The fate of those who reject the Christ

Posted on August 9, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 10

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 + Luke 19:41-48

On this day in the Church Year, the Church remembers the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, prophesied by Jesus some 40 years before it happened. Why do we remember it every year? First, because the prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction is recorded for us in the Word of God, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit—here in today’s Gospel, and in other passages, too. God wanted all future generations of His people to remember it.

We remember it, neither to gloat nor to mourn, nor to call for perpetual hatred of or violence toward the Jews. No, we remember it, that we may learn from it, not to repeat Jerusalem’s grave mistake. As we heard in last week’s Epistle, this is the reason why God had much of Old Testament Israel’s history recorded for us, so that we might learn from it, learn from their tragic examples of rebellion and apostasy, so that history doesn’t repeat itself among God’s chosen people today, that is, among His Christians. We remember Jerusalem’s destruction to learn this enduring lesson: This is always the fate of those who reject the Christ.

As Jesus drew near, he looked at the city and wept over it. You may recall that this drawing near to the city of Jerusalem is taking place on Palm Sunday, at the same time Jesus is riding into the city on a donkey to songs of praise, with people waving their palm branches in celebration of His arrival. It’s the beginning of Holy Week, which, tragically, marks the beginning of the end for the city that’s about to crucify its Christ.

Seeing the city’s tragic future, Jesus wept over it. He knew that the praise He was receiving from the crowds on that day would soon turn to silence, and then to cries of “Crucify Him!” He knew that, except for a few faithful followers, the people of the city would reject Him as the Christ, not only on Good Friday, but in the decades after Good Friday, even after the apostles would preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all who would believe. His tears for the city, shed on Palm Sunday, show us that, even though God knew this would happen, it’s not what He wanted to happen, not what He caused to happen. God wants all men to be saved and to come to repentance. That included first century Jerusalem. And the knowledge that the city would refuse to repent and be saved through Him filled the Lord with sadness.

He said, If only you knew, yes, on this very day—your day!—what would make for your peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. What would make for their peace? Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the Psalm says. How could Jerusalem have had peace? Actually, Jerusalem could have had it all—earthly peace and heavenly peace, peace with God and peace with men. It was all there in the covenant God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai, where He promised to give them perpetual victory over all their enemies, freedom from sickness and disease, freedom from famine, freedom from oppression, a long life, and His own favor—if they had kept His covenant, if they had followed all His laws and statutes, from the heart, and most of all, if they had welcomed the Christ when He came to establish a new and better covenant with them, a covenant in His own blood, a covenant of forgiveness, a covenant of peace.

Why was it “hidden from their eyes”? Because they didn’t want to see it, they didn’t want to believe it, that this Jesus was the Messiah God had promised, that He was the Lamb of God who would take away their sins and shelter them from the coming wrath. They refused to believe that they deserved God’s wrath, just like their forefathers at the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who boasted, “We have the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord is here! Nothing bad can happen to Jerusalem! We’re safe!”

But they weren’t safe. They weren’t safe in Jeremiah’s day, when the Babylonians came in and destroyed the first temple. Nor would they be safe later on in the first century, when the Romans would come in and destroy their temple and their city.

Jesus describes that coming destruction: For the days will come upon you when your enemies put up an embankment around you and surround you and besiege you on every side. And they will raze you to the ground, you and your children within you; and they will not leave one stone upon another within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. Here Jesus reveals, once again, that He and the God of the Old Testament are one. It’s not as if the God of the Old Testament was vengeful, while the Jesus of the New Testament was soft and forgiving toward the impenitent. God has a reliable record of punishing and destroying the wicked who refuse to repent, who put their trust in other gods and commit spiritual adultery with them.

