gospel to every creature, because they had the testimony of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is Lord, and that, even though they would die for that testimony, they would receive a greater prize in eternal life.

Now, you and I won’t be put out of any synagogue, because we don’t attend a Jewish synagogue. But the testimony about Jesus that we believe, the testimony about Jesus that we confess in the world, with our words and with how we live our lives, still draws hatred from Jews and Gentiles alike (if we’re doing it right!), and sometimes even from those who claim to be Christians. What’s popular in the eyes of the world, what seems nice in the eyes of the world, is almost always the wrong way, the wrong thing. So prepare to suffer.

Maybe you remember one of the confirmation questions that our confirmands are always asked to answer: Do you intend to continue steadfast in the confession of this Church, and suffer all, even death, rather than turn away from it? That’s a serious question, and it deserves a serious answer. As Jesus says often in the Gospels, He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

What will the result be if Christians don’t testify to the truth about Jesus, both with our words and with our lives? Well, some Christians will always be out there providing that testimony. You can be sure of that. The Holy Spirit will see to it that the Gospel is never completely silenced in the world. But when other Christians fail to testify, or testify to one thing with their words, but to a different thing with their behavior, then the world, and even other Christians, will be exposed to conflicting testimonies, and that’s always harmful. It’s tragic how many young people have been raised by Christians who only give lip-service to the truth of Christ, but whose lives conflict with what their lips confess, leaving the young Christian susceptible to the false doctrine of those who seem to be more “genuine,” but whose teachings actually lead away from the Lord Jesus. So guard your testimony, both for your own sake and for the sake of those whose lives you touch. Daily repentance, faith in the Lord Jesus, who has rescued you from sin, death, and the devil, and lives that honor Him. Hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments. Being the same Christians at home and in society that you profess to be here in church. Let these things be your daily concern, your ongoing testimony, if indeed you have received the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

And what will be the result when Christians do give such a testimony? God will be glorified, the name of Jesus will be exalted, and the Church of Christ will be built. And you will suffer, but only for a little while. May the Helper, the Spirit of truth, grant you all the help you need, to believe in the testimony about the Lord Jesus and to confess Him before the world, no matter what the earthly consequences may be. Amen.

 

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Celebrating Christ’s mission accomplished and work ongoing

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of the Ascension

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

Today’s festival is one of the major festivals of Christ in the whole Church year. It ranks right up there with Christmas and Easter in importance. And yet, believe it or not, I still run into Christians, even Lutherans, who don’t know much about the Festival of the Ascension. So let’s make sure that everyone here, and everyone watching or listening, never (or never again) falls into that category!

As we learn in today’s reading from Acts 1, Jesus appeared on and off to His disciples over the course of 40 days after His resurrection on Easter Sunday. Twice that we know of in Jerusalem, twice that we know of in Galilee, and probably on several occasions we don’t about. He gave them final instructions about the kingdom of God, and about the coming of the Holy Spirit, telling them to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit should come upon them with power. And then He met with them one last time, on the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, where Luke tells us that He lifted up His hands and blessed them, and as He was doing that, He was lifted up into the sky, He “ascended” into heaven until a cloud hid Him from their sight. And then, He was “gone.” Gone, in the sense that they never saw Him again. No one on earth ever saw Him again, except for the first martyr Stephen, who was allowed to see Jesus standing at the Father’s right hand before he died, and the apostle Paul, who was called and trained by Jesus directly.

Now, why is that something to celebrate, Jesus being “gone”? Well, as we heard Jesus say a couple of Sundays ago, it was to the Church’s advantage that He went away, because from heaven He would send them the Holy Spirit, who would accompany all the disciples of Jesus everyone in the world at once, whereas, when Jesus walked the earth, He only walked in one place at a time. The Spirit’s work is what would build the Church over the next 2,000 years.

But we celebrate the Spirit’s arrival on the Day of Pentecost, ten days from now. That’s not mainly what we celebrate today. Today we celebrate two things, mainly. We celebrate our  King’s victorious return to His heavenly Father after accomplishing His earthly mission. And we celebrate the beginning of the reign of Christ the King at the right hand of the Father.

