Having the Lord as Your Reward – or not

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 1

Genesis 15:1-6  +  1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

To the unspiritual mind, to the person without the Spirit of God, to the unbeliever, to the world, today’s Gospel about the rich man and poor Lazarus is very simple:  The poor go to heaven, the rich go to hell; and if you’re rich and don’t want to go to hell, then you’d better part with some of your money, and fast.

That, my friends, is not at all the message of God’s Holy Spirit.

Our three Scripture lessons work together beautifully to describe the Christian faith for us with utmost clarity.  They speak of faith and love, life and death, heaven and hell.  And it’s all very, very down to earth and real.

We’ll start with Abraham in Genesis 15.  He was rich.  He was famous. He had a beautiful, loving and submissive wife. He had the respect of his peers.  And he had God’s promises to him of something even greater—an offspring who would be a blessing to him and to all nations. God comes to him and says, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

But Abraham was still afraid and desperate.  None of it meant anything to him. Why? Because the Lord hadn’t yet given him the promised reward of that offspring.  All of his hopes and dreams were wrapped up in that special offspring who would be the blessing to all nations. We know him as Jesus, the Christ.  But Abram, at the moment, was shaken with doubt because his eyes told him, “You have no offspring and you never will.”

But God renewed his promise to Abram.  He gave Abram his Word, his promise: you don’t have an offspring right now.  But you will have one, who comes from your own body. And Abram believed the Lord.  He believed the Lord’s promise, trusting that the Lord God would do what he said he would do.

And it was credited to Abram as righteousness.  He was justified before God—absolved of all sin and unrighteousness, counted as righteous—not because of his riches, not because of any works of obedience or love he had performed. Justified by faith in the promise of the Lord.  God’s love for Abram is what calmed Abram’s fears; God’s promise to Abram is what comforted Abram, and with that promise, Abram embraced the Lord as his reward.

Move ahead to the Epistle lesson where the Apostle John describes how those who are justified by faith, how those who know and believe in God’s love go on to filter that love to their neighbor, and especially to their brothers and sisters in the faith. It’s not a matter of, “You must love God and your neighbor if you want to be justified!”  That’s Satanic. We love God—that is, we are devoted to serving him—because he first loved us—he was devoted to serving us; gave his only-begotten Son and slaughtered him out of love for his enemies, for sinners, for us.  That’s why we believers in Jesus love God. And if we love him, we will love our neighbor and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. And if someone claims to love God—to be devoted to serving God—but doesn’t love his brother, then his “love” for God is a sham, according to the Apostle John. Whoever does not love his brother hates his brother, and everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life dwelling in him.

Now, that’s not how we’re used to talking about love and hatred in our everyday speech. Just because you don’t love someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you hate them.  But in God’s vocabulary, that’s exactly what it means. In Biblical language, as far as God is concerned, there is no in between between love and hatred.  Either you’re devoted to serving a person or not, and if not, then God calls that hatred, and God calls that murder.

Which brings us to the Gospel.  The rich man went to hell because he was a murderer.  No, he didn’t stab poor Lazarus or poison him or harm him in any way.  But he did hate him.  No, not in an angry way or a bitter way or by wishing him any evil or harm whatsoever.  But he didn’t love him.  He wasn’t devoted to serving him, even though he was a fellow Israelite, a brother in the faith, even though he was placed right there at the rich man’s gate day in and day out.  The rich man hated Lazarus by not loving him.

But here’s the point we can’t miss.  He didn’t love Lazarus, because he didn’t know or believe in the love of God.  He claimed to!  He claimed a place in the people of Israel.  You can tell in how he addresses Abraham, “Father Abraham, Father Abraham, Father Abraham!” But the rich man didn’t love God.  God was not the rich man’s exceedingly great reward.  Instead, the rich man loved his expensive, trendy clothes.  He was devoted to his earthly happiness, his friends, his family, his food.  He was fooled by his riches into thinking that he was rich, and so he failed to realize that he was nothing but a poor beggar before God, a miserable sinner who needed God to pour his love and forgiveness into the rich man’s lap, which God wanted so desperately to do. God is love.  But the rich man didn’t want the Lord God of Israel for a reward during this life, and so he was tormented for eternity in the fires of hell, where even the love of God does not reach.