So all the voices today that refer to the modern Israelis and Jews who reject Christ as, “God’s chosen people! God’s chosen people!” are lying voices, demonic voices. Israel was that, was God’s chosen people. But chosen for what? Chosen to be the people to whom God would reveal Himself, which He did, throughout the Old Testament. Chosen to trust in Him as their only God, and to keep His covenant, which they didn’t. Chosen to be the ancestors of Christ, according to the flesh, which they were. Chosen to receive Him and welcome Him when He came, which they didn’t. Chosen to be ground zero for the expansion of the Church to include all the “goyim,” all the Gentiles, all the nations who would receive the Christ and would thereby become part of the Holy Christian Church. As John says, the Son of God came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But, he goes on, to those who did receive Him, who believe in His name, to them He gave the right to become children of God, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So the “people of God,” or the “chosen people of God” are those who receive Jesus, the Christ, not those who reject Him. The fate of those who reject the Christ is always the same, and will always be the same: destruction, and condemnation. Because sin condemns us all, and Christ is the only solution God has provided to wash away our sin and to make us acceptable again to God. And it doesn’t matter who your ancestors were. It doesn’t matter what traditions you’ve received or practice. It doesn’t matter if you were once baptized, or once trusted in Jesus the Christ and once listened to His Word. If you reject Him now, if you reject Him even now as He comes to you in His Word to warn you about what happens to those who reject Him, then your condemnation will be deserved, as was the condemnation of Jerusalem in the first century AD.

But here’s a question that deserves our attention: What did Jesus do with the knowledge that the Jews were going to reject Him? Our Gospel continues: And he went into the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” He goes to the temple, not to destroy it yet, not to drive all the people out, but to drive out those who were defeating the purpose of the temple. And He had every right to do it, because that temple belonged to Him. He was the God who commanded it to be built. He was the God to whom that very temple had been dedicated, and who had given it its purpose, which was not to conduct business in, which was not to create noise so that no one could pray. It was to be a house of prayer, a house of teaching about God, a house of sacrifice, a house that was intended to symbolize the coming Christ Himself. The temple was always a shadow, pointing to Christ.

And so He cleansed it of the things that didn’t belong there, and then it says that he taught daily in the temple. And the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men of the people were looking to kill him, but they could not find a way to do it, for all the people were hanging on his words. Five more days before the crucifixion. One last chance to teach, to correct, to rebuke those who were in error, to comfort those who repented. The temple was not for business, or for entertainment, but for teaching.

And so, through His Church and through the ministry that He has instituted, the Lord Christ continues to teach in the world, exposing the sins of all mankind, calling all men to repent, revealing the grace of God that sent His only-begotten Son into the flesh, to redeem mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Through faith in Christ Jesus, God offers forgiveness, life, and salvation to the world, not because of anything we have done, but purely by His grace. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But for those who are and remain outside of Him, there is only condemnation. The fate of those who reject the Christ now will be the same as that of Jerusalem in the first century. May God grant that all who are now believers in Christ may cling to Him in faith until the end. And may God also grant that many who now reject Him may be brought out of their darkness and into the light of Christ, into the safety of those who are marked by the blood of the Lamb. Amen.

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The kingdom is yours, so it’s ok to part with some things

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Trinity 9

Luke 12:32-40

Do not fear, little flock, said the Good Shepherd to His little band of disciples. “Little flock.” Because, even though multitudes may follow Jesus outwardly, the true Church has always been just a remnant, a little, leftover group, despised by the world, because they are not of the world. They are “the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd,” as Luther put it in the Smalcald Articles. He goes on to explain in the Large Catechism that, when we confess the Third Article of the Creed, “I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,” what we’re really confessing is this: “I believe that there is upon earth a little holy group and congregation of pure saints, under one head, even Christ. This group is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, one mind, and understanding, with many different gifts, yet agreeing in love, without sects or schisms. I am also a part and member of this same group, a sharer and joint owner of all the goods it possesses. I am brought to it and incorporated into it by the Holy Spirit through having heard and continuing to hear God’s Word, which is the beginning of entering it.”

And so, in these words, Jesus speaks to His little Church, and He says, “Do not fear,” which could also be translated, “Be no longer afraid.” No longer afraid of what? In context, afraid of not having enough, afraid of losing your temporal possessions, so that you are left with nothing.

Why should we not fear? For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. As Paul puts it to the Corinthian Christians, All things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come—all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Because you have Christ, you have all things. That doesn’t mean all things are already in your possession, or that you get to enjoy it all during this short life on earth. But, as Peter says, the kingdom, the inheritance, is already reserved in heaven for you.