That first thing, the King’s victorious return to His heavenly Father, is relatively simple. It doesn’t require too much commentary. Repeatedly Jesus tells His disciples that He was sent by God the Father, that He came from God the Father and would return to God the Father, that He had come down from heaven and would eventually return there. What does that mean?

Well, you and I don’t start out in heaven and then come down to inhabit our bodies. We don’t start with God and then return to God. The rest of us start to exist when we’re conceived. But th eternal Son of God was in heaven prior to His incarnation as a human being. He existed with a divine nature only, like the Father and like the Holy Spirit, without human flesh and blood, without a human nature at all. He “came down” from heaven by means of the incarnation, when He was conceived and took on a human nature in Mary’s womb, a human nature that coexists with His divine nature in one undivided Person, as the One who is both God and Man. That’s how He came down. And then, as both God and Man, He returned to the Father at His ascension. And He returned, not in defeat, but in victory, not in humility, but in glory. Because He had accomplished His mission, the mission which God had planned before the creation of the world, the mission on which the Father had sent Him some 34 years earlier. Jesus had led a perfectly holy, righteous, and sinless life. He had loved God and man without fail. He had tirelessly preached and ministered to the people of Israel, and to a few non-Israelites. He had suffered and died for the sins of mankind and had risen again. The mission was finished successfully. The reason for His coming down to earth was accomplished. Mission accomplished. Time to return to the Father.

And when He did, He received the glory He deserved. Glory as the Son of God, and also as the Son of Man. On the night before He night, Jesus prayed, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. That was His glory as the Son of God. But after accomplishing His mission to provide redemption for fallen man, He received glory also as the Son of Man, to whom saints and angels sing: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

And so we join our voices today in glorifying Christ the King, who accomplished His earthly mission to earn mankind’s salvation as the Son of Man, and who has now returned home victorious.

The King’s earthly mission was accomplished, but His heavenly work goes on. And so today we also celebrate the beginning of Christ’s work that He carries out at the right hand of God.

You heard in today’s Gospel that the Lord Jesus was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. That’s a fulfillment of Psalm 110, which begins: The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” It’s also a fulfillment of what Jesus said to the Jewish Sanhedrin as they were about to sentence Him to death: I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.

What does it mean that Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand?

It isn’t a literal location relative to the Father’s literal location. There are those who claim (mainly the Calvinists and Reformed) that Jesus is physically located in a single place in heaven, from which He cannot move, and from which He certainly cannot cause His true body and blood to be present with the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. But they teach falsely. Yes, Jesus has a physical body. But the Father doesn’t! So how can Jesus sit at the right hand of the Father who has no physical hands? How can Jesus be restricted to a location next to the Father who has no physical location? No, to sit at the right hand of God means something else.

Sitting at the right hand of God means that Jesus has been exalted to the highest place, as both God and Man. It means that He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. As Peter writes, Jesus has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. Yes, it means that He has come into His kingdom and has begun His reign as King, with all things in the universe placed under His feet, under His rule.

And what does that reign include?

Jesus once promised His disciples, On this rock—on this confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God—I will build My Church. But that building only began to take place after His ascension. From the right hand of the Father, as part of His reign over all things, Jesus is building His Church.

He does that building through the office of the ministry. Jesus Himself is the Chief Minister, the High Priest over God’s Temple. As it says in the book of Hebrews, We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. He Himself is working through earthly ministers whom He has sent and continues to send, as Peter said, God has exalted Him to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Through the preaching of Peter, through the preaching of all genuine ministers, through the Sacraments that Jesus instituted before His ascension, Jesus is the one, at the right hand of God, giving repentance and forgiveness, working through His Spirit to bring people to repent of their sins and to trust in Him who was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification.

And as people are brought to faith, the Lord Jesus, sitting at the Father’s right hand, also justifies and intercedes for believers, pleading with the Father on our behalf. Paul writes, It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

What else? Paul writes that the Father seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. So Jesus reigns as King. He reigns over all things, even over all “principality and power and might and dominion,” that is, the demonic forces of evil in the spirit-realm. He reigns over every government, over every institution, over every individual, over every germ, over every cell in our bodies, over nature, over gravity. He reigns invisibly. He reigns behind the scenes, until He returns to the earth. But we know for certain that every decision this King makes, whether we can see it or not, is for the good of His Church, as the head of a body makes decisions that are good for its own body.