The poor man Lazarus, on the other hand, died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s lap where he was comforted from all his poverty, sorrows and sicknesses.  He didn’t go to heaven because he was poor. There are plenty of poor people in the world who hate their poverty and hate the rich people and hate the Lord who could have made them rich, but didn’t.  Lazarus went to heaven because he had the Lord as his reward. He was justified by faith in the promises of the God of Israel, just like Abraham was, the only reason why anyone goes to heaven. Lazarus didn’t see a hint of evidence in his life that God is love, except, perhaps, for the dogs that came and licked his sores. That’s foolishness to the world. The world would interpret such a thing as demeaning and evidence that God is cruel. A believer can see behind it a sign of God’s love, a love that may be masked almost beyond recognition in this life, a love to be revealed properly in the future.

The rich man will never know love again.  He didn’t want God’s love in life.  He doesn’t want it now, either.  He doesn’t say a word about God in his agony or in his dialogue with Abraham.  Unlike Abraham, he didn’t want God for a reward, but rather riches and fun and earthly friends.  He didn’t love his neighbor, his brother, sitting there begging at his gate each day, not even enough to share a morsel of his banquets.  That would have been enough for Lazarus.

Now the rich man can’t get a morsel of relief from Lazarus.  And Abraham makes it clear, it’s not a matter of lovelessness on their part.  God established our earthly life as the time to love our neighbor and help him in his bodily needs.  The rich man’s time of grace was past. Not only that, but they couldn’t cross back and forth.  By God’s own choice, the time for faith, the time for grace, the time for helping your brother in his need is during this life.

 

The rich man realizes it’s too late for him, but now he remembers his family, and knows that they are on the same deadly path he was on – the path of unbelief and lovelessness. He still doesn’t get it.  He still doesn’t care about God or know Him who is love.  He still has no faith whatsoever in the Word of God.  Only a miracle will help his brothers!, he thinks.

No, Abraham says. Only Moses and the Prophets can help them—can help anyone. Only the Word of God’s love converts. Only the Word of God’s love creates faith.  Only the Word instills Him who is love into the heart of a man so that the man loves as God loves.  If the Word doesn’t convert a person, nothing will.  The Word of God is the message of man’s sin and God’s love, and the solution God gave in His love, His only-begotten Son. If the image of God’s Son hanging on a cross in the sinner’s place is not sufficient to turn a person from hating God to loving God, then not even a miraculous resurrection will accomplish anything.  Not even proof of Christ’s resurrection will convert anyone, which is another reason why Jesus didn’t bother appearing to his enemies after he rose from the dead.  The image of God’s love is Jesus dying on a cross.  For those who know and believe in the love of God there, an eternity of love awaits.  For those who don’t want God’s love there, in the cross, there is no other love to be found.  The resurrection of Jesus is the event that proved his victory over sin and death.  The event that proved his love more than any other was the crucifixion.

So, to summarize, love in a Christian is a sign of faith, not a condition for faith or an ingredient in faith.  You are not saved or justified before God by faith and love, but by faith alone, for faith embraces Christ, the Mediator, Christ who is love incarnate, love in human flesh.  To believe in Christ is to have his love counted before God in place of your lovelessness, and you are counted righteous for his sake.

Now those who embrace Him who is love by faith cannot help but love their brothers and sisters, because the love of God dwells in him or her. That doesn’t make it easy to be devoted to your brothers and sisters; your flesh always wants to be served by others and hates the thought of loving other people, especially the ones you don’t like very much.  But the love of God is stronger than your flesh, and his forgiveness for you will enable you to crucify your flesh every day, to deny yourself and to love even those are unlovable, which, remember!, is how God found you to be, too.

If you do not love these brothers and sisters of yours, or if you only love the ones you like and hate the ones you don’t, then your faith is a sham and the love of God does not abide in you. If that is the case, then repent before it’s too late, before you join the rich man. Confess your bitterness.  Confess your apathy.  Confess your self-serving heart.  Acknowledge that you are a beggar, like the rest of us, and then look to the Lord as your reward—to the Lord who knows your lovelessness and still gave His Son to die for you, who brought you to the baptismal font to wash away your sins, who sets out a banquet for you again today and makes a promise to you as sure and certain as his promise to Abraham, “This is my body; this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” See! The Lord gives himself to you here as your shield from sin, from death and from condemnation. The Lord gives himself to you here as your exceedingly great reward!  Amen.

