The simple truth of the Trinity

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity

Ezekiel 18:30-32  +  Romans 11:33-36  +  John 3:1-15

The importance of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity cannot be overemphasized.  It is at the heart of the catholic faith, that is, the universal belief of every true Christian.  We just confessed in the Athanasian Creed that This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.  No one can rightly be called a ‘Christian’ who does not believe in the one God who is three divine Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  No one who believes in any other god can be saved.

There are many who do not believe in this God: Atheists and agnostics, who believe in no god at all; Buddhists, Hindus, adherents of native American religions; Muslims and Jews, who do not believe in the Son of God and, therefore, do not believe in the one true God at all; Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not worship the one God in three Persons but have invented their own versions of ‘god.’

Then there are those who believe in the generic ‘American god,’ the ‘Higher Power’ who sometimes resembles the God of Christianity, but has little to do with Biblical revelation.  This American god is represented by institutions like the Boy Scouts of America, who make serving this generic ‘god’ part of their core principles.  Well, maybe you heard what happened this week. The BS of A decided that their generic god permits, and even celebrates homosexuality.  Now openly gay young people are welcome to join.

But there are also any number of Christians who are Christians in name, but who do not believe in the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They may know that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but they don’t trust in Him alone for salvation.  Even the pope falls in this category. Last week he preached a sermon in which he praised the ‘good works’ of atheists.  The very doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church acknowledges Muslims and Jews as the ‘people of God’ who worship the same God we do, and the official catechism of Rome proclaims that unbelievers, too, can be saved.  So much for the Athanasian Creed!

And so much for the words of Jesus.  Our Gospel today is rich in Trinitarian teaching.   It contains all we need to know and believe for our salvation. Maybe you didn’t even notice the references to the Trinity.  Jesus doesn’t lay out doctrinal points one by one.  He just tells us about God, and really, that’s the best way to understand what we can understand about the Trinity.  The word ‘Trinity’ is not in Bible, and as Luther says, the best way to know the God who is Three in One is to speak about Him as He Himself speaks.  We can recite the Athanasian Creed all day long, and it’s helpful to know and review it, but you don’t come to know and trust in God through the Creed. You come to know and trust in Him through His revelation of Himself in Scripture and through the preaching of His Word. To know the Holy Trinity is simply to know God rightly, to know the truth about Him, and to believe in Him as the only True God.

In the Gospel, a ruler of the Pharisees named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” See how he praises Jesus!  But, wait. Why does John tell us that he came at night? Because he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus.  He was a Pharisee—by definition, one of those who sought to merit salvation by keeping the Law. He was interested in Jesus; he thought highly of Jesus and even praised Jesus.  But he didn’t want to be seen with him.  And while Nicodemus apparently believed that Jesus ‘came from God,’ he meant it in the same way that any prophet comes from God.  He didn’t believe that Jesus was the very Son of God who was with the Father before the world was made. He didn’t believe that Jesus was the ‘Word’ by whom all things were made, who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven. He didn’t believe that Jesus was, in very essence, God from God, Light from Light.  Nicodemus is a good example of a man who thinks he believes in Jesus, but doesn’t (yet) believe in Jesus as he must in order to be saved. In other words, he doesn’t confess the Trinity.

Jesus’ reply to Nicodemus reveals Nicodemus’ unbelief.  Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Jesus wasn’t impressed by Nicodemus’ flattery, was he?  He didn’t express a bit of appreciation for it. Can you believe it? Instead, he drives Nicodemus to see his own desperate need—which is where sinners need to start in our understanding of God, not contemplating the mysteries of the Trinity, but contemplating the depths of our own depravity. He tells Nicodemus in so many words, ‘You don’t know God the Father. You cannot come to Him.  Your best works are unacceptable to Him as you are; you are unacceptable to Him as you are.  Man is locked out of God’s kingdom by nature, because men are born sinful and self-centered.  You’re not good enough to see the kingdom of God. The only way to see the kingdom of God is by being born again; the old man must die and a new man must be born.’

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus can only think in an earthly, carnal way.  It sounds like foolishness to him, this ‘new birth,’ this ‘dying and rising,’ this ‘starting over.’ After all, Nicodemus wasn’t a public sinner or a rough character. He had lived a life full of good deeds. Surely they were not to be forgotten!

