Living this life with the next life in mind

Posted on June 7, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21 + Luke 16:19-31

The parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus always starts off the long Trinity season, almost like the beginning of a long race, like a marathon. The finish line at the end of the Trinity season  is Judgment Day. The whole season, starting today, is heading in that direction, heading toward that goal. The finish line seems a long way off right now, and there’s a lot of running to do to get there. But throughout all that running, you have to keep the goal in mind. It will affect how you run, how you pace yourself, and the decisions you make along the way.

So it is with the Christian life, as both the rich man and Lazarus learned in the end. The rich man’s riches and the poor man’s poverty were part of the running path of each man’s life. But after the running was over, it was what waited beyond the finish line that really mattered for both of them, and if the rich man, especially, had kept that in mind during his earthly life, he would have run a much different race.

How does Jesus describe the rich man? There was a certain rich man. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day. It certainly isn’t a sin to be rich, as long as you acquired your riches legally and honestly, and there’s no indication in Jesus’ story that this rich man was a thief of any kind. But, as we see here, having riches isn’t necessarily a sign that a person is close to God. There are certain advantages that come with being rich, besides the obvious earthly advantages. For one thing, having lots of money enables a person to be extremely generous and benevolent. On the other hand, having riches also comes with some very real spiritual challenges. In fact, it can become a great hindrance to entering the kingdom of heaven. As Jesus once put it, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Why? Well, we see an example of why in today’s parable. The rich man had it so good, was so happy with this life that he gave no thought to the next. He became engrossed in this life. He fell in love with it and lived it up every day. He relied on himself and his riches. Meanwhile, God and His word, God and His commandments, were out of sight, out of mind. And as for his neighbor, Lazarus, lying right there at his gate, his brother Israelite, his brother in the Church of Israel, well, this particular rich man paid him no heed at all, not sharing even a crumb of his daily banquets with Lazarus. He was focused on enjoying the good life he had. He may not have been greedy, but he was certainly indifferent toward God and his neighbor.

Meanwhile, we’re told of Lazarus’ miserable life. There was a certain poor man named Lazarus, who lay at the rich man’s gate, full of sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. And the dogs would come and lick his sores. It certainly isn’t a privilege to be poor. It isn’t an enviable position, and a person gets no special credit for it. But neither is it necessarily a curse from God, as we see here in the end in the case of Lazarus. There are spiritual risks associated with poverty; the poor are tempted to envy the rich, to be bitter and discontented with their lot in life, which is a sin against the Ninth and Tenth Commandments. But poverty does come with certain spiritual advantages. The poor (and sick) are less tempted to get wrapped up in this life, more willing to look beyond it, to yearn for the better life with God, and are often more prone to seek God and to rely on Him and His mercy.

Lazarus didn’t have much enjoyment in this life, and it may have looked, to some, as if he had been abandoned by God. But then it was over. He died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, where he was comforted. It turns out, Lazarus was not abandoned by God at all. The angels were right there when he died, waiting to take his soul straight to Abraham’s bosom. Abraham’s bosom is a tender picture of the loving reception Abraham’s children, the believing Jews, would have in heaven when they died. Those who shared the faith of Abraham, in God and in His promises, would rest from their labors and sit at the heavenly banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as Jesus pictures it elsewhere. Lazarus had run a hard and miserable race in this earthly life, but as he learned firsthand, the misery was nothing compared with the eternal rest and the joy of the next life.

The rich man learned the opposite lesson. For all the enjoyment he pulled out of this life, it was nothing compared with the eternal pain and torture that followed. The rich man also died and was buried. And, in hell, in the midst of his torments, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus lying in Abraham’s bosom. And he cried, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

Hell is real. And worse than that, hell is forever. It’s pictured with flames, or as a lake that burns with fire and brimstone. In the Old Testament it’s described as a place where their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched.

