Wisely prepared for a lifetime of waiting

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 27

Isaiah 65:17-19  +  1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  +  Matthew 25:1-13

The Gospels that we read at the end of the Church Year are very pointed, aren’t they? Filled with the sternest of warnings, and with the most beautiful, comforting, joyful pictures in all of the Scriptures, in the same reading, in the very same parable, like the one we had before us last week in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and in the one we have before us today in the parable of the ten virgins.

The kingdom of heaven is the Christian Church, the assembly of the baptized on earth and in heaven. Now, in heaven, the Church is pure and spotless. All those who reach the Church in heaven were true believers in Christ here on earth who persevered in the faith until the end. They overcame all the enemies who fought against them during their earthly lives: the devil, the world, and their own flesh, and they can never fall away, never fall back out of the Church. That’s why we call it the “Church Triumphant.” The Church here on earth, in the broad the sense, at least, is a mixed bag, with true believers and false Christians living side by side, all calling themselves Christians. Here on earth Christians can still be attacked and tempted to turn away from the faith of Christ, and true believers can abandon the faith or become lukewarm and indifferent. We call it the Church Militant, because, here on earth, we’re always fighting and battling, not against flesh and blood, but against the devil and against the threat of falling away.

So Christ issues an earnest warning in today’s Gospel, urging His true believers to keep watch, to prepare for His coming, to expect Him at any time, but to be wisely prepared for a lifetime of waiting.

It’s like ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom and his bride on their march to the wedding hall. The bridegroom is Christ Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom who shed His blood for His Bride, the Church, and cleansed her of her sins with baptismal waters. He pledged Himself to this Bride and promised to come back to get her, so that they could be married in a great spiritual marriage and live side by side together in the heavenly Paradise. The Bride in this parable is the Church Triumphant as it will be in heaven when Christ returns.

But He didn’t say when exactly He was coming. In fact, He intentionally hid the day and the hour of His coming and simply called on His people to wait for Him, and to be ready when He does finally come.

So, who are these ten virgins in the parable? They are individual members of the Church Militant. But they don’t represent all people who call themselves Christians.

There are some called “Christians” who rarely set foot in a church. They’re called Christians because their parents told them that’s what they were, maybe even had them baptized as infants. They think they believe in God. But they don’t care about hearing the word of Christ or receiving the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament, and they certainly aren’t concerned about living their lives in preparation for Christ’s coming. Such people are fooling themselves if they think they’ll enter the wedding hall with the Bridegroom, unless they repent before the Last Day.

There are others called “Christians” who teach and adhere to false doctrines that strike at the heart of the Christian faith, from the pope and his works-righteous, idolatrous, Antichristian doctrines; to the archbishop of Canterbury and liberal “Christians” in America who embrace immorality, twist the Scriptures, and deny that Christ alone saves; to the vapid “Evangelical” emptiness of the how-to-have-a-better-life-on-earth theology. They maintain an outward semblance of Christianity while denying its chief Biblical teachings. And in many cases, they also persecute the true Christian faith and its followers. They live their life for this world, and if they are preparing for Christ to come at all, they’re not awaiting the arrival of the real Jesus, but of a false christ of their own making. They are fooling themselves if they think they’ll enter the wedding hall with the Bridegroom, unless they repent before the Last Day

But the ten virgins in Jesus’ parable are all true believers, true Christians who start out eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Bridegroom, eagerly hoping to be included in the Church Triumphant. They’re baptized. They’re believers. They go out with their lamps to wait for Christ.

But some are foolish, and some are wise. They all have the opportunity to get plenty of oil to last the whole night. Five bring along extra oil. But the other five only bring along what’s already in their lamps.

Without pressing the details of the parable too far—because there’s always one main point Jesus is making and not all the details are relevant—the oil is faith, faith that keeps burning, keeps trusting in Jesus and His mercy, keeps looking to Him for all good things, especially the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

But the Scriptures do not teach the Baptist heresy of “once saved, always saved.” The Scriptures do not teach, “once a believer, always a believer.” What the Scriptures teach is that faith, like a flame, needs to be fed. What the Scriptures teach is that faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the Word of Christ. The ministry of the Word—preaching, teaching, absolution, the Sacrament of the Altar—is the means by which God feeds the faith that God first created.