But Jesus insists, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the 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.”  Ah, so one cannot work his way into God’s kingdom or earn his way into it—because we are sinners, flesh born of flesh, sons and daughters of Adam, whose sin infects us all.  Sinners cannot stand in God’s presence.  The only way to see the kingdom of God is to be reborn into it, to be born again spiritually and grafted into someone better than Adam—a Second Adam—Christ!

But when a person is born, he isn’t doing that.  Someone else is giving birth.  The one being born is passive!  But that means that all our works count for nothing for getting into God’s kingdom.  Well, if I’m not responsible for working my way into God’s kingdom, if I have to be born into it, who’s doing the work? “Born of water and the Spirit.” So God is not only the Father and the ruler of a kingdom. He is also the Spirit who gives rebirth into God’s kingdom.  And He does it in connection, not with works, but with water.  Baptism!  “…baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  God the Holy Spirit gives new birth to sinners in Holy Baptism.  God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit mercifully forgives sinners by means of Holy Baptism and adopts us into His kingdom.

You may say, the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Trinity that I understand the least!  That’s OK.  You don’t have to understand. Just know that when God convicts you of sin through His Word and brings you to repentance, that’s the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, working through Word and Sacrament, is our point of contact with God.  It’s the Spirit of God who works faith in our hearts, who turns us into spiritual descendants of Christ, who grafts us into Christ and who dwells in the hearts of believers.

So far in our Gospel, Jesus has spoken of the kingdom of ‘God,’ talking specifically, not of the Son or the Holy Spirit, but of the Father.  He has also talked about the Spirit as the one who works through means, like Word and water, to bring men into God’s kingdom.  Now Jesus has some words to say about Himself and His place in the Holy Trinity: No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Jesus reveals to Nicodemus just what it means that He ‘came from God.’  Not like an ordinary prophet who received a message from God, but as He who started out up in heaven and came down and was incarnate of the virgin Mary and was made man.  Jesus, unlike His creatures, existed before He was born as a man.  Jesus is God!  He refers to Himself as the Son of Man “who is in heaven.”  But wait. Jesus was standing there in front of Nicodemus.  How can He say that the Son of Man ‘is in heaven’?  How can He be ‘in heaven’ and standing in front of Nicodemus at the same time?  Only God could say such a thing.

And after revealing this amazing truth to Nicodemus, Jesus sums it all up and explains why He, the Son of God, came down from heaven and became the Son of Man in the first place: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. You remember the story of the bronze serpent. The Israelites grumbled and complained against God, and God sent venomous snakes into their camp in the desert to bite them.  They were dying and called out to the Lord for help. So the Lord told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole, so that all who looked up at it were healed of their snakebites and saved.

So also Jesus had to be made in likeness of sin, although He Himself had no sin.  He had to be lifted up on the ‘pole’ of the cross and suffer and die for the sins of all people, so that all sinners might look up to Him in faith, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

This is what it means to know and confess the Trinity.  First, to know yourself as a hopeless and helpless sinner who cannot enter the kingdom of God as you are by nature.  Then, to know that the one true God is the Father who sent His Son, also true God, to become true Man in order that He might die for our sins.  This God sends forth His Spirit, also true God, in Word and Sacrament to convict us of sin, to comfort us with the promise of salvation through faith alone in Christ Jesus, to bring us to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and so to give birth to us again, this time as God’s children and heirs of eternal life.

This knowledge of—this trust in the Holy Trinity is the catholic faith.  Let us give thanks to God for revealing Himself to us as our Savior God who does all things for our salvation, who, by grace alone, permits us to call Him our God, and calls us His children.  And let us confess Him joyfully and confidently before the world, the God who is Three in One and One in Three, the Blessed Holy Trinity.  Amen.

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Lectionary for the Trinity Season 2013

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

These are the historic lectionary readings we will be following at Emmanuel for the Trinity season, as listed in The Lutheran Hymnal. Clicking on the “Day” in the Church Year will open a page with all the Propers displayed for that day.