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See the effects of Pentecost

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

John 14:23-31  +  Genesis 11:1-9  +  Acts 2:1-21

We have entered the period of time known as “the last days.”  As Peter quoted from the prophet Joel, “In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”  These are the last days.  They began on Pentecost and will conclude with the great and glorious day of the Lord when he comes to judge the earth.  From the Day of Pentecost until the last day, the crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, pours out His Spirit into the world to rescue sinners from everlasting destruction and condemnation.

How are we to know this Third Person of the Holy Trinity?  How are we to see Him in the world?  We can’t see Him.  Spirit means “breath” or “wind.”  You don’t see the wind. You don’t see breath.  But you can see people breathing and living as a result of the breath they breathe.  And you can see trees swaying in the wind or dust moving across the sky or whole forests being wiped out as the wind drives the fire from one tree to the next.  You know the wind by its effects.  And so it is with the Spirit of God.

The Spirit was known by His effects on the Day of Pentecost.  No one saw the Spirit.  But they heard the sound of the rushing wind announcing the arrival of Him who is the wind.  They saw the tongues of fire on the disciples’ heads and heard the Gospel of Jesus from the tongues of men, in all the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem that day, announcing to the world that this is how the Spirit of God will blow across the face of the earth and kindle the fire of faith—through the tongues of men, through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus.

And what is the Gospel? That men have earned nothing from God but his wrath because of their sins.  But that God loved the world and sent His Son to redeem it; that men rejected the Lord of glory, whom the Father sent, and they crucified Him; but that God raised Jesus from the dead, seated Him at His right hand and made Him both Lord and Christ.

Now, there is this great treasure for mankind seated there at God’s right hand. There is salvation.  There is peace for the sinner.  There, in the Person of Jesus, every benefit for mankind is piled up: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, salvation, adoption as God’s children, an eternal inheritance in the new heavens and the new earth.  How does any sinner have access to that treasure?

The Spirit divvies it out.  The Spirit brings it down to us from heaven, brings us Jesus with all His benefits.  He brings it in the preaching of the Gospel. “You have sinned against God with your idolatries and adulteries. Be saved from this perverse generation! Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins.”

See the effects of the Spirit.  See the effects of Pentecost.  3000 unbelievers became believers in Christ that day and were baptized.  Millions more have joined the ranks of baptized believers since then.

See the effects of the Spirit. You have joined the ranks of Christians around the world who call on the name of Jesus.  You have gathered here around His Word and Sacrament—sinners who deserve nothing from God, and yet here you are receiving the outpouring of His forgiveness and life and salvation.

See the effects of the Spirit.  Families like yours who have just as many struggles as any other family in the world are consoled by the Holy Spirit with joy and peace, even in the midst of hardship.  See the effects of the Spirit. In defiance of the multitudes to whom baptism—and especially the baptism of an infant—is just plain foolishness, one more Christian family has brought a child to the waters of holy baptism today, adding his name to the names of the 3000 who were baptized on that Day of Pentecost long ago.

Here is the Spirit’s miracle.  Here is the Spirit’s building, the Church of God, not this structure of stone or wood or stucco, but the one made of living stones, people who actually believe the words of this Bible to be literally true, people who call on the name of the Lord to be saved, sinners who have been saved by no worthiness of their own but by faith alone in Christ, men and women and children who love Jesus.  See what the wind has done. See the effects of Pentecost.

Is that you? Do you love Jesus?  I don’t mean, “Do you think he’s really awesome?”  I mean, are you devoted to Him because of the great devotion He showed to you in giving His life as a sacrifice for your sins? If so, you have the Holy Spirit to thank for it, because by nature, no one loves Jesus, and no one can.  The Word of God that tells of Jesus’ love is still foolishness and ridiculous to the flesh. But see the effects of Pentecost! The Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh in the words of the Gospel.  He is in the word.  He is working powerfully through the Gospel, in all who hear.  Those who resist Him and cling to their sins have only their own stubbornness to blame. Those who are brought to love Jesus through the preaching of the Gospel have the Holy Spirit to thank. Love for Jesus is one of the effects of Pentecost.

And as Jesus said 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.

See the effects of Pentecost. If anyone loves Jesus, who is devoted to Jesus, will keep Jesus’ Word, will believe Jesus’ Word, will hold onto it as something dear and put it into practice.  He doesn’t need commandments to whip him into shape. The Spirit doesn’t rule in the hearts of Christians by force or by threats.  “You’d better keep Jesus’ Word if you want to be saved!”  On the contrary, the Spirit has taught you to love Jesus freely, and that love produces the fruit of willing obedience and works of love in those who love Jesus, so that we gladly hear His Word, gratefully receive His Sacrament, and serve our neighbor in humility.