And, already now, you, the little flock of Christ, do possess God’s favor for Jesus’ sake. You have the forgiveness of sins. You have eternal life. You have God’s promise to provide for all your earthly needs (your daily bread) and to preserve you through temptation, hardship, and the cross. In His good pleasure, the Father has chosen to give you all that into your hand right now, to be followed by everything else, coming soon.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to part with some of those things for a little while here and now. Sell what you have, Jesus says, and give alms. The word “alms” actually comes from the Greek word that Luke uses here, which means “a gift of mercy,” or “of charity.” This isn’t a command of the Law to sell everything you own and then go live in a commune or a monastery. It’s permission and the freedom of the Gospel to part with some of what you own, without fear or worry, in order to transform it into mercy, kindness, and charity toward your neighbor, and toward your fellow Christian. “What if I can’t afford to part with it?” Well, of course you can! You’re about to inherit the whole kingdom!

Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Everything you give away here, for the good of another, is like a deposit into your heavenly reward. You don’t lose what you give away. You double it, in a sense, because it helps your neighbor here and it increases what you’ll have waiting for you in heaven, where nothing runs out, nothing is used up, nothing is stolen, and nothing falls apart.

That means you don’t have to hold onto anything too tightly here. That includes house, job, possessions, your pets, even your family. You know what else it includes? Your country. Your rights. Your power over society and what society does. It’ll all be gone soon. That doesn’t mean these things aren’t important. It means other things are more important, because the only thing that truly lasts is the thing you give away. It’s impossible to give away too much, when all things are already yours. Because you have Christ, and you’ll have Him forever, along with every good thing you can possibly imagine. In the words of the Psalm, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen.

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Make lasting friends for yourself with God’s wealth

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 9

1 Corinthians 10:6-13 + Luke 16:1-9

In today’s Epistle, Paul presented part of the tragic history of the Old Testament Israelites, how time and time again they became arrogant before God, thought they could defy Him without consequence, because they were His chosen people. They learned the hard way that you can’t. There will be consequences for defying God, and they may be deadly. And just because you were once baptized, and you call yourself a Christian, doesn’t mean that God will put up with your stubborn defiance forever. Paul presented that lesson to the Corinthian Christians, because they were beginning to grow arrogant and defiant toward God, and he wanted them to learn from Israel’s example before it was too late, so that they wouldn’t experience a similar end.

But he didn’t stop with the warning. He went on to assure those Christians of God’s own faithfulness in helping them to bear up under whatever temptation or hardship they faced. He wasn’t about to leave them on their own to deal with their troubles. Because they were His baptized children, His chosen people, redeemed by the blood of Christ.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a similar warning, and some godly counsel, for the children of God, the “sons of the light,” as He calls them. But instead of using an example from God’s people in the Old Testament, He uses the example of a secular steward, basically an accountant working for the wealthy owner of an estate, who learned a valuable lesson in Jesus’ parable. And if that lesson can be learned by “the sons of this age,” that is, by non-Christians, by those who live only for this life, then it can and must certainly be learned all the more by the sons of the light, who plan on spending eternity with one another. Learn to make lasting friends for yourselves with the resources God has given you to manage.

The steward in Jesus’ parable is sometimes called “shrewd” or “wise” or “clever.” But he didn’t start out that way. He initially carried out his stewardship of his employer’s goods wastefully, negligently, lazily. He wasn’t an outright thief; he just didn’t take his job very seriously. And it showed. He was accused before the rich man of squandering his goods. So the rich man summoned his employee and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer serve as steward.’

The steward has been confronted. And he already shows some basic wisdom. He doesn’t try to defend himself. That would be foolish. He knows the accusations against him are true. He doesn’t make excuses. He doesn’t beg for a second chance. He knows that judgment is coming, and that he has only a little time left before it comes. He’s been given time to put his accounts in order for review. So, instead of relying on his past behavior, he decides to use the little time he has left to do something productive—not for his boss, not for the good of anyone but himself.

The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do? My lord is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, people will welcome me into their homes!’ At that time, if you lost your job, there was no unemployment to collect, no government programs to fall back on. You either found another job, or you were reduced to begging, or starving to death. Well, this steward realized it would be very hard to find another job. He wasn’t fit for manual labor, like digging. He was ashamed to sit on the street and beg for handouts. So he turned his thoughts to winning the favor of people he had a business relationship with, so that they would become his friends and then gladly welcome him into their homes after he lost his job.