Date Day First Lesson Epistle Gospel
26-May-13 Holy Trinity Ezk 18:30-32 Rom 11:33-36 Jn 3:1-15
2-Jun-13 Trinity 1 Jer 9:23-24 1 Jn 4:16-21 Lk 16:19-31
9-Jun-13 Trinity 2 Is 25:6-9 1 Jn 3:13-18 Lk 14:16-24
16-Jun-13 Trinity 3 Mic 7:18-20 1 Pet 5:6-11 Lk 15:1-10
23-Jun-13 Trinity 4 Is 58:6-12 Rom 8:18-23 Lk 6:36-42
30-Jun-13 Trinity 5 Jer 16:14-21 1 Pet 3:8-15 Lk 5:1-11
7-Jul-13 Trinity 6 Ex 20:1-17 Rom 6:3-11 Mt 5:20-26
14-Jul-13 Trinity 7 Jer 31:23-25 Rom 6:19-23 Mk 8:1-9
21-Jul-13 Trinity 8 Jer 15:19-21 Rom 8:12-17 Mt 7:15-23
28-Jul-13 Trinity 9 1 Ch 29:10-13 1 Cor 10:6-13 Lk 16:1-9
4-Aug-13 Trinity 10 Jer 7:1-7 1 Cor 12:1-11 Lk 19:41-48
11-Aug-13 Trinity 11 2 Sam 22:21-29 1 Cor 15:1-10 Lk 18:9-14
18-Aug-13 Trinity 12 Is 29:18-19 2 Cor 3:4-11 Mk 7:31-37
25-Aug-13 Trinity 13 Lev 18:1-5 Gal 3:15-22 Lk 10:23-37
1-Sep-13 Trinity 14 Jer 17:13-14 Gal 5:16-24 Lk 17:11-19
8-Sep-13 Trinity 15 Deut 6:4-7 Gal 5:25–6:10 Mt 6:24-34
15-Sep-13 Trinity 16 Deut 32:39-40 Eph 3:13-21 Lk 7:11-17
22-Sep-13 Trinity 17 1 Sam 2:1-10 Eph 4:1-6 Lk 14:1-11
29-Sep-13 St. Michael & All Angels Gen 28:10-22 Rev 12:7-12 Mt 18:1-11
6-Oct-13 Trinity 20 Is 65:1-2 Eph 5:15-21 Mt 22:1-14
13-Oct-13 Trinity 21 Hos 13:14 Eph 6:10-17 Jn 4:46-54
20-Oct-13 Trinity 22 Deut 7:9-11 Phil 1:3-11 Mt 18:21-35
27-Oct-13 Reformation 2 Ch 29:12-19 Rev 14:6-7 Mt 11:12-15
3-Nov-13 Trinity 24 Is 51:9-16 Col 1:9-14 Mt 9:18-26
10-Nov-13 Trinity 25 Is 49:12-17 1 Th 4:13-18 Mt 24:15-28
17-Nov-13 Trinity 26 Is 40:9-11 2 Th 1:3-10 Mt 25:31-46
24-Nov-13 Trinity 27 Is 65:17-19 1 Th 5:1-11 Mt 25:1-13

 

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The new fire of the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Pentecost

Joel 2:28-32  +  Acts 2:1-21  +  John 14:23-31

Pentecost is the feast of the 50th day.  And it’s a feast filled with fire.  It began as an Old Testament feast.  It was 50 days after the children of Israel left the slavery of Egypt that they arrived at Mt. Sinai, where God came down on the mountain in a thick cloud and darkness, with a loud trumpet blast, and with fire that set the whole mountain ablaze.  It would have been an awesome sight.  And over and over again in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the Israelites of how God spoke to them that day from the midst of the fire and gave them His commandments, that they should walk in them and keep them always.  The fire impressed on them that God is a consuming fire, and utterly serious about His commandments. The fire of Sinai blazed fear and dread into the hearts of the people.

Pentecost is also the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks after the Passover, when God commanded Israel to gather, each year, at the sacred altar of His tabernacle (or His temple), on the 50th day and bring, together with their grain offerings, seven lambs, a bull and two rams, to be offered up in fire and flames as a burnt offering, to make atonement for their sins.  The fire of the Feast of Weeks was to emblazon on the hearts of the people the reality that sin brings death.  Someone has to be given over to the fire because of your sins: either the sacrifice that God supplies, or you.