But all this is the work of God in us. And as we love Jesus and keep His Word, so we also have Jesus’ promise that “My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  How do Father and Son make their home with the one who loves Jesus?  Through the Spirit of God.  Paul said to the Corinthians, “You are God’s temple.   Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.”

See the effects of Pentecost.  See what God gives in Holy Baptism! God, the Maker of all things, His only Son who gave His life for you on the cross, the Spirit of God who brings Jesus to you in Word and Sacrament has now made you His home until he brings you safely to your home in heaven with Him.

In the same way, Jesus says, Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

Where there is no love for Jesus, there is no keeping of His word.  When a person doesn’t love Jesus, he intentionally doesn’t come to church to hear Jesus’ word.  He intentionally stays away from the Sacrament of the Altar.  He lowers the priority of Jesus’ Word in his home. He does no good works at all, as far as God is concerned, because good works only flow from love for Jesus.  Where there is intentional sin against Jesus’ word, there is no love—no devotion to Jesus.  Where there is no devotion to Jesus, there is no faith, and where there is no faith, there is no salvation.

Can a Christian fall into that?  Fall out of faith?  Absolutely.  It’s a constant danger. And so the Christian life is lived under this constant tension, this constant bouncing back and forth between despair on the one side and self-confidence on the other.  We see sin and lovelessness in ourselves, because of our flesh, and are frightened by it; or we grow self-secure in our forgiveness so that we no longer watch out for temptation or worry about falling away.

And once again, we are brought to our knees in helplessness. And once again, we see the effects of Pentecost as Jesus, God’s own Son, makes this promise:

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 that I have said to you.

Here comes the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.  God has sent Him to you again today.  Listen to Him! He speaks of Jesus and brings Him to you now with all His mercy and comfort.  If you were living self-secure, he calls you back to repentance and calls on you to seek your security only in Christ.  If you were living in despair, he calls you back to repentance, and  reminds you that Jesus’ blood has swallowed up your sin and washed it away, that, as long as it is called today, if you hear His voice, if you hear this Gospel, it is meant for you and He wants you to be saved.

To the secure sinner, Jesus has nothing more to say.  But to every troubled sinner, Jesus says, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

That’s your Savior talking to you.  That’s the Spirit of God bringing His voice to you, and His peace.  Peace I leave with you, Jesus said before he turned His face toward the cross, in loving obedience to the Father, to suffer and die.  Not, “Anger and bitterness I leave with you,” but “peace.”  “My peace,” Jesus says.  And what other peace matters—either for eternity or for today?  Jesus does not give as the world gives.  There is no price to His peace, no cost.  To the world, peace is given when all the problems are taken away.  But when Jesus gives peace, he gives it to the heart even though the world may be crumbling around you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.  See the effects of Pentecost in yourself as the Holy Spirit burns His way through your troubles and through your fear and brands the image of Christ onto your heart, Christ crucified for you.

All of this—all the benefits of Christ are yours in this Word of Christ.  This is how it works in the New Testament. Jesus cares for you today and tomorrow and until your dying day by sending you His Spirit, by speaking to you through the tongues of men.  And in this Word of Christ, spoken from the pulpit and from the altar, the Helper is present with the same power he displayed on Pentecost.  See the effects of Pentecost in the peace of sins forgiven. Amen.

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The Spirit helps with faith and its confession

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Exaudi – Sunday after the Ascension

John 15:26 – 16:4  +  Ezekiel 36:22-28  +  1 Peter 4:7-11

St. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”  Faith in the heart and faith on the lips always go together.  But without the Spirit of God, without the Helper, neither would be possible.  And so Jesus promises his disciples today that the Helper will come to help with faith and its confession.

You might think that the eleven apostles had it easier than we do when it comes to faith in Jesus.  But they didn’t.  Seeing Jesus face to face never created faith in anyone’s heart.  Look at all the people who saw Jesus and hated him.  And hearing Jesus speak in person did create faith in him in the hearts of some people, but in most people, it just caused more hatred, because Jesus taught things that are foolishness to the world.  He taught that all the works of the world are sin before God, and that only faith in him, the Son of God, saves.  It was foolishness to the world, and the world hated Jesus, even though they could see him and hear him in person.