What plan did he come up with? Well, you heard what he did. He carefully went through the accounts and looked at the bills that the rich man’s debtors had racked up for themselves. And he went to each one, and cooked the books in each one’s favor, not cancelling their debts entirely, just lowering them enough to make the debtors grateful to him going forward.

You’d think his boss would have been even angry with him. But, surprisingly, the man was commended by his master, because he had finally put his mind to doing something productive with his employer’s wealth—something that would benefit the debtors and thus also benefit himself. How could the owner commend the steward for basically stealing some of his money? Because in this case, the owner was more interested in the character of his steward than he was in the bottom line.

The point of this parable isn’t that accountants should cook the books, or that employees should cheat their employers out of their money. Remember, the characters in this parable represent secular businessmen, not Christians, not even God. Jesus tells us that at the end of the parable. For the sons of this age are wiser toward their own kind than are the sons of the light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that, when you become destitute, they may welcome you into the eternal dwellings. The steward is a “son of this age,” and even he learned how to make friends for himself with the resources at his disposal—in spite of the fact that those resources belonged to someone else. Sadly, tragically, Jesus says that the unbelievers of the world are often quicker to learn that lesson than believers are.

And so He wants His people to learn from the steward in this parable, first, in recognizing our own sin, our own failures, as the steward himself was forced to do. In particular, this Gospel calls you to think carefully about how you have used the resources at your disposal. Nothing you have ultimately belongs to you. It all belongs to God. It takes humility to admit that. You may have worked hard for some of your things, but remember that God is the one who gives you strength to work and who is able either to establish the works of your hands or cause it all to fail. He remains the owner. You are the steward. Of everything. Where you have been negligent with His goods, or careless, where you have failed to think about how you can use those goods to help your fellow Christians, repent, and turn to the Lord Christ again for forgiveness, which is guaranteed to all who repent.

Second, learn from the steward to recognize that the day of judgment is coming, whether it’s your death or whether it’s the Last Day. Once you know that, you can’t just keep going on the way things were. Something drastic has to change. Something urgent has to be done. The money you have, the money that you think is so important, is about to run out anyway. You’re about to become destitute, in the way that the book of Ecclesiastes describes: You came into this world with nothing. Soon you’ll leave it the same way. What will you do with what you have as that day draws nearer? The world’s answer is, “Live it up! Enjoy it! Store it up! Save it for a rainy day!” There’s some wisdom in that, but only to a point. The Owner of all you have has told you not to think only about yourself, and your future, and your needs in this life, but about your fellow Christian, and his future, and his needs in this life, to shrewdly look for ways to help him out.

Third, learn from the steward that your fellow Christian’s favor matters. Having his favor is helpful, for this life and for the next life. And if you can purchase it, that is, if you can acquire it by using your resources to help him or her, then you should! If the sons of this age do it for their own, for self-serving purposes, how much more shouldn’t the sons of the light use the wealth at our disposal to serve our fellow Christians, for selfless purposes, and yet still believing what Jesus says here, that when we become destitute, that is, when our time on earth runs out, those Christian brothers and sisters will gladly welcome us into eternal dwellings, with gratefulness and love in their hearts?

In short, it’s smart to go out of your way to help your fellow Christians, to think about it carefully, how you can be generous toward them, viewing your money, your wealth, your resources, and even that resource that we call “time,” not to spend on yourself, but on others. Jesus teaches us to have a heart for generosity. A heart for faithful stewardship, to be shrewd, to be wise. Look for opportunities to help your neighbor in general, but especially your fellow sons of the light. Think carefully about it, as the steward did in Jesus’ parable, knowing that the time is short, and that soon you will have to give an accounting of your stewardship to the Owner. You’ll have Jesus by your side as your Advocate and Refuge when you make that accounting. But you must still make it your goal to prepare an accounting that you won’t be ashamed of.

Speaking of which, the door offering we’re taking today falls at the perfect time, doesn’t it? It wasn’t planned to coincide with today’s Gospel, but it does fit with it. The Lord supplies some of His people with more, while He provides others with less, for the very purpose of allowing those with more to supply the needs of those with less, while those with less respond with godly gratefulness and favor and maybe a different kind of support in return. In the present case, you Christians who have experienced the grace and mercy of God, who have been baptized into Christ, who have been born again as sons of the light and as heirs of eternal life, have been given a little more, so that you can practice God-pleasing stewardship by lending a hand to a Christian family that will be grateful for it, even after this life is over. And this isn’t the first time this congregation has shown such generosity. May the Lord enable us and inspire us to keep practicing this kind of generosity toward all our fellow Christians, and to open our eyes to their needs, until the day when the Lord Himself welcomes His believing children into His eternal dwellings. Amen.