Finally, remember what Jesus said to His disciples on the night before He died. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. At the right hand of the Father, Jesus is preparing a place for every member of His holy Church, so that our home is ready when He returns in the same way His disciples saw Him go, visibly, coming down from heaven once again, for that final judgment that will mean eternal joy and peace for all who have believed in His name.

That, my Christian friends, is what Jesus’ ascension means for us today. It’s a celebration of Christ’s mission accomplished and also the beginning of His ongoing work, His work whose focus is our salvation. That’s what it’s about. And that’s why we celebrate it, and will continue to celebrate it, on the Thursday that always falls on the 40th day after Easter. Amen.

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Pray to the Father, who loves you

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Easter 5 – Rogate

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

We’re focused on prayer today. There are countless examples of prayer in the Bible, and many passages in the Gospels in which Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, and how to pray. We have a wonderful teaching tool concerning prayer in the 3rd Chief Part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the part on the Lord’s Prayer. But this 5th Sunday after Easter, Rogate Sunday, is the only Sunday in the historic Church year whose Gospel touches on prayer. So we’ll use this opportunity both to hear again what Jesus teaches us about prayer, and to take to heart His encouragement to pray and to ask.

Let’s start with how we use certain words. The word “pray” in Scripture has a couple of different uses. It can mean simply to “ask.” I pray God for a pleasant outcome. I pray you for a glass of water. There are certain words in Hebrew and Greek that simply mean, “ask.” But that’s not how we normally use the word in English anymore, nor is it the main word for prayer in the Bible. Normally, “to pray” means to speak to God, which is the same as “calling upon” God or upon the name of God, for any and every purpose. And there are three basic purposes for praying to God. To confess one’s sins to God, to praise and thank God, and to ask God for something, either for ourselves or on behalf of others.

Psalm 51 gives us an example of confession within a prayer. David cries out to God, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.”

Jesus shows us how to give thanks in a prayer. He says in Matthew 11, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

Then there are those many, many examples of prayers that ask God for something, making requests of God. “Lord, have mercy!” is the simplest but most all-encompassing request a person can make. All seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer fall into this category, where we approach our Father in heaven with seven short and simple requests, where we ask Him for things that we need. A single prayer may well include all three things: a confession of our sins, a request for God’s mercy and forgiveness, and a word of praise for God’s abundant mercy, faithfulness, and forgiveness in Christ.

To whom should we pray? When the word means simply to “ask” someone for something, that word is used in the Bible for both God and men. You can ask God for mercy, you can ask the king for mercy. Elijah could ask God to send rain, or Jesus could ask the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. But the regular word used for “prayer” in Scripture, for calling upon the name of someone, for “invocation,” is always and only used for praying to God (or to false gods). In the Old Testament, it was always and only the LORD to whom Israel was supposed to pray. In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us to pray to “our Father in heaven,” and the vast majority of examples of prayer in the New Testament are prayers to God, in general, or to God the Father in particular. But prayers to Jesus are also prayers to God, so occasionally the apostles also speak of “calling on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Either way, “to pray,” in Scripture, is to call upon the name of God—or someone whom you perceive to be God. And it’s, therefore, by definition, an act of worship.

This is important, so we we’re going to spend some time on it. You know that, some time after the Scriptures were written, some teachers arose within the Christian Church who began to teach Christians to pray not only to God, but also to others, to the souls of certain saints in heaven. Here are the reasons why that’s a problem:

First, the Scriptures, and Jesus Himself, already taught us to whom we should address all our prayers: to the LORD God alone, to our Father in heaven, or to the Lord Jesus, who is also God, and the one Mediator between God and man. All prayers, like all forms of worship, are to be given to God.

Second, we have no command or permission from God to call upon the name of anyone else.

Third, we do have commands from God forbidding any attempted communication with the dead. The Bible refers to that as witchcraft or sorcery or necromancy, and God says that He hates all such practices.