Even the eleven disciples doubted. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, some still doubted.  Even the faith they did have in Jesus would be worthless if they didn’t remain in faith until the end. See, faith is not like turning on a light switch and forgetting about it.  Faith is like dangling over the edge of a cliff and holding on for dear life.  Jesus’ disciples were sinners, like you and me, sinners who couldn’t hold on much longer.

Jesus knew that his apostles would need divine help in order to stay believing in him.  They would also need divine help in order to know Jesus rightly and to be able to preach him rightly.  And so Jesus promised that the Helper would come.

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

The Helper did come on the day of Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate next week.  The work of the Holy Spirit is presented so simply here by Jesus.  He comes to help God’s people by bearing witness to them about the truth. He first bore witness to the apostles and inspired them to preach and to write the whole truth. And now he bears witness to us of that same truth, through the word of the apostles.

And at the center of the truth is Jesus.  I am the way, the truth and the life, Jesus said.  Sin destroys.  Lovelessness kills. Our sins incur the wrath of God, the anger and punishment of God.  But the Spirit of truth reveals Jesus to us, sent by the very God whom we had offended, who bore the world’s sins on the cross and opens heaven to us by his death and resurrection.  The Spirit of truth convinces us that we have a loving Father in heaven because Jesus has blotted out our sin by his blood and washed us clean in his baptism.  The Spirit of truth directs us in repentance to look away from ourselves, away from our works, away from our sins, and points us to Jesus and assures us, “You are safe here.  You are loved here. You are forgiven here; sheltered here.  Stay here.”

To know your sin and to want God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake, to trust that God forgives you your sins for Jesus’ sake — that’s faith.  And the Holy Spirit does more than just help you along to that kind of trust.  He bears witness.  God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son is the one bearing witness about Jesus.  No power of yours could ever grasp him.  But when God bears witness about his own Son by means of his own Spirit, now people who never would have believed believe. And the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that, through faith in God’s Son, we are children of God.

And where there is faith in Jesus, there also is the confession of faith, the response of faith, the bearing witness publicly to what you believe.

And you also will bear witness, Jesus told his apostles, because you have been with me from the beginning. If you remember this verse in the NIV, it came off a bit differently. The English Standard Version here is better than the NIV.  In the NIV Jesus says, “You must bear witness.”  There is no “must” in the text.  “You will bear witness,” Jesus said.  Of course you will! You have been with me.  As Paul says, “I believed, therefore I have spoken.”  Where there is faith, there is confession of faith.  That’s why we do it publicly, here in our Divine Service, every single week.  That’s why we take the time to say together the words of the Nicene Creed.  We say what we believe, because we believe it. But where there is doubt or unbelief, there is silence. Or worse, where there is doubt or unbelief, there might be a lot of talking or singing without saying much of anything.

But confessing faith in Jesus, bearing witness about him in the world would be the hardest thing the apostles had ever done, and so Jesus warns them ahead of time. “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” The world can tolerate just about every form of wickedness that exists.  But the world cannot tolerate the straightforward message of Christ or those who confess it.

And notice here in Jesus’ words where much of the persecution will come from.  It will come from the “godly” people.  It will come from people who claim to believe in God, from the synagogues and those who profess to worship God. Jesus isn’t only referring to the events of the First Century, either.  From the Jews of the First Century who stoned and plotted against the apostles, to the Muslims who kill Christians and think they’re offering service to God in the process, the prophecy of Jesus has proven true.

But also in Christian churches, preachers of the truth have over and over again been persecuted, excommunicated, slandered and tossed out into the streets. It happened often in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. It happened to Luther.  And sadly, it also happens in Lutheran churches today.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons for removing pastors.  There are.  But sometimes the reason is just that people don’t want to hear the truth.  They look for a preacher who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear, as the Apostle Paul says, and they will not put up with sound doctrine.

Now, those who preach the gospel as pastors in the apostolic office of the holy ministry, those who earn their living from the Gospel are especially endangered when they confess the faith of Christ.  But whatever your vocation is, you stand to suffer for your confession of faith, too. Faithful Christian laymen can also be “put out of the synagogue” or excommunicated for unscriptural reasons. And you can be hated and mistreated in yours homes and schools and workplaces, too.

Who would ever bother confessing their faith under these circumstances?  Wouldn’t it just be easier to believe quietly, to have faith in Jesus in our hearts and not so much on our lips?  Well, yes, it would be easier.  But then, it wouldn’t be faith.  Faith alone saves, without works.  But faith is never alone.  There is no such thing as faith in Jesus that doesn’t produce good works.  In the same way, there is no such thing as faith in Jesus that doesn’t confess Jesus with the lips.