What the Scriptures also teach is that God has committed Himself to providing all that is necessary for His believers to persevere in faith until the end. He’ll provide His Word and Sacrament, and ministers to administer them. He’ll provide opportunities for prayer and He’ll hear those prayers. He’ll guide and strengthen His people by His Spirit to lead holy lives here on earth. And He’ll help His people to bear up under the cross, to overcome the assaults of Satan and every evil, and to survive all the hardships and suffering that fill this world, all the way up until the day of the Bridegroom’s return.

So what does it look like to be wise in the kingdom of heaven? It looks like the five virgins who were prepared for a whole nighttime—for a whole lifetime—of waiting. The wise Christians use the means of grace as long as they can. They go to church regularly and take advantage of the ministry of the Word as long and as often they can. They learn the Scriptures and study them. They put aside hypocrisy, malice, hatred and bitterness. They fight against the sinful flesh. They live in daily repentance. They pray. They do works of love, according to their own vocations. And they bear the cross with patience. And they teach their children to do the same, although they can’t believe for their children; their children will also have to use the means God has provided for themselves. Their children will also have to prepare for a lifetime of waiting.

The foolish Christians hear Christ’s urgent pleas to prepare and keep watch, but they foolishly don’t listen. They started out well enough. But then they get tired of the uncomfortable Christian life. They get entangled in earthly concerns. They may still go to church, when it’s convenient, but if they miss hearing the preaching of the Word and if they miss the Sacrament for awhile, it really doesn’t bother them anymore; they find no urgency in it. They don’t worry about their sins anymore. Their heart doesn’t long for Christ’s coming anymore. And their faith becomes an empty shell, like an empty oil lamp.

When the Bridegroom comes, those foolish Christians will find out just how foolish they were to squander their time of grace and to allow their faith to flicker and die. They won’t enter heaven with the Church Triumphant. Instead they’ll be locked out forever, with the pagans and with the devil worshipers, with the peaceful Muslims and with the militant ones. Because being a Christian isn’t about following certain traditions or hanging crosses in your house. Being a Christian is a matter of having a living, burning faith in Christ Jesus.

The wise, on the other hand, will finally see the Bridegroom face to face. They will join the wedding procession and become part of the Church Triumphant, and their joy will know no end. Christ will have kept all of His promises, including His promise to come at last to rescue His Church from this dying world. And the faithful will not be disappointed.

Dear Christians, it’s not too late. If you notice that you have started to grow indifferent toward Christ and His Word, if you see that your love for your neighbor has begun to grow cold, if you find that you haven’t been giving much thought at all to the arrival of the Bridegroom, then now is the time to fill your lamps again. Now is the time to receive the absolution, to feed on Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, and to renew your zeal in preparing for eternity.

There are many tools at your disposal. There is plenty of oil yet to be bought. Come to regular services and the special services that are offered throughout the year. The whole season of Advent is especially geared toward helping Christians to be prepared for Christ’s coming. Support the ministry of the Word here with your offerings and with your prayers. Pray often. Come to Bible class. And next week, I’ll be handing out a little booklet with suggested daily Bible readings to get you through the whole Bible. But it will take your own commitment to spend the time at home each day to do it.

The Christian life is not a spectacular, one-time “event.” It’s a slow and steady burn, like the little flame of an oil lamp, marked by a steadfast faith that constantly clings to Christ. Your life on earth, your time of waiting for Christ, may be short, or it may be long. It doesn’t matter. If it’s short, then you will enter the Church Triumphant sooner. If it’s long, then God will provide all the means necessary to keep you safe until He comes. But one of those means is the word of Jesus to you in today’s Gospel: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. So listen to Jesus. Watch, and keep watching. The Bridegroom will come soon enough. And, by watching and using the means God provides, you will be prepared to join the joyful wedding procession into the great heavenly hall. Amen.

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The day of reckoning – the world’s biggest threat

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 26

Isaiah 40:9-11  +  2 Thessalonians 1:3-10  +  Matthew 25:31-46

One of the most basic teachings of the Bible is that this world is heading for certain and unavoidable destruction, that Christ will come again to this earth, that there will be a Day of Judgment, a day of reckoning for all men. The Son of Man will come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory as Judge. On that day, all the terrorists and jihadists of the world will have to appear before Christ. On that day, all the people of all the countries of Europe (including France and Germany) that have almost entirely abandoned the Christian faith, where hundreds of churches and cathedrals now stand empty—never used anymore—, and where the churches that are used have largely turned Christianity into a mockery of itself—they will have to appear before Christ. On that day, the people of America, who, in their quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, have largely abandoned Him who is the Life, have turned liberty into license, and the pursuit of happiness into the pursuit of selfishness—they will have to appear before Christ.