Now, the argument is made that praying to Mary for help, or asking for her intercession, is no different than asking your Christian friend for help, or to pray for you. Paul asks the Ephesian Christians to pray for him, doesn’t he? But Paul doesn’t pray to the Ephesians to ask for their prayers. He writes them a letter, which they can read with their eyes and hear with their ears, where they can read of his request and then pray to God for him. That’s vastly different than trying to communicate with someone who has died. And the argument is made that the souls of the departed are not dead but alive! Well, that was just as true in the Old Testament, as Jesus says about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and yet, through Moses, God still forbade His people from trying to communicate with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Fourth, we have no reason to believe that any departed brother or sister in Christ is able to hear a single prayer or request, much less the prayers of Christians from around the world. Think about that. Why can God hear the prayers and petitions of Christians anywhere in the world? Because of His divine attributes. Because God sees the heart. He is omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, which means He’s outside of time. As the Psalm says, O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. But none of that is true of our departed brothers and sisters, including Mary, including the apostles. To imagine that a departed brother or sister can hear the whispers from a single person’s lips, or can (simultaneously!) hear the prayers of thousands of Christians around the world, is to ascribe divine attributes to that departed brother or sister, and that is nothing short of turning them into gods, which is nothing short of idolatry.

But finally, praying to or invoking anyone besides God is a waste of time, because we have God’s own repeated promises to hear our prayers and to help us in the day of trouble. And that’s the part of today’s Gospel that I would have you focus on. Jesus says to His disciples: Truly, truly I tell you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Ask the Father, Jesus says. Ask Him! Ask Him directly! Only do it “in My name.”

What does that mean? It doesn’t mean just adding a perfunctory, “In Jesus’ name” to the beginning or end of a prayer. It means praying to God the Father as one who believes in the name of Jesus, who trusts in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, sent by God the Father to be the Savior of the world and the one Mediator between God and man. It means holding up to God the Father not a single work of our own, not a bit of worthiness on our part, but only the merit of Jesus as the basis for His mercy and help. It means approaching God the Father as Jesus Himself approached His Father, with heartfelt thankfulness, with perfect trust in His will, asking for the things that Jesus taught us to ask for, as in the Lord’s Prayer, and also asking for things that we want, but only if it’s what He wants for us, as our wise and gracious Father. All of that is included in praying in Jesus’ name.

And why will the Almighty God and Father hear us and grant our requests? (This may be the most amazing part.) Because the Father himself loves you. The word for love here is special. It’s not that usual Greek word for love, agape, the word for God’s heartfelt care and concern for people, as in, God so loved the world. No, here it’s the Greek word philos, the love of friendship, the love of finding something attractive in another person, not in a romantic way, but in a friendly way, where people share common interests, where you like to be around certain people because of their character, or their good reputation, or their personality. What is it that makes God the Father like to be around us? Jesus told His disciples. The Father loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. God the Father gave His most precious gift to the world, His beloved, only-begotten Son, to be our Savior, to teach us who God is and, most of all, to reveal His mercy and love toward sinners, and His fervent desire that all men should be saved, saved through faith in Christ Jesus. The Father is the One who drew us to Jesus in the first place, through His Word, by His Spirit, and who persuaded us to believe in Him, and to love Him. And then, amazingly, because the Father has first drawn us to Jesus, the Father is now drawn to us in love as those who love Jesus, because everything centers around Him.

Now, because the Father loves you, who love Jesus, that’s why you should ask Him. That’s why you should pray to Him. Because He’s not some distant, hard-to-please, needs-to-be-convinced-to-care kind of God. He loves you! He’s eager to hear from you! He’s just waiting to answer your prayer, to give you what you ask for in Jesus’ name. What’s more, He deserves an apology from you when you sin against Him, doesn’t He? Have you ever thought about it that way, about what God deserves? He also deserves your praise and thanksgiving. He deserves your worship. He deserves your prayers.

And so, because of our great need, because of the great needs of those for whom we pray, because of the powerful enemies we have in this world, because of God’s command and promise, because of God’s love for you who believe in His Son, and because God deserves our worship, our prayers, and our praise, pray, dear Christians! Pray to the Father who loves you! Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full! Amen.

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Yes, sing to the Lord!