To be honest, the situation seems hopeless for us, because for as much as we may want to confess Jesus and the Truth about him in our New Man, in our reborn nature, our flesh is too strong.  Our flesh hates the cross and hates the consequences of confession, just as the apostles themselves were helpless to stand against the world with this confession of Christ.

But that’s why Jesus promised a Helper, to them and to us.  The Holy Spirit of God helps with the confession of faith.  Only God’s Spirit can make us bold to proclaim the Truth.  Only God’s Spirit can make us men and women of conviction, to speak with knowledge and with wisdom and with courage and with love.  He can, and he will.

The promise isn’t only for the apostles. As Peter said 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. The promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

You have Jesus’ promise of help from the Helper. You have his promise that the Spirit will help with faith and with its confession.  Believe his promise! But don’t sit around twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the Spirit to speak to you or to strengthen you or to embolden you.  That’s just another false doctrine that the devil has sown in the world, as if God gave his Spirit without means, without the Word.  God gives his Spirit in the written Word of the Gospel to read and discuss in your homes, with your families, in the preached Word of the Gospel here in his church and in the Holy Sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus. Here is his help.  Here is his strength.  Here is his teaching and his Truth. Receive the Holy Spirit again, and let your faith and your confession be renewed.  Amen.

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The name of Jesus gives you permission to pray

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Rogate – Sixth Sunday of Easter

“Ask, and you will receive!”

John 16:23-30  +  Numbers 21:4-9  +  James 1:22-27

We missed it again this year.  A week and a half ago, on Thursday, May 3rd, we missed the national day of prayer, or at least, we missed it as a congregation. I don’t know what you did on your own.  Actually, we didn’t just miss it.  We skipped it.  I intentionally didn’t encourage you to join in the national day of prayer.

You know why?  Because nations aren’t given permission to pray.  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” is the motto of the national day of prayer movement.  They want America to be that nation, but that’s a complete twisting of Holy Scripture.  The only nation in history whose God was the Lord was the nation of Israel, until they rejected Christ.  Now the Lord calls men from every nation, tribe, language and people to be His, and he promises to be the God of people from every nation, tribe, language and people—of all who look to Christ as their Savior from sin and death.

Only Christians, then, are given permission to pray to the One God, the only God, the true God, the God of heaven who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  No one else is authorized by this God to pray to Him, and any prayer that is said to a different god is nothing but more idolatry.

So, a national day of prayer is nothing but an encouragement toward idolatry. You want proof?  The organizer of the national day of prayer, Shirley Dobson, James Dobson’s wife of Focus on the Family, came on the Glenn Beck program in advance of the national day of prayer in order to advertise it.  And she reveled and rejoiced in the fact that Glenn Beck was joining her in prayer on the following Thursday.  Glenn Beck is not even a Christian.  He is a very outspoken Mormon, who uses the name of Jesus but means the Jesus taught by Joseph Smith, a different version of Jesus and a different Heavenly Father than the one proclaimed in the Bible. So to encourage national prayer is to fool people into believing that there is more than one God, or that the one God can be approached apart from the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, I thought you needed to hear that this morning on Rogate Sunday, with prayer as our focus, because we live here in this great country of America surrounded by people who confuse our national identity with a Christian identity, and that’s dangerous, because they’re not the same. And that very nationalism, that very desire to set up an earthly kingdom of Christ is the very thing that kept the Jews out of the spiritual kingdom of Christ.

But for the one who does acknowledge Jesus as Lord, for the one who prays for His spiritual kingdom to come, for the Church that confesses His name, our Gospel today is full of comfort and joy. Because in it, Jesus reveals Himself to us as a good and gracious Mediator—the one Mediator between God and man—the man Christ Jesus, who has invited and authorized us to approach our Father in heaven above and ask Him to hear us.

In that day, Jesus says, you will ask nothing of me. In that day…which day?  We learned about it just a couple of weeks ago.  Jesus was leaving His disciples for a little while to go to the cross and the grave.  But after a little while—just till the Third Day—he would see them again and their hearts would rejoice.  In that day, from that day on and forevermore, every believer in Jesus has direct access to God the Father.