Why did the rich man end up there? Well, as Scripture clearly teaches, all men are headed there by nature, because all have sinned, and so all must die. But God, in His mercy, has made one way for sinners to avoid those flames. He calls all men to repent of their sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised to life again, who conquered death and hell for all who believe in Him. Now, for those who died before Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, like Lazarus in the parable, it was still the same faith that saved them, even as Abraham was justified by faith in God, faith in God’s mercy, and faith in the coming Christ. The rich man had no such faith. He was a physical son of Abraham, but not a spiritual son. Who has time for God, when money can buy so much happiness? Who has any need for God, when this life is going so well? His indifference toward God, and the resulting indifference toward his neighbor, was just as damning, in the end, as the willful sins that people commit against God and against His commandments. The adulterer and the murderer will perish right alongside the indifferent man who cares neither for God nor for his neighbor.

Now, it’s very unlikely that there’s actually communication between the souls in heaven and the souls in hell, but Jesus wants to teach a lesson here, so He includes one instance of such a communication in His parable, where the tormented rich man calls out to “father Abraham,” asking him to send Lazarus with a drop of water to cool his tongue. But Abraham said, “Son, remember that you received your good things during your lifetime, while Lazarus received bad. But now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot, nor can they cross from there to us.”

The rich man could have gone over to Lazarus and offered him a little comfort during his lifetime; no chasm was fixed between them then. But instead the rich man chose to run his race alone, enjoying his riches, and left Lazarus to run his race alone, comfortless and miserable. After this life, after the finish line has been crossed, there are no such opportunities to help our fellow man, just as there are no more opportunities to seek God and His forgiveness.

And so, realizing that, the rich man’s heart goes out to his brothers, who are still alive, and with a sense of urgency for them, pleads with Abraham, I beg you, then, father, to send Lazarus to my father’s house. For I have five brothers—that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. You see, the rich man wasn’t completely heartless. He loved his family; he loved his own. But that love doesn’t save; it doesn’t wipe out any sins. Only trust in God and His mercy for Christ’s sake will save, and after a person dies, there are no more opportunities to repent and believe. Still, even if there was no hope for the rich man, was there no hope for his brothers?

Abraham said to him, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them!” And he said, “No, father Abraham. But if someone were to go to them from the dead, they would repent.” But Abraham said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead.”

Once a person crosses the finish line of this life, there is no going back to guide those who are still running. There’s no information, no encouragement, no help to be given from the other side of the grave. The only help people have in this life—and the only help they need—is “Moses and the prophets,” that is the living and powerful Word of God which He inspired to be written down in the Old Testament, and now also in the New Testament Scriptures. Moses and the Prophets preached the Law and the Gospel, sin and grace, repentance and faith. They pointed forward to the Christ who would come. The New Testament preaches the same things, pointing back to the Christ who came. God, through the Holy Scriptures, calls all men to repent of their self-centered indifference toward God and man. He shows all men, through the Scriptures, how serious He is about sin, how desperate man’s situation is because of our sin, and how He has provided a Savior for all men in the person of His beloved Son. All are called to repent and believe in Christ Jesus. All are invited to be saved and forgiven through Him. But if all of those warnings and all of those invitations to believe mean nothing to you in this life, if you’re just going do what you’re going to do, live how you’re going to live, enjoy this life as much as possible, for as long as possible, then the finish line will come upon you suddenly. And then you will see how much you squandered your time here. Then you will wish you could go back and run your race differently, because you will not like what awaits you beyond the finish line.

But your race isn’t over yet. Your time of grace remains. Moses, and the prophets, and apostles still speak to you, and there’s still time for you to listen. If you see that you have been running wildly, mindlessly, selfishly, there is time to correct course, which is why Jesus told this parable in the first place. Repent today. Turn to the Lord today and receive His pardon today. And while it’s still called today, consider the finish line, the goal of this life and what lies beyond it in the next, and live your life accordingly. If you’re rich here, don’t become absorbed in enjoying what you have. Remember God and what He has prepared for you in the next life. And then look around and see if there’s someone who truly has a need with whom you might share. If you’re poor, don’t despair. Remember God and what He has prepared for you in the next life. And then trust in Him to provide you with daily bread, and be content with that. Whatever your situation in life, dear Christians, live this life with the next life in mind. Set your minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And run in such a way as to win the prize at the end! Amen.