And you and I along with them. So pay attention to the words of the Judge today, while it is day, before the night comes, before the Court convenes. Now is the time to listen and learn, because the day of reckoning is coming.

The day of reckoning is heralded by all sorts of mini-judgments that come upon the world, like we saw in France on Friday. And every single one of those mini-judgments carries with it God’s intended purpose that the rest of the world should wake up—not just wake up to the threat of Islam or the foolishness of recklessly bringing tens of thousands of foreign refugees into your country, but wake up to the reality of your sin, your idolatry, your rejection of God’s Word, your rejection of God’s Son. These mini-judgments all direct our attention to the much greater, much more devastating Final Judgment. They all cry out with a loud voice, the day of reckoning is coming!

On the day of reckoning, when Christ comes, there will be no standing in line before the pearly gates, waiting for St. Peter’s decision on whether to let people into heaven or not. There will be an immediate and final separation of the sheep and the goats. The sheep will get to go into everlasting life. The goats will be cast into everlasting fire. The judgment itself on that day will be over before it begins, because the judgment takes place here and now, in this life, during this time of grace. All people begin their lives under God’s judgment, with a standing condemnation hanging over their heads because of their sin. But now is the time when God sends out ministers of the Word, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins, to baptize people away from condemnation. Now is the time when the Holy Spirit justifies people by faith in Christ, removing the condemnation that was hanging over their heads and bringing them into the safety of the Holy Christian Church.

So what will the Judge be doing on the day of reckoning, if He won’t be deciding people’s fate? According to today’s Gospel, He’ll be publicly declaring the evidence that supports the Judge’s already-made decision.

First, He addresses the sheep, those on His right, the blessed, the saints, the children of God, the believers in Christ, the justified by faith, the true Christians. Did you notice in the Gospel that Jesus didn’t list a single sin committed by the sheep? Why? Is this some special, tiny group of people who were just that perfect that they never did anything wrong, anything sinful? Not at all! What did David say in the famous Psalm? Not, “Blessed is he who has never sinned.” But, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” The sheep are not sinless; they are counted by God as sinless. Their faith—worked in them by the Holy Spirit during their earthly lifetime—was counted to them for righteousness. They “inherit” the kingdom of God. They don’t earn it. They inherit it, because they have been made children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Faith in the blood of Christ, shed for our sins, makes us worthy to stand before the Judge on the day of reckoning without fear and without guilt.

So what does the Judge say about the sheep? He praises them for all the deeds of kindness they have done for their Christian brothers in their times of need. “You fed Me. You clothed Me. You visited Me.” How so? Because Christ dwells by His Spirit in the body of every believer. What Christian parents do for their children, they do for Christ. What Christian children do for their parents, they do for Christ. What church members do for their pastor and for one another, they do for Christ. At least, that’s how He sees it. Jesus looks for these fruits of faith, these deeds of love of all kinds from those who call themselves Christians. And anyone who is a true Christians, who is justified by faith alone, will have an abundance of these deeds of love to be read out loud on the day of reckoning. Christians are not safe from the judgment because of these works. Instead, because Christians are safe from the judgment through a true and living faith in Christ, they do these works. And God, in His grace, accepts them as tokens and testimonies of the faith He has worked and sustained in their hearts by His Spirit, through the Means of Grace.

But what about the goats on His left? Did you notice in the Gospel that the Judge, in listing the evidence that supported His verdict against them, doesn’t even mention all the atrocities people have committed in the world? He doesn’t even bother listing what we consider the most obvious sins—murder and adultery and crime and greed. “You didn’t feed Me. You didn’t clothe Me. You didn’t visit Me.” All sins of omission. Consider how horrifying this judgment is. Forget about the persecutions and the killings of Christians. For not going out of their way to do good to Christ’s holy people here on earth in their time of need, their eternal condemnation is deserved.

What? Could these unbelieving goats have earned their justification by being nicer to Christians? Not at all. Everything that does not come from faith in Christ is sin, as the Bible clearly teaches, and a man is justified, not by works, but only by faith in Christ. But where there is no faith, there are no truly good works, there is no true love. Unbelievers may think of themselves as good and righteous people, but they will all be confronted on the day of reckoning with the harsh reality: from God’s perspective they did no good thing for Him, because they did not believe in Him, and therefore, they did no good thing for His people, either.