How?  Because as of the Third Day, resurrection day, Jesus accomplished His work of redemption.  As of the Third Day, Jesus had presented His once-for-all sacrifice for sin and had presented that sacrifice in the heavenly Temple, as the Book of Hebrews explains.  He entered the presence of God in heaven as both holy God and righteous Man, and by His own blood opened heaven for all believers. As of the day when Jesus rose from the dead, there has been a living Mediator in heaven to make all the prayers of the saints pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God.

See how Jesus explains that in that Gospel: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. What does it mean to ask the Father in Jesus’ name?  It means to dare to come before the holy God with prayers and praises, with thanksgiving and petitions—not as “you the sinner,” but as “you, the believer in Jesus, you the forgiven sinner, as the one who has been clothed with Jesus Christ.”  You see again the connection to Holy Baptism where all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ?

This, by the way, is why we begin every Divine Service with the words, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Those are the words of Baptism, our baptism.  Those are the words that branded us with the name of Jesus, branded us with water and with the Holy Spirit’s fire. We have come into the presence of a great King, of a holy and righteous and unapproachable God who threatens punishment and condemnation of sinners.  But we are sinners!  How do we dare approach Him?  Only through Baptism.  Only through the name of Jesus.

Baptism is our access to God as a loving and gracious Father.  Now you can go to him as your Father, too. Yes, you’re unworthy, but Jesus is worthy, and you bear His name.  Now you can to go Him and pray to Him and ask Him questions and ask for answers.  Now you are a holy priesthood, and that entitles you to bring your prayers and petitions before God at all times.

I’ve encouraged all of you to use these devotions, Daily Prayer and Meditation in your homes.  Here on the back of the service folder, you find it again for this week. And every week it says at the top, “The sign of the cross may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism.  Then say, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  (I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see my children, right down to my 3-yr-old, marking themselves with the sign of the cross, the same sign with which they were marked at the time of their baptisms.)  This is why.  We wish to come before God in prayer, even in our home, and we only dare to do it in the name of Jesus, as baptized believers who bear His holy name.

And he will give it to you. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.  What do you ask for in Jesus’ name?  Well, you’re not asking in Jesus’ name if you’re asking for things Jesus would never ask for, are you?  Think back to the example of the Israelites from the Old Testament lesson today. They, the chosen people of God, asked something of God, too.  They could have asked for His help.  Instead, as a community of unbelievers, the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” There they were, praying not in Jesus’ name, not trusting in God’s mercy, praying not as believing children, but as ungrateful, selfish wretches who hated God.  He didn’t let them get away with it, did he? He sent the serpents into their midst, because sin kills.  Selfishness and ingratitude flow from unbelief—not that they didn’t know God existed.  They witnessed his mighty power in Egypt.  But they didn’t look to Him for mercy, and their unbelief would condemn them eternally.  And so God sent the snakes, but also salvation from the snakes, the serpent on the pole, the picture of Jesus, hanging on a cross, so that all who look to Him were saved—are saved from the serpent’s bite.

So again, what to ask for so that you may receive it?  How do you know what Jesus would ask for?  It’s kind of like Mother’s Day.  How do you know what your mother might want?  What does she like?  What doesn’t she like?  You know that by knowing her.  And the better you know her, the better you know what she wants.  The same is true with Jesus.  The better you know Him, the better you know how to ask in His name.  And you know Him in the words of Holy Scripture.

There’s a reason why we sing the words of the Introit toward the beginning of the service.  There’s a reason why we include the Gradual or the Verse of the Day.  There’s a reason for every phrase and response in our liturgy.  They’re drawn from the Word of God, mainly the Psalms, in order to teach us how to pray, how to ask, and what to ask for.

The Psalms especially are useful for teaching how to pray and what to ask for, because they are already prayers, prayers taught by God and inspired in his Word.  They are the words of Jesus, just as the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus taught us.  We read the Scriptures not only to listen to what God has to say to us, but also so that we know how to pray back to Him, how to speak His Word back to Him, how to ask and what to ask for, so that we learn to know Jesus better.  Then we’re able to pray in His name and know that the Father will hear and grant our requests.

So what to ask for today?  Can we pray in Jesus’ name for the mothers here among us, or for our mothers, wherever they may be?  Yes we can.  God Himself honors mothers in His Word, and we even have the example of Jesus caring for His mother.  What do we pray for? First and foremost, we pray that they be brought to faith in Christ and kept in faith in Christ, because the Lord knows how many temptations there are for moms to stop trusting in our Father’s grace and love in Christ, and to start focusing on themselves—either on their sins and faults, leading to despair, or on their own worthiness before God for all the sacrifices they’ve made for their families, leading to self-righteousness and unbelief.