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The Father wants to become a Father to all sinners

Posted on May 31, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity

Romans 11:33-36 + John 3:1-15

Last week on Pentecost Sunday, we saw the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out on Jesus’ disciples, and then connected with the waters of Baptism by a solemn promise: Repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit didn’t only begin to work through Baptism on that day. In fact, He has always been working, since the beginning of creation, giving life to man in the beginning, and then giving new life to men who were dead in sins. But with the coming of Jesus—or, rather, with the coming of John the Baptist, who pointed to Jesus—the Spirit began to give new life in a brand new way, a bodily way: in connection with water, the water of Holy Baptism, that all men might be born again of water and Spirit, by the will of the Father, through the atoning sacrifice of the Son, so that God the Father might become a Father to everyone.

Let’s turn to today’s Gospel for Trinity Sunday. Most Christians are familiar with John 3:16, as we discussed this past Wednesday. Not as many are familiar with the verses leading up to it. Here we see an older man named Nicodemus coming to the young Rabbi, Jesus, in the dark of night to ask Him some questions. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Jewish council called the Sanhedrin, and a Pharisee, too. He had been listening to Jesus for some time, and to John the Baptist even before Jesus arrived on the scene. And their message was not consistent with the Jewish faith as Nicodemus had always understood it, and as the Pharisees had been teaching it.

Rabbi, he said, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing, unless God is with him. He was exaggerating; most of the Pharisees didn’t believe Jesus had come from God. But Nicodemus was different. He saw the signs Jesus had been doing and drew the right conclusion: Jesus had come from God the Father. Now, to Nicodemus, that meant that God had sent Jesus as He had sent the former prophets, calling men into His service to speak for Him. The reality was much deeper.

But Jesus got right to the point, the main area where He knew Nicodemus needed to be taught: Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I tell you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” What a statement! With that one sentence, Jesus wipes out every path to God that mankind has ever invented. Good works, good behavior, good morals? Tossed out. Offerings, prayers, sacrifices, religious practices—gone. Race, color, gender, ancestry—irrelevant. What a shock to a man like Nicodemus, who was a respected elder of Israel, a Pharisee who worked so hard at keeping God’s law, a descendant of Abraham. What an offense to people still today who think that there’s something they can do, or some inner goodness within themselves that will make them worthy of God’s kingdom (if they believe in God at all). No, the only way to enter God’s kingdom is by having something done to you. Someone has to give you a second birth.

But that someone isn’t the woman who gave birth to you the first time. Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he really enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Even if you could be born again by your earthly mother, it wouldn’t do you any good. Flesh gives birth to flesh. And flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Because the flesh of all men, born in the natural way, is corrupted with sin. “Flesh” here includes, not only the physical body but also the soul. The human soul is corrupt with sin, and there is no fixing it. What’s needed is a brand new spirit, by means of a new birth.

And that new birth is by “water and Spirit,” as Jesus says. In truth, the Holy Spirit gave new birth to people already in Old Testament times by having the Word of God preached to them and by converting them from unbelief to faith in the true God. The word of God has always been the Spirit’s tool for creating new life. But with the coming of Christ, the kingdom of God had come into the world bodily, and a new bodily Sacrament had been instituted by God called Baptism. Everyone in Israel knew that John had been preaching and performing a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Not just splashing water on random people, but preaching the Word of God to people, exposing the sins of his hearers, warning them of the judgment that was coming, and urging them to repent and be baptized, which now had God’s promise attached to it as the means by which His Holy Spirit wishes to wash away sin from a person’s record.

But the washing away of sin is only part of what baptism accomplishes. At the same time as the Spirit brings a person to faith and washes away his sins, the same Spirit also gives birth to a new man, a spiritual person who can and will see the kingdom of God.