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From stumbling prophet to a bronze wall

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Trinity 8

Jeremiah 15:19-21 + Acts 20:17-38

This week’s focus, drawn, as usual, from Sunday’s Gospel, is on doctrine—true vs. false—and on the prophets who preach it—true vs. false. In the second lesson this evening, St. Paul warned the elders of Ephesus about false teachers who would come in like wolves, while, on the other hand, he reminded them of his own example, that he had revealed to them the whole counsel of God, in spite of the opposition he had faced, in spite of the sufferings he knew he was about to face. Paul is an example of a prophet or Christian minister who always proved reliable under pressure; we aren’t told of any stumbling in Paul’s ministry. But that’s rare. The Gospels show us Jesus’ twelve apostles often struggling and stumbling. Peter stumbled at least once after the Day of Pentecost, when he was under pressure from certain Judaizers, and Paul had to confront him about it.

When we look back into the Old Testament, we find a few prophets, like Daniel, for example, who were shining examples of steadfastness in the face of opposition. But, again, that was rare. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah—they all stumbled, in one way or another. And so did the prophet Jeremiah.

Not greatly, like David did on a few occasions. But still, Jeremiah began to stumble. Remember when he prophesied, in the years right before God’s patience with Judah ran out, just as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was about to come into Jerusalem and plunder it, over the course of about 20 years, until he finally destroyed the temple and took all the Jews captive. That means that Jeremiah was living during the darkest times Jerusalem had ever seen, or would ever see. He lived in terrible times, when wickedness among those who were supposed to be God’s chosen people was at its height, and when violence and utter destruction were about to sweep in.

But that wasn’t even the worst of it. Jeremiah complains earlier in his book that he saw how the wicked still prospered at that time, and he couldn’t understand why God would allow it. He also saw many false prophets standing against him, every one of them claiming to be true prophets sent by God, every one of them calling Jeremiah a liar, because he was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem. He was calling the people to repentance for their wickedness, while the false prophets were telling the people what they wanted to hear, that God was smiling on them, because He loved them, because they were special. So, as you can imagine, the itching ears of the people of Jerusalem loved those false prophets, while they hated Jeremiah. In fact, they hated him so much that the very people to whom God had sent him to prophesy, came against him, and plotted to kill him. And he began to doubt.

These were the words Jeremiah wrote before the Lord’s reply that you heard in tonight’s Lesson: Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!…Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? O Lord, will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

Now, you have to understand. Jeremiah didn’t go into this prophet thing thinking it would be a bed of roses. The Lord had told him exactly what he would face from the people over the course of what would be a forty-year ministry. But the Lord had also said this: And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.

Well, there you have it, don’t you? The Lord told him both that the people would fight against him and that the Lord would be with him to deliver him. That should have been enough. Any promise from the Lord God should always be enough. But sinful human beings, when we’re confronted with hostility, confronted with threats, confronted with people who lie about us and wish to bring us harm—we often, sinfully, begin to wonder whether the Lord will really prove faithful this time.

Jeremiah spoke the question that you or I may not be brave enough to speak, even if we’re thinking it. Will God be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? Hear the Lord’s response to Jeremiah: Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth.

The accusatory question that Jeremiah dared to ask was a challenge to God, a test, and an unfair one at that. God had been nothing but faithful to His word. Jeremiah had no reason to challenge God’s promise to deliver him. He let his sinful flesh get the better of him. And so God mercifully and gently rebukes him, identifies Jeremiah’s words as worthless, calls upon him to return, that is, to repent and turn away from the doubt and unbelief that had begun to grow in his heart, to turn back to God in faith. And then he calls upon him to be His spokesman again, to be the mouth of the Lord, not the mouth of unbelief, which, in the end, is the mouth of the devil.

They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. The false prophet turns to the people and asks, “What do you want to hear?” The true prophet, on the other hand, turns to God and says, “What do You want me to say?” And then he speaks to the people only what God has commanded, nothing more, and nothing less, whether or not they want to hear it.