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 4 – Cantate

Isaiah 12:1-6  +  2 Corinthians 5:14-21

This last Sunday, the 4th Sunday after Easter, was called Cantate Sunday. Cantate—sing!, from the Introit, Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. In line with that, in the reading you heard this evening from Isaiah 12, the prophet also calls upon Israel, including Christians, to “sing to the Lord.” And he spends the six short verses of this chapter giving us the inspiration behind the song.

He begins, In that day you will say. In what day? In the day he just described in chapter 11. In the day when there comes forth a Rod from the stump of Jesse, when a Branch grows from his roots, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord would rest in fullest measure. This Rod, this Branch, this “Root of Jesse” would grow, and would judge in favor of the poor and the meek. He would slay the wicked with the breath of His mouth, and rule over God’s people in righteousness and in peace. Not only that. He would also stand as a banner, as a tall flag, summoning people, gathering people to Himself from all the nations, Jews and Gentiles, all coming together and rallying around Him, resting in Him, and conquering all their enemies through Him.

“The day” Isaiah is talking about is this entire New Testament era, the era that began with the birth of the Rod, the Root, the Branch of Jesse, the Lord Jesus, who was born of Mary, descended from and a legal heir of David, the son of Jesse. He’s talking about how the Spirit would rest on Jesus. He’s talking about what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about in tonight’s second lesson, how God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them. That’s a reference both to the suffering and death of Christ, which were the reconciling price required to reconcile sinners with God (in other words, the atonement that Christ made for sin), and it’s a reference to the ministry that Jesus carried out, calling sinners to repent and to come to Him for rest. He is the Reconciler of God and man. He is the One who brings us God, the offended party, and man, the offending party, back into harmony, back into fellowship. His sacrifice as our Substitute was the price of reconciliation. His ministry of inviting sinners to be reconciled to God through Him is the manner of reconciliation.

And that’s a ministry that goes on and on until Christ comes again. The “day” of Isaiah is still happening as the ministry of reconciliation continues, as Christ continues to serve as a banner for the nations, as He continues to gather people from every nation into His Holy Christian Church. The “day” is still happening, when Christ reigns over His Church in righteousness. And the “day” will be complete when Jesus comes back to destroy all the enemies of His people, and to bring us into the perfect rest of the new heavens and the new earth.

That’s “the day.” And in that day, Isaiah says, you will say: O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

Who is the “you”? It’s those with whom the Lord was angry. That applies to the impenitent sinners in Israel, but also to the rest of the world. As Paul writes to the Ephesians, we were all dead in sins and trespasses. We were all “children of wrath” by nature. But because of Christ’s sacrifice and because of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation, God is no longer angry with those who take refuge in His Son. Instead, He comforts them. He has saved them, by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus. These are the ones who will praise the LORD in that “day” of salvation. These are the ones who will sing to the LORD, because they know Him, we know Him, to be our strength and our song. We know Him to be our Savior from sin, death, and the devil, who willingly suffered and died for our sins, who reigns in righteousness now and who will soon return to redeem us from every evil. This is the reason why Christians sing to the Lord.

Isaiah not only tells us why we will sing. He also gives us some of the lyrics of the song. In that day you will say: “Praise the LORD, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, Make mention that His name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, For He has done excellent things; This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

What do we sing? What message do Christians proclaim? “His deeds.” God’s deeds. That includes His great deeds of creation, providence, and preservation. It also includes His deeds of salvation, Christ’s deeds of suffering and dying for all men, God’s desire that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And, yes, it also includes His deeds of judgment against the enemies of His blood-bought people.

And where do we proclaim His deeds? “Among the peoples.” Among the nations. Wherever you live. Declare the excellent things that God has done, and declare it, not as a chore, not as a heartless lesson for the lecture halls, but with joy. The joy of the Gospel must accompany our song. If we stop and think about the destruction toward which we were headed, and the lengths to which our God has gone to make sure we were saved from it, if we stop and think about the love of Christ for sinners like us who deserve nothing from Him but wrath and condemnation, then we won’t be able to help but sing for joy for the marvelous deeds of the Lord. Amen.