Jesus goes on, Do not be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes. Such is everyone who is born of the Spirit. You may remember that last Sunday we talked about the sound of that mighty rushing wind that filled the house where the disciples of Jesus were gathered on the Day of Pentecost, how one of the words for “wind” in Greek is the same as the word for “Spirit.” The same is true in Hebrew, by the way. So Jesus is comparing the Spirit of God to the wind, as we also did last week. Just as you can’t see the wind but can see its effects, so you can’t see the Spirit of God working through water and word. But you can see the effects of His work. The person who is born again now trusts in God with a firm confidence, where before, he wasn’t so sure about this “religion” thing. The person who confesses Christ as Lord, even when it will bring him trouble. The Christian who cries out to God in faith, with thanksgiving. The Christian who humbly serves, expecting nothing in return. The believer who faces troubles and even death itself with patience. The church member who faithfully attends a small church because he believes the doctrine that is preached there. These are the effects of the Spirit, and of the new birth that is given by the Spirit.

Now, Nicodemus was still not convinced, still not ready to accept the truth Jesus had spoken. How can these things happen? Jesus answered him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly I tell you, we speak what we know, and we testify to the things we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony.” “We” is Jesus and John the Baptist, who had both been preaching the same message of repentance and faith and baptism for the forgiveness of sin. Both John and Jesus had been sent from God with this message, and had seen the truth behind that message. But that message conflicted with what the teachers of Israel had been saying. “Keep the commandments and you will inherit the kingdom of God! Trust in your race as Jews and in your descent from Abraham, which makes you worthy of the kingdom of heaven!” No. Again, spiritual rebirth through inner repentance and faith, and now through baptism, is the way to God, but many in Israel still wouldn’t accept it.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? The “earthly things” are the things we can relate to on earth, such as birth and the how the wind works, and even repentance and faith and baptismal rebirth—the things John and Jesus had been preaching. The “heavenly things” are things such as the nature and working of the Holy Trinity, and His plan in eternity to save mankind by giving His Son into human flesh, and into death on a cross—the very things Jesus was about to mention.

No one has ascended into heaven, except for the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, the one who is in heaven. How can anyone truly know heavenly things? Only by being in heaven. But no one had ever ascended into heaven and come back to reveal heavenly things. Except for Jesus, who didn’t have to first ascend into heaven, because unlike every other man ever born, Jesus started out in heaven, not as a man, but as the eternal Word of God, the eternal, only-begotten Son of the Father, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, who “came down from heaven” by taking on a human body and soul in the womb of the virgin Mary, by the working of the Holy Spirit, so that He is now, not only the Son of God, but also, as He says, the Son of Man. The Son of Man who, even as He stood there speaking with Nicodemus, “is in heaven.” How could Jesus speak of Himself as being in heaven at that moment? That’s one of those heavenly things, a mystery of the Holy Trinity, that Jesus is both true God and true Man, who has the attributes of both God and man.

We confessed the mystery of the Trinity today in the Athanasian Creed, with the best words that human language has to offer, based on God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture. But it still goes beyond our comprehension. And that’s okay. Because what we need to understand about the Trinity in order to see the kingdom of heaven is really quite simple. It’s what Jesus went on to explain to Nicodemus.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. As a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus would have been very familiar with the story of the serpent in the wilderness. When Israel was wandering about the desert for forty years, being punished by God for their refusal to go into the promised land the first time, they often grumbled and complained against God. At one point, their grumbling was so egregious that God punished them by sending poisonous serpents into their camp to bite them and to kill many of them. When they finally repented of their rebellion, God told Moses to fashion a serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole, so that whoever was bitten by a snake might simply look up at the bronze serpent, and he would be healed from the venomous bite.

In the same way, God the Father sent His eternal, only-begotten Son from heaven, to become the Son of Man, so that He might be lifted up on a cross, as the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, so that all men, dead in sin by nature, might believe in Him, so that all men might look up to Him in faith as the One who died for their sins, and not perish, but have everlasting life. And that truth, that promise of sins washed away through faith in the Son of God, is brought to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, and attached to Holy Baptism, in bodily form, so that all the baptized may know: I have been born again of water and Spirit. God has washed away my sins, as He promised. I shall not die, but live. That’s what you need to understand about the Holy Trinity, before anything else. God the Father wants to become a Father to every sinner, through the sacrifice of the Son, through the regenerating work of the Spirit. And if you believe and have been baptized, then you can be sure: God has already become a Father to you! Amen.