But we, as Christians in the New Testament, celebrate Pentecost differently.  We celebrate Pentecost because the Law of God has been fulfilled by Christ, for us.  We celebrate Pentecost because atonement for all sins has been made by the blood of Christ. We celebrate Pentecost as the feast of the 50th day after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  We celebrate Pentecost as the day on which Jesus fulfilled His promise to send His Holy Spirit from the Father in heaven as a lasting gift to His Church on earth, a gift that has empowered the proclamation of God’s Word since that day until now, and will remain with us until Jesus returns.

This New Testament feast called Pentecost is also a feast filled with fire, but it’s a different kind of fire; the new fire of the Holy Spirit.

When the believers were all gathered together in Jerusalem, ten days after Jesus’ ascension, the Holy Spirit came upon them and made His coming known by signs: the sound of a rushing wind, fire that came down and separated into individual tongues of fire that rested on believers, and the gift of tongues—foreign languages that were miraculously spoken by the believers and understood by the foreigners visiting Jerusalem that day.  But this fire was different than the fire of Sinai and the fire of the Feast of Weeks.  This fire wasn’t sent to frighten people away from God, but to bring comfort to Jesus’ disciples, and understanding, and boldness and power.  This fire wasn’t sent to proclaim the laws of God that show people their sins, but to announce the Gospel of forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus.   This fire wasn’t sent to burn up sacrifices for sin in order to make atonement for the people, but to kindle the fire of faith in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, who is the atonement for the sins of the world, and to kindle the fire of love for God, who gave His Son into death for His enemies. The new fire of Pentecost is the fire of the Holy Spirit.

There are two aspects to the work of the Holy Spirit, two ways in which this fire behaves, and both of them are wrapped up in the fiery Word of God.  “Is not my Word like fire?, declares the Lord.”  That’s why this fire took the form of tongues. That’s why the sign of the Spirit’s coming was the speaking of God’s Word in foreign languages.  The Holy Spirit accompanies the preaching of God’s Word. And God’s Word always carries with it the Holy Spirit.

The two things the Holy Spirit accomplishes through the Word of God are (1) regeneration and (2) renewal; the conversion of unbelievers to faith in Christ, and the strengthening of believers so that they remain in the faith.  And it all goes back to Baptism. Paul says to Titus in chapter 3: God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. He works on unbelievers from the outside, burning His Word into their hearts to convict them of their sin and to drive them to Christ, who died for them, so that they may believe and be baptized and so seek shelter behind His righteousness.  Then, once He’s caused a person to be born again—that is, brought to faith in Jesus and given new life—He begins to work on believers from the inside—still through the same Word and Sacraments, but now as the Person of the Godhead who makes His permanent dwelling in our hearts and works on us and works with us for the remainder of our earthly life. We see both aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work on the Day of Pentecost, and also referred to by Jesus in the Gospel.

Here’s how Jesus put it in the Gospel: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. This love for Jesus—where does it come from?  By nature, we don’t love God.  On the contrary, we hear His Word and we want to run away and hide, like Adam and Eve did when they heard God’s voice in the Garden of Eden.  Why?  Either because we want to be left alone to keep living in our sins, without being bothered by this God and His commandments, or because we think God is a wicked God, an unjust judge, and so we want nothing to do with Him.

But then the Holy Spirit comes in the Word of God and shows us that, no, we are the wicked ones, the loveless ones, the rebellious ones.  God is good; we are not.  He reveals God’s love to us in the Person of Jesus—that, for love of this fallen world, God sent His only-begotten Son into the flesh to suffer and die for us, who were His enemies, in order to become reconciled with us through Christ.  The Holy Spirit is responsible for revealing the love of Christ to us, and the love of the Father who sent Him. It’s that love of God for us that brings us to love Jesus.  That’s the first work of the Holy Spirit in us, to kindle faith in our hearts through the Word, to forgive us our sins, to cause us to be ‘regenerated’ or ‘born again’ as God’s children, who love Jesus, who first loved us.

Then Jesus describes the second work of the Spirit, the work of ‘renewal.’ And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.  This is God’s special gift for those who believe in Him, for those whom He has adopted by faith and Holy Baptism, that God Himself makes His home with us and dwells in us in the Person of His Holy Spirit.  As Paul says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” Or as Peter would announce to the crowds on the day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  As Paul says to the Ephesians, “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Now, what does the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit do for us?  What is this work of renewal that the Holy Spirit does?  Jesus says, These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

See how Jesus describes the work of the Spirit.  First, He is the ‘Helper’ or the ‘Comforter.’  He only comes to those Christians who need help, who need comfort.  And how does He comfort us?  By reminding us of Jesus and of Jesus’ words; by helping us to understand God’s Word, to understand how all the words of Scripture point to Jesus, to understand God’s love for us in Christ and the significance of Jesus’ promises to us.  He comforts us by daily and fully forgiving all sins to all believers in Christ, and by assuring us of God’s love and faithfulness.