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The Holy Spirit will be your Advocate

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Easter 4 – Cantate

James 1:16-21  +  John 16:5-15

On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples that He would be going away, referring to His ascension. They had spent the last three years or so by His side, being led by Him, being instructed by Him. All they had to do was listen, learn, obey, and follow. But all that would change after Jesus’ ascended into heaven. After that, they would graduate from the seminary, as it were. They would be the ones doing all the teaching and preaching. They would be the ones interpreting Scripture and explaining the will of God, explaining the things Jesus Himself had said—things which they often didn’t understand themselves while He was with them! And they would be doing it, not only among their fellow Israelites in their homeland of Israel, where people at least had a knowledge of the Old Testament and were awaiting the promised Messiah, but also in foreign lands, among the Gentiles, who had a completely different—and wrong!—understanding of who God is, who practiced a false and pagan religion. How on earth could they possibly take over this ministry if Jesus was going away?

I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Jesus promises His apostles a Helper, the Helper, whom He Himself would send to them after His ascension, a Helper who would take over for Jesus, in a sense, except that, instead of preaching to the world directly, as Jesus had done, the Helper would be working through the preaching and through the ministry of the apostles. The Helper, sent by Jesus, would be the One doing the actual building of the Holy Christian Church.

Let’s talk about the title “Helper,” since this is the first time we’re running into that name in our lectionary this year. It’s a word used only by the Apostle John, in his Gospel and in his first Epistle. In 1 John, he actually uses the word for Jesus, where it’s usually translated, “Advocate”: If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One. The imagery of the word is of someone who is called to your side to help you, to speak up for you, like an advocate or an attorney does in the courtroom, who counsels and encourages you, who advocates for you, someone who’s both by your side and on your side.

In heaven, we have an Advocate like that, as John says. Jesus is that Advocate. He died for our sins. And He rose again in order to justify before God all who believe in Him. He is also at the right hand of God, interceding for us before the Father. But here on earth, the One who speaks for us, the One who Advocates for us, the One who is on our side, is the Holy Spirit—the Spirit whom Jesus poured out on His apostles on the day of Pentecost. We’re going to be hearing more about the Spirit over the coming weeks. For now, we focus on the help Jesus promised in today’s Gospel.

He will show the world its fault concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will not see me any longer; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged

He will show the world its fault. Other translations of that word are “convict” or “reprove” or “rebuke.” I like the simplicity of showing someone his fault. The Helper will show the world its fault, will show the world where the world (as in, the unbelieving world into which the apostles were being sent) is wrong, wrong in three specific ways.

He’ll show the world where it’s wrong concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. People are generally wrong about sin. They tend to think of sin as some terrible thing that other people do. They think they can engage in every kind of immorality, nastiness, violence, adultery, selfishness, etc., but it’s what “those other people are doing” that’s truly sinful. They think they get to define what sin is, and they think they can avoid having their sins charged to them if they do enough good things to outweigh the bad things. But the Helper will show the world where it’s wrong concerning sin, how God is the One who defines sin in His Word, how sin infects everything they do, and even who they are by nature. They’ll deny it, but the Spirit will not relent. He’ll show them where they’re wrong, and most of all, because they do not believe in Jesus. He’s the only One who wipes out sin. The one who repents of his sins and believes in Jesus has no sins counted against him, because he’s justified not by his own works but through faith in Christ Jesus. On the other hand, every human being who does not believe in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins is and will be charged by God with sin. And as the Scripture says, the soul that sins shall die.

He’ll show the world where it’s wrong concerning righteousness, because I go to my Father and you will not see me any longer. People are generally wrong about righteousness. Most people tend to think of themselves as righteous people, at least righteous enough. They think that just about any actions they do are justified, because they have good reasons for the things they do, or because their feelings led them to it. How can their feelings be wrong? They think their righteousness before God is something they already have, or is something they can achieve. But the Helper shows them where they’re wrong. Jesus is mankind’s only Righteousness. We have none of our own. And He has gone to the Father; He has ascended into heaven. So man’s only access to righteousness, man’s only access to God is through the ministry that Jesus has left behind here on earth, the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of the Gospel, where God has decided to bestow righteousness on us through Holy Baptism and through faith in His Son, where God has decided to grant us access to Him through Holy Communion, where the body and blood of His Son are truly present. You want righteousness? You can’t have it apart from Jesus, and that means, you can’t have it outside of His Holy Christian Church, where the ascended Christ has placed the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