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God’s plan for the salvation of the world

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Pentecost

John 3:16-21

When I was growing up, practically every Christian could quote John 3:16—and even many non-Christians were familiar with it. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you still know it by heart? You should. Every Christian should. Because it summarizes the Gospel so well, in one simple verse.

God loved the world “so,” in the following way: that He gave His only-begotten Son. That’s how He loved the world. When did this love begin? It began in eternity, before the foundations of the world were laid. Knowing that mankind would rebel against Him and sin against Him and earn for itself His eternal condemnation, He loved the world. He devoted Himself to the world. To the whole world—every human being who would ever come into existence. He loved it in such a way that He made a plan to give His only-begotten Son, the Word, who was in the beginning with God and who was God. To give Him into human flesh, so that He could live under the Law for us and die under the Law for us, to redeem us all from sin, death, and the devil. God’s plan was the salvation of the world, through His Son.

That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So the plan was the salvation of the world through His Son, through faith. God did not intend the salvation of only a few. He didn’t intend for the road to life to be narrow, where only few people find it. He didn’t intend for the road to hell to be broad, with many people walking on it. No, God intended for all men to repent and believe in His only-begotten Son, so that all men might be saved. God the Father gave His Son into death for all men, so that literally all men might come to repent of their sins and to believe in Jesus, and so be made children of God and heirs of everlasting life. That’s how good God is. That’s how big His plan was.

He who believes in Him is not condemned. “Not condemned” is the same thing as saying “justified, declared innocent in the courtroom of God’s divine justice.” Through the Gospel, the Holy Spirit calls out to the whole world, “You’re all condemned by nature because you’re all sinners by nature! But God loved you in such a way that He gave His only-begotten Son into death for your sins! Repent and believe! All who believe are justified! No one who believes is condemned!” As Paul says in Romans 8, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Even though God intended for all men to be saved through faith in Christ, He knew that not all men would believe. The only way to escape the condemnation is to believe in the only-begotten Son, to use Him as your Mediator before the righteous Father, to plead His merits, His works, His record of obedience before the Father’s throne. Of course, that requires humility. It requires owning your own sinful record, being horrified at your own sins, and also recognizing that even your good works fall short. And so you have to thrust them all aside, both your sins and your works, and claim only Christ, clinging to Him in faith. That’s how to escape condemnation. But where a person doesn’t do that, where a person comes before God with his own record, his sins and his works, condemnation is the only possible result.

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. If God truly made a plan of salvation that encompassed the whole world, if He truly punished His Son for the sins of all sinners, if He has truly shined the light of Christ into the darkness of the world through the Gospel, that all men might see the path to God, then what a tragedy it is, what an affront to God it is that men don’t want Him for a Savior, don’t want Him for a light. And why don’t they? Because their deeds are evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. No one wants to get caught doing something shameful. And so they do it in the dark, in secret, hidden from the public eye. They hate the light, because the light exposes their shame.

Now, everyone does evil things, by nature. Man’s inclination is only to evil all the time, as God says back in Genesis. But to “practice evil” here, as in John’s epistles, is more than that. “Practicing evil” is choosing to continue doing what is evil, to be committed to it, to embrace it, to not want to be cleansed of it or forgiven for it. Even when such people hear that God is ready to forgive them for Jesus’ sake, they choose to remain in darkness, because they love their sin, and they don’t love the God who loved the world. No, those who practice evil hate the God who loved them. Those who practice evil reject His Law, and His Gospel, and His only-begotten Son.

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. The one who “does the truth” is the one who admits the truth that he has done evil, but who also believes the truth that is Jesus, and trusts that He will wipe away all the shame and disgrace of his sins. That one is born again, as Jesus just got done telling Nicodemus at the beginning of John chapter 3. That one is given the gift of the Holy Spirit. That one strives to walk according to the Spirit. The works he does as a believer “have been done in God,” in connection with His Spirit who works in you to will and to act for His good pleasure. Such works are acceptable in God’s sight, able to be exposed to the light without shame, because God Himself is responsible for them.