If Jeremiah would turn back to God for precious words (and he would), then God would graciously do what He had already promised to do, repeating the promise to Jeremiah: And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

Jeremiah did turn back to the Lord and went on to minister for about three more decades, all of which were full of opposition and hardship and destruction and lamentation. Where did the strength come from for Jeremiah to handle a ministry like that? Only from God and His promise to make him a bronze wall toward the people, beaten and battered, but also indestructible.

This is how St. Paul also characterized his ministry. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

In one way or another, every faithful minister will be characterized like this, with the obstacles sometimes coming from the world, sometimes from his own congregation, sometimes from a church body, sometimes from within. And even the faithful may begin to stumble over those obstacles from time to time. But the Lord graciously calls them back, even as He calls us all back from self-pity, and from the doubts that rise up straight from the pits of hell, to return to the Lord in humility and faith, and to keep bearing the cross until God says, “That’s enough.” The faithful minister, the true prophet, will hear God’s promises again, and be lifted up from his sinful stumbling, and made again into a bronze wall, able to withstand the assaults of Satan and every evil, from every direction, until the Lord decides that his ministry has been completed.

This brings us back to Sunday’s warning: Watch out for false prophets. Suffering and hardships are not the infallible sign of a true prophet, but great popularity, success, and little opposition are almost always signs that a prophet is false. And what is true for prophets is true, to some degree, for Christians in general: a cross-less life is not a Christian life, because such a life doesn’t resemble the life of Christ, our Teacher and Lord. But with the cross always comes the Lord’s promise to be with you, and to help you bear it, and, if necessary, to make you, too, into a bronze wall, against whom even the gates of hell will not be able to prevail. Soon, soon the time for ministry, and for cross-bearing, will be over for all God’s children, and the time for resting will begin! Until then, may the Lord have mercy on us all when we begin to stumble under the cross, and graciously call us back to His service. Amen.

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The Shepherd warns His sheep to watch out for wolves

Posted on July 26, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 8

Romans 8:12-17 + Matthew 7:15-23

You know that the title “pastor” means “shepherd,” and that every pastor is charged with imitating the shepherding of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. That includes feeding the sheep and the lambs, tending to wounds, guiding the way through the desert, seeking the lost and bringing them into the sheepfold. All that is done simply through preaching, teaching, and applying the Word of God. As the apostle Paul commanded Pastor Timothy, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

The shepherd has another task, though, and it’s just as important. The shepherd protects the sheep from the wolves that prowl around and seek to capture and devour them. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, did that in a very direct way by confronting the devil and laying down His life for the sheep as the sacrifice for their sins. That, no pastor can imitate. But we also see the Good Shepherd guarding His sheep against the wolves in today’s Gospel in another way, preparing His sheep for the ongoing attacks they’ll face in this life, equipping them with the skills they need to steer clear of danger. It’s one of the God-given tasks that pastors are to keep carrying out. But that means there is also a God-given task for the sheep to carry out. The pastor, for his part, is to warn his flock about false prophets. And the sheep, for their part, are to take those warnings to heart, so that they can do as Jesus commands them: Watch out for false prophets.

What is a prophet? A prophet is, or claims to be, a spokesman for God, one who interprets Scripture for other people. The Scriptures are full of warnings about the teachers, the pastors, the ministers who claim to be speaking for God but who, in reality, teach things that lead the sheep away from the Good Shepherd, away from the truth, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Now, there is a difference between a teacher and the taught, between the deceiver and the deceived. The deceiver receives a harsher judgment, though neither is entirely safe. Eve allowed Satan to become her teacher in the Garden of Eden and was deceived by the great Deceiver. And although it went worse for Satan, it still went poorly for her. Why? Because she had all the things she needed not to allow herself to be deceived. But she didn’t use the resources at her disposal—the word of God, the rational mind she was given, the husband by her side. Likewise, there are many Christians who have ready access to the Bible and who are able to read and study it in order to shield themselves against the wolves, if they cared to take the time. But many don’t, and so they end up being among the deceived. Because they don’t take Jesus’ command seriously. Watch out for false prophets.