The result for the goats will be everlasting fire and condemnation. How tragic! Because that was not God’s original intention for anyone. Jesus says that the everlasting fire of hell was prepared, not for men, but “for the devil and his angels.” God’s intention from the beginning of time was to save the entire human race through faith in Christ, even as He gave Christ into death as the payment for the sins of the whole world. He calls all men by the Gospel to turn from their sins and to believe in Christ. Here we are again today, gathered together around the Word of Christ, humbly seeking refuge under the cross. The whole city is invited to come and hear the Gospel and receive the forgiveness of their sins so that they are prepared for the day of reckoning. Where are they? Why are we so few? Why are solid, orthodox, Gospel-preaching churches almost empty around the world?

Christ gives us the answer in John chapter 3. “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

So what do we do? We keep preaching and hearing the Gospel. We keep living in daily repentance and humility before God. We keep doing the works of love that are fitting for saints. We keep praying that God would grant repentance to those who still live in the darkness of unbelief. And we eagerly await the day of reckoning, because Christ has told us ahead of time what a blessed day it will be for those who are found trusting in Him.

The biggest threat facing this country and this world is not “climate change,” as some people strangely claim. It’s not poverty, not bankruptcy, not even militant Islam. The biggest threat facing this world is the day of reckoning. Christ is coming. He is coming soon. Listen to Him now, and you will be safe on that glorious and dreadful day. Amen.

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Waiting in the mountains for Christ’s return

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 25

Isaiah 49:12-17  +  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

The Apostle Paul took us into the future in today’s Epistle, to what will happen on the Last Day when Jesus returns. He comforts us about our fellow Church members who have fallen asleep in faith. He assures us that they, together with all believers who are living on earth when Christ returns, will be raised to new life and will spend eternity with the Lord Christ. That’s a vision of the future that God always holds before our eyes, so that we’re thinking about it, focusing on it, and drawing comfort from it.

There’s another vision of the future that Jesus holds before our eyes in today’s Gospel, and it’s less pleasant. It’s about certain future events and circumstances leading up to His second coming, and He describes that time as a time of “great tribulation.” But as always, Christ gives us this information and these instructions, not to scare us or worry us, but to help us get through those difficult times, so that we can persevere in faith all the way up to His coming and be included in that joyful number of the elect, being caught up to the sky with Christ and His whole Church of believers on the Last Day. For now, we’re waiting in the mountains for Jesus’ return.

Our Gospel begins with a warning from Jesus about the “abomination of desolation.” An abomination is something disgusting, something that God hates and His true Church should find despicable, deplorable, detestable. This particular abomination is “of desolation.” It lays waste and causes destruction. It “stands in the holy place,” which, at the time of Jesus, was centered in the Temple in Jerusalem. The prophet Daniel had referenced the “abomination of desolation” in his Old Testament book, and Jesus says, Daniel’s prophecy will certainly be fulfilled.

He was referring, first, to the events leading up to Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70. God would give Jerusalem time—about 40 years! — to repent of their rejection of Jesus the Messiah, and of their crime of crucifying the Son of God. But God knew the Jews would not repent, for the most part. And so He would bring His wrath down on the Jews, as He warned them throughout the Old Testament and again through the words of Jesus. God would rain down wrath on Jerusalem, not at the hands of His Christians, but at the hands of the pagan Romans, who came in to squash the Jewish Revolt that took place between 66 and 70 AD. The Jews themselves turned bloody violent against one another, and then against the Romans. The rebellion reached Jerusalem and even the Temple, until eventually the Romans came in and burned it all to the ground.

Jesus told His disciples, when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Jesus warned His Christians about the impending doom of Jerusalem, giving them time to flee after they saw the Jewish Revolt reach the holy place. They were to flee quickly, without looking back. Jesus didn’t call on the Christians to stay and fight for Jerusalem. Even though it had so much history for God’s people, so much significance for the kingdom of heaven leading up to that time, it lost its significance when it finally and permanently rejected Jesus as the Christ. The Christians were not to stay and defend Jerusalem. No, Jesus said. Get out. Leave it. Abandon it. Don’t try to save it. And don’t worry about its history. Don’t worry about it as the place where you grew up, or as the place where your fathers grew up or as the place that God once chose to reveal Himself. As soon as you see the abomination of desolation take its place in the holy place, don’t wait. Get out. Flee. Or you will perish.