God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Know that verse. Know it, believe it, and cling to it. Praise the God who loved the world and planned its salvation, and praise His Holy Spirit for calling you through the Gospel to believe in the Father’s only-begotten Son, that you should not perish, but have everlasting life. Amen.

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Know the Spirit by what He does

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-41 + John 14:23-31

Today we give thanks to God for fulfilling His promise to send the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples. Now, whenever we talk about the Holy Spirit, things seem to get a little fuzzy, don’t they? It’s hard for us human beings to understand the Person of the Holy Spirit. We can picture a Father easily enough. We can picture Jesus as the Son of God. But how do you picture a spirit, much less THE Spirit of the Creator God? He appeared once in the form of a dove at Jesus Baptism, but that doesn’t really help. The Spirit isn’t a bird. He’s more like the wind, which is what the word “spirit” actually means—“wind” or “breath.” So, like the wind, we know the Holy Spirit, not by how He appears, but by what He does, by the effects He has on the things He touches. Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard Jesus talk about the Spirit, how He will convict the world when He comes. That’s one of those effects of His work. In today’s Gospel, we hear of that, and of another effect the Spirit will have, on Jesus’ disciples: He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things I have said to you. We see both of those effects in today’s account from the Day of Pentecost. And so we come to know the Spirit by what He does.

What do we see the Spirit doing in the first part of the Pentecost Gospel? Well, we see three miraculous signs.

There was the sound of the loud, rushing wind. Only the sound of it, not an actual gust that toppled trees or tables; the Spirit isn’t blowing air. But that sound of a powerful wind pointed to the arrival of the powerful Spirit whose name means “wind.”

Then there were the tongues as of fire that divided and rested on the heads of Jesus’ disciples. That makes us think of the burning bush that Moses saw long ago on Mt. Sinai, the bush that didn’t burn up but that signaled the presence of the LORD God. Fire also points to the burning lamps in one of Jesus’ parables, signifying living faith. The fact that it took the shape of tongues that rested on the apostles points to the fact that the Spirit works through human language, through the preaching of those men, and would move through the earth like wildfire, wherever the Gospel would be preached.

Finally, the apostles suddenly started speaking the praises of God in foreign tongues which they had never learned, in the languages of the people who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, or “Pentecost”—Jews and converts to Judaism who lived in all the countries surrounding Israel and had journeyed to Jerusalem, as the Law of Moses required. That miraculous speech was the work of the Holy Spirit, teaching us that the Spirit of God intends to call people from every nation, land, and language to hear and believe the Gospel of Christ, starting with the Jews, but then moving on to everyone else. There are no language barriers, race barriers, or ancestry barriers to the Gospel. All are included. All are invited, to be saved through Christ, and through Christ alone, as Peter would preach in his Pentecost sermon.

But first, notice another effect of the Holy Spirit’s arrival. Notice what He did, not only among Jesus’ disciples, but among the crowds in Jerusalem. He used the three miraculous signs to draw their attention to the disciples, to hear the Word of God being preached by those disciples. The Spirit works in the world, not to ramp up people’s emotions, or to whisper truth into their ears, but to draw people to the preaching of the Word of Christ.

Now let’s focus on that preaching, where, first, we see what the Holy Spirit did with Peter himself. Remember, Jesus promised His apostles that the Spirit would teach them all things and bring to their remembrance all the things He had said to them. That’s how the Evangelists were later able to write down the words, actions, and teachings of Jesus with perfect accuracy, through the inspiration of the Spirit—the same inspiration that drove the Old Testament prophets to write down the very words of God. On the Day of Pentecost, it was this work of the Spirit that enabled Peter to put together, on the spot, that perfectly worded sermon and to be able to preach it with power to a crowd of total strangers.

First, he cites the prophecy from the prophet Joel, which foretold this special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God had always been active in the world, but this was something special. In the last days, says God, I will pour out of My Spirit on My menservants and on My maidservants, and they shall prophesy. Notice that the Day of Pentecost marks the beginning of “the last days,” the last era of history which began on that day and lasts up to the coming of Christ and the end of the world, when, as Joel says, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. Throughout this whole New Testament period, the Spirit works through the preaching of the Gospel, convincing people to call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved.