Then, as the Spirit dwells in us, He is constantly holding before our eyes the life of Jesus, the holiness of Jesus, first as that which covers our sins and makes us children of God, and second, as the pattern for us Christians to follow.  He renews us in love and molds us into the image of Jesus, so that we can no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.  That living in love, living for Christ, imitating God—it isn’t perfect in this life.  Christians struggle daily against the sin that clings to our flesh.  It’s a renewal that isn’t finished in this life, but it has certainly begun and must increase in us so that we struggle against sin. Where there is a struggle, there is the Spirit!  Where there is no struggle—where we give in to sin and let it rule over us, there the Spirit is not.

Another part of the Holy Spirit’s fire of renewal is that He makes us bold to confess the name of Jesus, and unafraid.  What did Jesus say?  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  God doesn’t remove danger and affliction from our lives.  Instead, His Spirit comforts us and gives us peace and courage to do what is right in the face of wrong, because we have a gracious Father, whose love matters more than life itself.

That was the newfound peace and courage that now filled Peter and the other Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, to stand up and proclaim the name of Christ crucified and risen.

And then, what happened?  It started all over again. The Spirit, working through the Apostles’ words, brought His fire to the crowds in Jerusalem and burned through their stony hearts and kindled faith there, too, so that 3000 were baptized on that day, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins.  And then they, too, received the gift of the indwelling Spirit.  So it is that this new fire of the Spirit spreads like wildfire throughout the earth.  It’s all the Spirit’s doing, from the first kindling of faith through the Word and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, to the continual gift of renewal in believers through the Word and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  Being renewed daily by the Holy Spirit, we lead godly lives and speak God’s Word, according to our vocations, and so the Holy Spirit uses us to call more people into the Church.  It’s a cycle, a process that goes on and on and on.

This is the new fire of the Holy Spirit, and it blazes wherever this Gospel is preached, wherever the Sacraments are rightly administered.  The Spirit brings Christ to us, and with Christ, forgiveness of sins, life, salvation, rebirth, adoption, love, courage, peace in the midst of strife, joy in the midst of sorrow, fearlessness in the face of death—all God’s gifts of grace, and all that we need to make it safely through this life to our heavenly home.  These are the Pentecost gifts for which we give thanks on this feast of the 50th day.  Amen.

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The Church Will Endure the Dragon’s Attacks

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Ezekiel 36:25-27  +  1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

On this Sunday after the Festival of the Ascension, permit me to read a rather long portion of Revelation 12 to you.  There are many figures of speech and images in Revelation that are hard to understand, but there are several images in this section that we can identify with the help of Scripture, including a reference to the ascension of Jesus and the very persecution that Jesus mentioned in the Gospel of His disciples who remain here on earth, who hold to the testimony or the “witness” of Jesus.  As I read from the Revelation of St. John, listen for references to “the woman,” that is, the Church, “the Child” that is born to the woman, that is, Jesus, “the dragon”—Satan and His forces.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Did you notice how these words from Revelation correspond to Jesus’ words in the Gospel?  The devil would persecute the Child of the woman and try to devour Him.  That happened throughout the Old Testament as the devil kept leading Israel astray, to keep the Messiah from being born.  But He was born.  And the devil tried to exterminate Him right away by the hand of King Herod, but the devil failed.  The Child would grow up to offer His life as a sacrifice on the cross and so crush the serpent’s head.  He would rise from the dead victorious and then would be caught up to God and His throne.  So Jesus, after completing His work of redemption, ascended into heaven and is seated on His throne at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.  Meanwhile, the woman, the Church, still here below, is fed and nourished during this New Testament era by the very Spirit of God as He feeds us with Word and Sacrament.