Jesus saved His disciples from physical death with that warning, and with Jerusalem’s destruction in A.D. 70, Jerusalem ceased to exist as the Biblical city of God. How strange, then, that modern Americans in the Evangelical camp seem to think the city of Jerusalem or the nation of Israel still has some special connection with God or with the Holy Christian Church. These false-teaching Millennialists or Dispensationalists will say things like, “If you stand against Israel, you stand against God.” Or, “God will bless those who bless Israel.” They’ll make a big deal about the Jewish religion or about Jerusalem, as if it had some Biblical purpose yet to fulfill or some special place in God’s kingdom. It doesn’t. It’s filled today with the same unbelief and the same rejection of Christ, and thus, the same idolatry, as it was in 70 AD. And it stands as a perpetual reminder of the coming judgment against the apostate Christian Church.

That’s the other part of today’s Gospel. Jesus wasn’t just talking about the city of Jerusalem. In the New Testament, the Israel of God is the Christian Church. The City of God, the New Jerusalem, is the Christian Church. The holy place, God’s Temple, is the Christian Church. And from within the Christian Church, according to Scripture, there will come another “abomination of desolation,” the Antichrist, who pretends to be a follower of Christ and a spokesman for Christ, but in reality teaches against Christ and leads many astray, to the point that the outward, Visible Christian Church becomes apostate.

The Roman pope is the most prominent representation of this abomination of desolation. He stands in the Church and pretends to rule over it. He sets up manmade traditions and exalts them above Scripture and above Christ. He robs Christ of His glory and steals it for himself and for others, like Mary and the saints. He robs Christ of His glory by teaching works-righteousness. He sets up a blasphemous sacrifice on the altar of God as he turns the Mass into a re-sacrificing of Christ and as a human work that’s designed to earn God’s favor and make payment for sins, which is why the Lutheran Reformers often referred to the papal Mass as an “abomination.”

When you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Get out! Flee! Don’t try to stay and save Jerusalem! Don’t try to stay and hide out in Jerusalem. And don’t hesitate. Leave.

When Luther and the other Reformers identified the pope and his false doctrines as the Antichrist, they did flee to the mountains; they left the fellowship of the Church of Rome. They left the safety and the comfort of that great and glorious Church. They separated themselves from it and simply preached the Word and administered the Sacraments here and there and wherever they could, without the pope’s consent or approval. Thank God they did! They heeded Christ’s warning.

So have we tried to do, up to this point, too. In our generation, in our time and place, we continue to flee from Rome. We also continue to flee from the Reformed doctrine of Calvin, from the Revivalist doctrine of American Baptists, from the liberal immorality and godlessness of the ELCA, and from the synodicalist sectarianism of the WELS with its official rejection of the chief article of the Christian faith, justification by faith alone in Christ alone. We continue to shun the glory and the pandering of the megachurch and of the “One Big Synod,” as a wise man once referred to it. Here we are in the mountains, as it were, in our tiny congregation, in our little diocese, mourning over the great city perhaps, mourning over the corruption of the Visible Church and over its imminent destruction, but glad and thankful to have escaped. We’re like spiritual fugitives, the Church’s refugees. All of this is part of the “great tribulation” Jesus spoke of.

But that’s just it. Jesus spoke of all this ahead of time, this corruption of the Visible Church, this spreading of idolatry and false doctrine within the walls of the New Testament Jerusalem, and this refugee-lifestyle that Christians in the last times will be forced to live as we flee from the glorious Church with its corruptions and abominations. This is not out of the ordinary. This should not be unexpected. So it must be in the days leading up to Christ’s return. Rejoice as you see Christ’s words being fulfilled all around you!

But also, remain vigilant. There will still be false teachers telling you to go looking for Christ in the desert, in the inner room, in this place or that. There will still be the threat of idolatry all around us and the evil desires of the sin that lives within us, and the temptation to look back with longing at the great city, the glorious Church, with all its history, with all its splendor—and its bigger numbers!, where, maybe, some of you even grew up and enjoyed all the nice things the glorious Church has to offer. And we can’t grow comfortable or overly secure here, either, in our congregation or in our diocese. It’s not as if we’re immune to false doctrine or idolatry. We, too, could allow ourselves to be led astray.