Then Peter connects the name of the Lord with that Man named Jesus. He reminds the crowds, many of whom had also been there two months earlier for the Passover, how Jesus was attested by God through all the miracles that He did, and yet was also delivered up to death—”by God’s purpose and foreknowledge,” on the one hand, but “by your lawless hands,” on the other. In other words, God had always planned for Jesus to die on the cross, but that didn’t remove the guilt from those who wickedly crucified Him for their own wicked reasons.

But He didn’t remain dead. Peter goes on to prove from the Spirit-inspired words of the Old Testament Scriptures that the Christ, the Son of David, would not only die, but would also rise from the dead. His resurrection was foretold in that Psalm that Peter quoted, You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. And now, not only has God the Father raised Jesus from the dead; He has also exalted Him and seated Him at the right hand of God, from where He has now poured out His Spirit on His believers, from where He now reigns over all things.

And then comes the climax: Know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now, no one could see the Holy Spirit for even moment as that sermon was being preached. No one could “feel” the Holy Spirit moving through the air. Even the outward signs had stopped by that point. But you know the Spirit by what He does, and what He did through that preaching says it all. It says that those who heard Peter’s sermon were cut to the heart. That is, they took Peter’s words and Peter’s rebuke to heart. That’s contrition. That’s sorrow over sin, combined with fear. That’s conviction and the sting of a rebuke that hits home. Which is exactly the work Jesus said the Spirit would do: He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

In their Spirit-worked contrition, the people then asked, Men, brothers, what shall we do? Peter answered, 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. And, as you heard, some 3,000 people did repent that day, by the working of the Holy Spirit, and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

Now, we’re not told if any of those 3,000 spoke in tongues when they were baptized. They may have. But that wasn’t the main gift of the Spirit that Peter was referring to. The chief gifts of the Spirit are faith and love, peace and joy, patience and perseverance, and the indwelling presence of God, and the understanding of His Word, and the guidance of the New Man that has been created in the believer, to love God and His Word, and to walk in the way of His commandments. None of these gifts of the Spirit are perfected in this life. But where the Spirit is, there will certainly be a beginning of all these things, and an ongoing growth in all of them, too.

So, where you see these things, in combination with the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, know that the Spirit is present. Where the Gospel of Christ is preached, calling sinners to repentance and faith and baptism, there the Spirit is present. Where there is Christian faith and love, there the Spirit is present. Where there is Christian patience and perseverance, there the Spirit is present. Where there is boldness to confess Christ and a willingness to bear the cross for His sake, there the Spirit is present. Where Christ reigns as King in a person’s heart, there the Spirit is present. And where the Spirit is, there is hope. There is joy. And there is life. Amen.

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A prophecy of justification & sanctification for Israel

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Easter 6

Ezekiel 36:25-27

Israel’s return from captivity in Babylon is prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 36. God promises to return them to their land. But He promises to do much more for them than that. This chapter points to some literal fulfillments, but mostly to spiritual fulfillments, talking about sin, and grace, the expansion of Israel in the New Testament era, and all the way into the perfection that awaits after the Day of Judgment. Here, in the three short verses before us, God’s plan is revealed—His plan to turn Israel, finally, into the people they were always meant to be. His plan to justify them, and to sanctify them, by His Son and by His Spirit.

The Son of God, the promised Messiah, is not specifically mentioned in Ezekiel’s words. But He’s there beneath verse 25, together with the Spirit of God: Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. The whole picture of sprinkling unclean people with clean water in order to cleanse them comes from the Law of Moses. That’s how a ceremonially unclean person was to be ceremonially cleansed. If, for example, a person touched a dead body, the Law considered that person ceremonially unclean until he was sprinkled with the water of purification. And if a person wasn’t sprinkled with that water and tried to approach God’s tabernacle in his unclean state, he was to be cut off from Israel, permanently excluded from the people of God.