It’s not that these false prophets are easy to spot. It does take effort. It does take time and a willingness to examine them. Because, as Jesus says, they come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They claim to come in the name of Christ, as good Christians. They claim to be correct interpreters of the Scriptures, and will quote the Scriptures. They are often popular and successful, having large followings. They may have charisma and charm, and be genuinely sincere. They may even perform miracles. But you can’t use any of those things to identify the wolves underneath. Why? Because those aren’t the marks of a true prophet, of a true interpreter and preacher of God’s Word.

Jesus says that plainly at the end of today’s Gospel. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in your name did we not prophesy? And in your name did we not cast out demons? And in your name did we not perform many miracles?’ And then I will confess to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’” You see, many who prophesy in Jesus’ name will be damned. Many who perform miracles and even cast out demons will be damned. As for quoting the Scriptures, Satan himself can do that, as he did with Jesus in the wilderness, twisting their true meaning in order to deceive. And false prophets are often depicted in Scripture as having large followings and great popularity, and wealth, and are usually dripping with charm and charisma. Whereas the true prophets of God often lack all those things.

No, not by their charm, or popularity, or wealth, or fame, not by their quoting of Scripture, or by their nice-sounding words, or by their miracles, will you know them. By their fruits you will know them. Do people gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Even so every good tree bears good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

The fruits of a preacher, the things that people seek to pick from the tree and consume from preachers, is their teaching. Of course, we teach both with our words and with our actions. If a prophet speaks the truth but sets a poor example for the flock with his life, he ends up leading them astray by the false teaching of his life. Likewise, if a prophet speaks lies but lives uprightly, he still ends up leading the flock astray by the false teaching of his mouth.

So, how do you go about analyzing the fruits of a prophet? First and foremost, you seek out a grapevine, not a thorn bush. You seek out a fig tree, not a patch of thistles. Why would you go looking for God’s saving truth from a random person on Facebook, or on a podcast? Why would you look for God’s truth from any woman who claims to be a pastor, knowing that, just by calling herself a pastor, she has twisted God’s Word? Why would you go looking for God’s truth from a denomination or synod that has already shown itself to embrace or tolerate false teaching? No, if you’re looking for good spiritual fruit to eat, begin with a man who has a legitimate call from God, through the Church, to interpret the Scriptures for others, to preach and teach and administer the Sacraments, and who isn’t already teaching against the truth by his communion with false teachers.

And then, you test the prophet’s teaching. Test the spirits, says the apostle John, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You see, the false teaching that was beginning to spread in the Church in John’s time, at the end of the first century, was the teaching that Jesus only appeared to be a man, but that He was not true man, that He had no real flesh and blood, because everything material is evil, they said. And so John directs his readers to test the prophets, whether they preached a Christ who was true God and true man, or not. Because a Christ who is not true man could not truly die in man’s place, could not be the Offspring of Eve, or of Abraham, or of David, the promised Savior of mankind.

In our time, the number of false teachings has multiplied beyond measure—teachings that attack the authority and the dependability of the Bible; the Person of Christ; the work of Christ; justification by faith alone; the work of the Holy Spirit; the regenerative, saving power of Baptism; the real presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar; the office of the ministry; the roles of men and women; sexuality and marriage; the proper role of government; and on and on and on. How! How can the present-day followers of Jesus possibly discern who is speaking the whole truth, and who is spreading falsehoods in Jesus’ name?

The Lord Jesus would not and has not left you helpless. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, remains in and with every believer. The Word of God is at your fingertips, all the time, and so is the reliable testimony of the Holy Christian Church in its Creeds and Confessions, which you here have come to acknowledge as faithful and true. I can’t emphasize strongly enough how vital it is for every Christian who is able to read, who is able to listen, and who still has a mind with which to think and reason, to use the resources at your disposal to guard against the wolf.

So read your Bible. Let me say it again. Read your Bible, regularly. Come to Bible class. Use the ministry by which Christ seeks to guard His precious flock. Read and learn the Small Catechism. Read the Confessions of the Church in the Book of Concord. Pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment. Ask your pastor questions—and test his answers by the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. And along with all of that, you must have a willingness to do as Jesus says, to actually apply it to your life, to keep on watching out for false prophets, and to use the tools at your disposal to criticize and analyze everything you hear. And the Lord will be with you, even to the end of the age, to help you sort out the good from the bad, so that you aren’t tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine, but are fully equipped and ready to escape from the wolves and to cling only the word of your Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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