As always, only Christ can save us. Only Christ can help us and fortify us and defend us during this great tribulation, and He promises that He will. For the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Or elsewhere, I will build My Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. He is our mighty fortress. He is the Church’s one foundation, and His Word is our sure and certain guide. His blood shed for our sins, and given to us in His Holy Supper for the forgiveness of our sins will continue to plead for us before the throne of God, keeping us safe from sin, death, and the devil, even in the midst of this great tribulation.

There’s no room for pride here, no room for hatred, no room for self-pity, no room for despair. There’s only room for humility on our part, and for daily repentance, and for devotion to God’s Word and Sacraments, and for thanksgiving, and for loving one another, here in the mountains, as we wait for Jesus to come again, as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, as the Lord gathers all His elect to Himself in the sky on the Day of Resurrection. Let us live for that day. Amen.

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The kind of saints Jesus seeks

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for All Saints’ Day

Revelation 7:2-17  +  Matthew 5:1-12

Dear saints of God, made holy by Holy Baptism and by faith in the holy, precious blood of Christ, and called to lead holy lives here on earth: Today is All Saints’ Day. What does that mean? It means that we take a moment today to praise God for all the saints, for all the Christian believers who have ever lived and have now fallen asleep and entered the Church Triumphant. And we give special thanks today for those saints who were willing to suffer death on account of their faith in Christ—the ultimate witness or testimony to the truth of the Gospel. We call them Martyrs.

We have much in common with the saints who have gone before us. No matter what nationality they are, no matter what language they speak, no matter how much wealth they have, how old they are or what their background may be, all the saints have some common traits and characteristics, and they’re set forth for us today by Christ Himself in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, that series of nine short “Blessed” statements. These are the kind of saints Jesus seeks.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. “Blessed” means happy, fortunate, people who are privileged in the sight of God. These are the ones God seeks. These are the ones God smiles upon and the ones to whom God will give entrance into the kingdom of heaven: the poor in spirit. Not sinless people. Not “good people” who have earned a place for themselves in God’s kingdom. But the poor in spirit, those who have nothing to offer God and who are well aware of it. You will not hear from these saints things like, “Well, I’ve lived a pretty good life, so I think I’ll be OK on the Last Day.” No way! It’s a characteristic of the saints that they acknowledge their sins and do not try to earn their way into heaven. Instead, they flee for refuge to Christ and hope to be saved only by trusting in Him who was crucified for them and who paid for their sins with His holy, precious blood. To them and only to them does the kingdom of heaven belong, while all those who are “rich in spirit,” all those who think they have something good of their own to offer to God, are not blessed, but cursed.

Blessed are those who mourn. Everyone on this earth mourns. But not everyone is blessed. Jesus is talking about the mourning of His people, His disciples. And the Scriptures present two main reasons for the mourning of the saints.

First, the saints mourn over their own sins. David in the Psalms or St. Paul in Romans 7 give us some examples of how the saints see how grievously they have sinned against God, how they have not done the good they want to do, but the evil they do not want to do, this they keep on doing. And they don’t excuse it or justify it; instead they mourn over it and seek to be rid of it. They shall be comforted, Jesus says. Comforted here in this life with God’s word of forgiveness, in Baptism, in Holy Communion, in the absolution that releases sinners from the guilt of their sins and reconciles them with God. Comforted also in the next life, when their sinful flesh is finally sloughed off and they are finally free from the sins that so entangle us here in this world.

There’s another kind of mourning of the saints described in Scripture. It’s the mourning caused by the enemies of God’s people, by sin, death, and the devil. David says in Psalm 6, I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. Death is an enemy, as we face our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones. The devil is a ferocious enemy as he attacks us both directly and indirectly, through all the evil that surrounds us in this world. That evil—the evil of injustice, temptation, violence, immorality, and godlessness—torments the souls of the righteous, even as the evil of ancient Sodom tormented Lot’s righteous soul. But here on earth they will be comforted, because here and now the Lord Christ still reigns over the world, holding evil in check and turning it to His good purposes, and then in eternity, all evil will be cast into hell, and the saints will be free from it forever; Christ will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Blessed are the meek. This blessed meekness isn’t a personality trait. St. Peter didn’t have a meek personality, nor did Martin Luther as he pounded those 95 Theses onto the church door in Wittenberg 498 years ago yesterday. Again, this meekness—it’s a spiritual trait. It’s a voluntary gentleness, lowliness, humility. It’s the same word used for how Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, “lowly” and riding on a donkey. It’s the opposite of conceited, the opposite of overbearing, the opposite of selfish or self-seeking. The saints are intentionally lowly, intentionally humble, like Christ Jesus, from the heart looking out for the interests of others ahead of their own. The meek will inherit the earth, Jesus says. These are the kind of saints He seeks for His kingdom.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The saints in Christ’s kingdom here on earth are not apathetic or indifferent to the Gospel. They hunger for it. And they know where righteousness comes from—not from within themselves, but from Christ, the Righteous One—His righteousness which the Holy Spirit applies through the Means of Grace. That means the saints on earth are characterized by eagerly seeking out the Means of Grace. They seek it first in Baptism, and they are filled. They seek it continually in the preaching of the Word of God, and they are filled. They seek it often in the Holy Supper, and they are filled with the righteousness of Christ here on this earth until they fall asleep in death. And when those saints pass over into the Church Triumphant as their bodies are laid in the ground, they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.