Then the war in heaven is described as the devil, the accuser of God’s children, was cast down, no longer able to accuse believers in Christ before God’s judgment seat, because the blood of the Lamb has paid the price for our sins and the Spirit of God has testified to us about Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He died for us, that He reigns at God’s right hand, that He is the very  Throne of Grace where we find forgiveness, where we flee for refuge and are sheltered from the condemnation that we justly deserve.

So the devil, now cast down to the earth, unable to accuse God’s children in heaven’s courtroom, seeks to devour the woman and her offspring—the Church and her members.  He seeks to separate us from Christ through temptation, through false doctrine and through persecution.  That’s the very persecution that Jesus told His apostles they would face on this earth after He went to the Father.

And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

The Apostles would preach.  They would bear witness; they would testify to Jesus Christ and His once-for-all sacrifice for sin.  They would bear witness of His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, and of the coming judgment of mankind.   He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.  And until Jesus’ return, the testimony of the Apostles will be heard throughout the world and believed by some.  Some will keep the testimony of Jesus, and preachers will be sent to preach His saving name until the Day of Judgment arrives.

And where the testimony of Jesus is, there is the Church, the Bride of Christ. But just as the devil hates Christ, so he also hates the Bride of Christ.  Where the Church is, there the dragon also will be seeking to devour it.  Where the testimony of Jesus is, there will be the cross of persecution.

And notice, it isn’t just persecution from the secular world or from the political realm.  Jesus warns His disciples, They will put you out of the synagogues and think they are serving God when they put you to death.  He isn’t just talking about the Jewish synagogues here.  He’s talking about the false church, the churches that are called “Christian” but that end up persecuting the true Christians and the Christian Gospel.  Luther applied this to the papacy and the monks and Roman priests. They appeared to be the true Church, but they raged against the true Gospel and excommunicated Luther and pastors like him who held to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

You know this happens still today.   The false Church still persecutes the true Church.  The false Church looks big and impressive while the true Church looks battered and weak.  The false Church excommunicates and ridicules and suspends those who preach the truth of Christ, and they actually think they are serving God when they do it.

How can that be?  Because, Jesus says.  These things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  They claim to know the Father. They claim to know Jesus.  But if they knew Jesus, they would repent of their persecution and receive the Word of the Apostles in faith. Christ does not persecute Christ.  The devil persecutes Christ.  The Gospel does not condemn the Gospel.  Satan condemns the Gospel.

But then, remember.  Jesus told His Church about all this ahead of time.  It’s part of His plan, to let the devil do his worst.  As the hymn says, “He can harm us none.  He’s judged; the deed is done.  One little word can fell him.”  Take comfort!  We have a Savior who has conquered death, has ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God, and our Good Shepherd is not idle.  He reigns and He rules. And He sends the Helper into our midst, the Holy Spirit of God!  He feeds and nourishes His own with His life-giving Spirit in this Word that you’re hearing, in this Sacrament of the Altar.  He sees to it that the devil is still chained, so that the dragon can only go so far.  He rescues us out of this world through the sleep that is sometimes referred to as “death.”  And just when it seems that the little flock will be exterminated by the false Church, by the world, by the devil himself, then Christ’s kingdom will be revealed.

Now, on this Mother’s Day, when we give thanks to God for His gift of caring moms everywhere, would you consider how God honors motherhood with the words you heard from Revelation 12?  God uses a woman to represent the beloved Bride of Christ, His Church.  And just as Christ Himself was born of a woman, so we who have been born again by water and the Spirit, are called the woman’s offspring; our mother is the Church.  She is battered and beaten and underappreciated in this world.  She prays for her children, she rejoices in those who remain faithful and her heart breaks for those who prove faithless.  She is persecuted and grows weary as she waits for her Husband to come to her and to gather all her children together.  She is weak and powerless, but Christ is strong and will never abandon her.  He loved the Church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

You are offspring of this mother, holy and without blemish, through faith in Christ Jesus.  And if you keep reading in the Book of Revelation, you will see that the whole message of the book is this: that the Church on earth will suffer greatly from the dragon’s attacks and will appear to be defeated.  But all the while, Christ is working in all things for the good of those who love Him. And in the end, when Christ appears, the dragon will be cast out forever, and the Church will be victorious, through Him who loved us.  Amen.

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Sermon on Christian Prayer

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Rogate

Jeremiah 29:11-14  +  James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

(Audio only this week)

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