If touching a dead body made a person ceremonially unclean before God, how much more did idolatry make a person truly unclean! There’s nothing morally, inherently wrong with touching a dead body. That was a ceremonial picture God used to teach Israel about uncleanness. The true uncleanness that makes a person unable to stand in God’s presence is sin, and idolatry is the chief sin from which all other sins flow. And the Israelites had been guilty of it in spades. So the people didn’t only need to be purified for ceremonial purposes. They needed the forgiveness of sins.

That forgiveness could only be purchased through a true atoning sacrifice. Not by the ceremonial sacrifices of animals, but by the actual sacrifice of the Substitute that was worth the lives of every sinner. Only the sacrifice of the Son of God could actually atone for their sins.

And only the preaching of the Gospel and the purifying waters of Holy Baptism could apply Christ’s atoning blood to those who needed God’s forgiveness. As the writer to the Hebrews says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. That pure water that actually cleanses our consciences is the water connected to God’s promise, He who believes and is baptized will be saved.

So Ezekiel’s words are a prophecy both of the sacrificial death of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit’s working, through the Word and through the water of Baptism, to cleanse the Israelites—and all people! —of their idolatry, and of all their sins. It was a prophecy of justification, which would be brought about by the Son of God and by the Spirit of God. Not the justification of the whole nation of Israel, but of those in Israel who would be brought to faith in Christ Jesus. Not of believing Israelites only, but of all sinners who would hear and believe in God’s promise of justification through faith in the Lord Jesus.

That’s what the next verse is talking about: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Israel’s old heart, and your heart and my heart by nature, was made of stone. It didn’t listen to God’s word. It was determined to believe what it wanted to believe, to worship how it wanted to worship, and to pursue every sinful pleasure and every prideful thought. But God promised Israel that He would give them a new heart and a new spirit. Not magically, not by zapping it into them, but through the preaching of His Word, of His Law and His Gospel, He would bring them to repent of their idolatries and all their stubborn rebellion, and to become new people, with new desires, and with a new love—a love for the God who gave His only-begotten Son into death for their sins. In other words, He would create a new man within them.

And that new man who would be created in them would no longer walk according to the flesh, would no longer turn to idols for help, or ignore God’s word and God’s commandments, but would truly love the Lord, love His word, and be eager to walk according to His commandments, as we see in the third verse of tonight’s lesson: I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. What Ezekiel is describing here is what we usually refer to as sanctification, the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work of turning believers into people who lead holy lives, who walk according to God’s commandments. Sanctification always begins simultaneously with justification, and it must continue throughout a person’s life. If it doesn’t, if you don’t want to walk in God’s statutes, if you don’t struggle against the Old Man and his evil desires, if the Spirit of God is not working within you to keep God’s commandments, then you don’t have justifying faith, either. But if you now view sin as something detestable, because God Himself detests it, that’s the work of God’s Spirit within you. If you are determined to please God and not yourself, that’s the work of God’s Spirit within you. If you love the word of God and are eager to submit to it, even though your flesh pushes back against you, that’s the work of God’s Spirit within you.

Again, this is not a promise that every Israelite would be justified and sanctified. Those who didn’t want God’s Spirit dwelling in them would not be forced to become temples of the Holy Spirit, just as those who didn’t want to be baptized wouldn’t be forced into Baptism. What we have here in Ezekiel is a gracious Gospel promise that would be extended to Israel, and beyond Israel, in connection with the coming Christ. It’s a promise of spiritual deliverance of those who were once bound in sin, and of Spirit-worked godliness in those who formerly were ungodly and idolatrous.

And it’s important to notice who is in charge of all this. It’s not you, or I. It’s God who does it to you and for you. It’s God who justifies, on the basis of Christ’s atoning sacrifice. It’s God’s Spirit who converts unbelievers and changes them into believers, who takes sinners and turns them into saints. As for those who remain unconverted and unbelieving, they have only themselves to blame. Because, as Ezekiel prophesies in tonight’s reading, God offered purification and a new spirit to everyone, on the basis of Christ’s atonement, which would also be for everyone. Don’t let God’s promise pass you by! Embrace it, and rejoice in it, in God’s plan to justify you and to sanctify you, by His Son and by His Spirit. Amen.

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