Blessed are the merciful. Mercy is an attribute of God. God is merciful. God is moved by man’s misery and wretchedness and neediness. He shows mercy to those who deserve to be punished for their sins. He showed mercy by sending His Son into our flesh and having Him put to death so that sinners could live. Now those who have been brought to faith in the merciful Christ are characterized by mercy, too. God expects it from the saints and will not tolerate it if those who have been shown mercy by Him refuse to show it to their neighbor.

Blessed are the pure in heart. The saints have pure hearts. How did they become pure? “Pure” is the same word in Greek as “clean.” What do we sing after the sermon, quoting Psalm 51? “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” It is God the Holy Spirit who purifies and cleanses the hearts of His saints. He does it through daily repentance on the part of the saints, as they recognize the evil of their heart, confess it, receive forgiveness for it, and then strive, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to get rid of the evil from their hearts. It’s a daily battle for the saints here on earth, but the struggle has an end, and then they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Again, this isn’t referring to political or secular pacifism. Not all those who lobby against war are blessed in the sight of God. But saints, in their daily lives, seek reconciliation wherever possible. Where feelings have been hurt or offense has been given, the saints seek to make it right. They apologize if they’ve sinned against their neighbor and seek to repair what they broke. Or, if they’ve been sinned against, the saints are ready and willing to be reconciled with the guilty party, to forgive those who trespass against them, just as they have been forgiven by God for their trespasses. In this way they are acting like true sons of God, because God is the ultimate peacemaker, who gave His Son into death in order to make peace with His enemies.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. And to this saintly trait Jesus adds a double beatitude, a double blessing: Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Now, being persecuted isn’t a trait. It’s something that is done to you by someone else. What is the trait that God seeks here? It’s the willingness to suffer persecution for Christ’s sake. It’s the steadfast confession of Christ that attracts persecution like a powerful magnet, because the world hates Christ with a passion, and the more Christ is found in the confession of your lips and of your life, the more the world will identify you with Christ and will turn its hatred toward you. It’s part of what we call the blessed cross, the suffering a Christian willingly and patiently endures for the sake of the Gospel. And, contrary to all human reason and logic, the cross is a cause for great rejoicing, because when you bear a cross for the sake of Christ, you are simply following Jesus along the path, and you know where that path ends—not in shame and death, but in glory and resurrection from the dead.

In the eyes of the world, none of these traits is cause for happiness. In the eyes of the world, the saints are the most wretched, pitiful people who have ever lived. But in the eyes of God, the saints are precious. The saints are blessed. All believers in Christ are blessed.

Now maybe, in the picture Jesus has painted for us today of the saints, of the blessed, you have a hard time recognizing some of your Christian loved ones who have died. Maybe you have a hard time recognizing yourself in some of the beatitudes. Here’s something Luther once wrote: This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way; the process is not yet finished, but it has begun; this is not the goal, but it is the road; at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified. All the saints on earth are repentant believers in Christ, or else they are not saints. And all believers in Christ strive to grow in all the blessed traits that Jesus described, or else they are not believers in Christ. Jesus genuinely seeks these traits in His people, but He also is the one who sends His Spirit and who works through His Spirit, through His Means of Grace, to create these traits in you, even as He has given you new birth through the Word. Even today, through these words from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is molding you, His saints, into the kind of saints He seeks. What was lacking in the believers who have died has now been perfectly fulfilled in Paradise. What is still lacking in you, God will continue to fulfill as long as you live on this earth, until you join that blessed cloud of witnesses in the Church Triumphant. Amen.