Finally, He’ll show the world where it’s wrong concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. People are worried about all sorts of things, but not nearly worried enough about God’s judgment. They think they’ll escape it. Many think it will never even happen. They’ve aligned themselves with this world and live for this world. But what they don’t realize, what the Helper reveals, is that the devil is the prince of this world, and that all who live for this world, will also die with this world, and will be punished eternally, together with the devil himself. The only hope of escaping the judgment that’s coming on the world is through repentance and faith in Christ, now, while there’s still time. People aren’t afraid enough of the day of judgment that’s coming. But the Helper will show them where they’re wrong.

But, as I said, He doesn’t do that directly, He does it through the preaching of the Word of God that the Church began to carry out on the day of Pentecost and has been carrying out ever since. It doesn’t mean that the world will accept the Spirit’s rebuke. For the most part, it won’t. Nevertheless, the rebuke must go out. And the Christian Church must and will continue to teach the truth concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment, even if the preachers of the truth should be again as few as they were at the beginning, where only eleven men in that upper room with Jesus on Maundy Thursday were charged with bringing this truth to the world. Think about that, how impossible it would have been, except for the help of their Advocate, the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus speaks in our Gospel of another way the Helper would help His apostles. Not only would He help them to preach to the world. He would also help them to understand the truth that had to be preached. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. What an important promise that was! As we said, the disciples often didn’t understand the things Jesus taught them. How could they teach others? The Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper would guide them.

Now, this was, first and foremost, a promise made to the eleven apostles. They would form the foundation of the New Testament Church. Their teaching would dictate the doctrine that all Christians are to believe and confess until Jesus returns. So in their preaching and teaching, and, just as importantly, in their writings, they had the promise of divine guidance and inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

That’s why the true Church has always believed in the principle of Sola Scriptura, that Scripture alone—the inspired writings of the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles—are the only source of Christian teaching and the only standard by which all other teachings must be judged. That’s why we reject any teachings that don’t have the inspired teaching of the apostles as their source.

But, as the apostle Peter promised, all baptized Christians would also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, not to contradict the apostles, not to add teachings that the apostles never taught, but to grasp the meaning of the truth that the apostles left behind for us, guided as they were by the Holy Spirit.

Of course, as you know, Christians now exist in dozens of “denominations” and have broad disagreements about what that meaning is, when it comes to several articles of doctrine. Those disagreements never come from the Holy Spirit. He is always pointing toward the truth, and pointing, specifically, toward Jesus to glorify Him. No, all those disagreements always come from the outside, always come from the devil, trying to sow discord and false doctrine into the truth of the Holy Spirit, as men either refuse to believe, in context, the words as they are written, or insist on adding content of their own that isn’t derived from Scripture.

How can we deal with such a situation? How can we identify and cling to the truth? Only by relying on the help of our Advocate, the Holy Spirit of God, who has been given to us, too, as Jesus promised. We have diligently studied the words that the Spirit inspired, and also the witness of the Church from the beginning, and, by the Spirit’s help and guidance, we have come to know that which we believe, teach, and confess, and we’ve also identified many of the teachings that do not agree with the Scriptures, and, therefore, cannot come from the Spirit of God.

Still, it’s a daunting task, to confess the truth in a world that promotes so much that is false, to show the world where it’s wrong, when even many “Christian” churches insist that we’re wrong, to be a tiny little church, with a quiet little voice in the world. It feels very lonely at times. That’s why it’s essential that we cling to Jesus’ promise in today’s Gospel. Because He hasn’t left us alone in the world. He has given us an Advocate, to speak up for us, to guide, comfort, and encourage us—an invisible Advocate, yes, whose voice you can’t hear with your ears. But if you believe in the risen Lord Jesus, whom you can’t see, then believe also in the Advocate whom He promised to send. Our work in this world is simply to believe and to confess the truth that has been revealed to us in the Word of God. The Holy Spirt is the One who will work through it, as He sees fit, to glorify God in Christ, and to build His Holy Church. Amen.

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