 

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An angel proclaiming the everlasting Gospel

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Second Sermon for Reformation Sunday 2015

Revelation 14:6-7  +  Matthew 11:12-15

This morning in Las Cruces we focused on the Gospel for Reformation Sunday. This afternoon we turn to the Epistle from Revelation chapter 14. This Epistle for Reformation Sunday was chosen for a reason. It was chosen because the early Lutherans of the 16th and 17th centuries saw God’s Word being fulfilled before their eyes. They read the words of John’s prophecy about that angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach, and they saw a special fulfillment of those words in the preaching of Martin Luther. Why?

Luther was no angel, not in the literal sense. He was just a man who lived 500 years ago. But that man, like all pastors and priests of God’s Church, was called and ordained to the office of the Holy Ministry. And in the figurative, symbolic language of Revelation, pastors and teachers of the Church are referred to as “angels,” God’s chosen messengers. For example, Jesus instructed John to write seven letters to the seven “angels,” or pastors, of the seven churches. So this angel in Revelation 14 appears to be a symbol of a notable teacher in the Christian Church.

And the timing—the timing of this angel’s appearance is important. In the chapter before, Revelation 13, John had described the coming of the two beasts—the beast from the sea and the beast from the earth, a secular Antichrist and an ecclesiastical Antichrist (an Antichrist within the Christian Church). The secular Antichrist appears to be a reference to the Roman Empire that persecuted and killed Christians. Rome’s opposition to Christians was open and public.

The ecclesiastical Antichrist comes in secret. He pretends to be Christ, but his words come from the dragon, the devil. He sits as lord of the Christian Church on earth, and also has political power. He insists on being worshiped as God, and he puts his own word above the Word of God. And he has his throne in Rome.

Now, what was going on at the time of Luther? The pope in Rome was selling indulgences, so that people could purchase the forgiveness of sins with money. He claimed to be the Vicar of Christ on earth—the lord and master of all Christians. He set up human traditions in the Church and taught Christians to earn God’s favor by following those traditions. He insisted that Christians pray to the saints and look to them for help. He taught that Jesus didn’t pay for all sins with His holy precious blood, but that sinners have to work off some of their own sins, both here on earth and in the purgatory that he invented. And he took the Mass, where God gives us the body and blood of His Son for the forgiveness of our sins, and turned it into a good work that we have to perform in order to earn the forgiveness of sins.

Martin Luther helped to unmask the Roman Antichrist. He saw how the Roman Pope fits the Biblical description of the Antichrist, how the pope had tried to silence the voice of the Gospel that proclaims faith alone in Christ as the only way for sinners to be justified before God. So Luther studied the Scriptures. He found the Gospel there, the Gospel that proclaims salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, for the sake of Christ alone. And he spoke up and he spoke out loudly, like an angel flying in the midst of heaven, publicly and boldly proclaiming the everlasting Gospel.

And Luther’s simple Gospel proclamation, his restoration of the truth of Holy Scripture, has now gone out to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, so that men are without excuse. The Antichrist, the Roman Pope, held people captive for long enough with his false doctrine. Now the truth of Christ and His Gospel is plain to all, and yet so many still cling to Antichrist and his lies.

Fear God and give glory to Him, Luther proclaimed, for the hour of His judgment has come. Don’t fear the pope. Don’t fear councils and Cardinals. Fear God! And don’t give glory to man or to the Virgin Mary or to sleeping saints. Give glory to God, whose grace alone moved Him to send His Son into the world, to suffer and die and to pay the penalty for all our sins. Give glory to God, who raised His Son back to life for our justification. Give glory to God, who sends His Holy Spirit to turn us from unbelief to faith, and who justifies us by faith alone in Christ.

Whether or not God had Luther specifically in mind with that “angel flying in the midst of heaven,” the everlasting Gospel has reached your ears, and Martin Luther was certainly one instrument, one angel of God among many who caused that to happen. Rejoice in the Gospel today and give thanks to God that He has opened your eyes to see through the lies of the Roman Antichrist, so that you have a firm foundation for your faith, now and on the Day of Judgment: Scripture alone, which points to Christ Jesus alone, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for all your sins, and who, by His Spirit, has brought you out of the darkness of unbelief into the glorious light of Christ. Amen.

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