What else does Jesus ask us to ask for—be it for mothers or for ourselves or for anyone? We ask our Father in heaven that they may know Christ and power of His Resurrection. We ask that he grant them patience with their husband and with their children. Protection. Love. Wisdom. Compassion. That they may bear up under the cross, that they may be strengthened in godly living and serve as examples of piety for their children and for all.  And finally, that they may be granted a blessed end and rest from their labors in the kingdom of light.  God promises to hear such prayers from His children, and He promises to grant them for Jesus’ sake.

The name of Christ, branded on all you who are baptized and believing in Him, gives you great privileges in the Kingdom of God, even the Father’s friendliness and love and His promise to grant our requests made in Jesus’ name.  Make every effort to know Jesus better by studying His Word and receiving His Sacraments, so that you know better and better how to pray.  Do you lack wisdom?  Ask! Do you lack understanding?  Ask! Do you lack courage or strength or joy?  Ask!  Stand in the name of Jesus with your baptismal covering. Stand in the humility and the joy of Jesus’ resurrection and ask.  And trust that you are heard, according to Jesus’ own promise, and trust that your Father will answer.  Amen.

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The Helper brings Jesus to the world

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Cantate – Fifth Sunday of Easter

“Sing to the LORD a new song!

John 16:5-15  +  Isaiah 12:1-6  +  James 1:16-21

We go back to Maundy Thursday again today, back to the upper room where Jesus had some final instructions to give his disciples before he was betrayed.  The eleven disciples were heartbroken and sorrowful, because Jesus had just broken the news to them that he was going away, and he meant more than his departure to the cross and his resurrection on the third day.  Yes, they would see him again after a little while when he rose from the dead. But very soon He would return to the Father, just 40 days after his resurrection.  And they wouldn’t see him again—not for a little while, not until they themselves would lay down their lives as martyrs.  For as long as they lived on earth, they wouldn’t see Jesus again.

Of course that made them sorrowful! Where Jesus is, there is life and forgiveness and mercy to be had in abundance. Where Jesus is, there is truth and teaching and authority. Where Jesus is, there is peace and protection against every evil, even against the Evil One himself. Where Jesus is, there is access for sinners to God.  Where Jesus isn’t, there is no access, and no protection, and no truth, no heavenly authority, no divine teaching, no mercy, no forgiveness, no life.

Yet, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, Jesus told his disciples. How on earth can that be?  For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Now, for this Helper—sometimes translated Comforter or Counselor—to be better than having Jesus there in person, He must be pretty awesome.  If Jesus can say that it’s better to have the Helper there than to have Jesus himself there—what kind of Helper could He be?

The Helper is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Third Person of the most holy Trinity. And it is to our advantage that Jesus has gone to the Father and has sent this Helper to His Church.  Because, if Jesus had remained in that mode of existence in which he lived with His disciples and went from one place to the next, bringing mercy and forgiveness and life wherever he went, then we would be on our own whenever we weren’t there with Jesus. But now Jesus has gone to the Father, and this is His gift to us: He sends the Helper, and The Helper brings Jesus to the world.

Everywhere—all at once, when and where the Word of God is proclaimed in its truth and purity and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution.  The Helper brings Jesus to us with his mercy, peace, life, forgiveness, grace, protection and access to the Father.  And so God’s people sing for joy that Jesus has gone and has sent back to us His Holy Spirit.  No, it’s not the same as having Jesus here visibly.  But in a way, it really is better, at least until the Helper’s work is done.

And what is that work? Jesus tells us. When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

He will convict the world.  Let’s break that down first.  First, the world.  Here Jesus is making a distinction between His believers and the unbelieving world. Second, he will “convict.”  He will show the unbelieving world its fault, its guilt, its wrongness.  That doesn’t mean everyone will repent and believe in Christ. It does mean that the world is left without excuse, because God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit has come and has presented the evidence to the world, so that the world is without excuse.

And third, “He” will do the convicting—not you.  The Helper doesn’t need your help. It’s the other way around, isn’t it?  The Holy Spirit is not a coach who encourages you to do your best at convicting the world.  He is not a crutch that supports you as you walk through the world, trying to convict the world.  He’s more like the person pushing you around in the wheelchair.  That’s the kind of Helper we have in the Holy Spirit.

Let’s pause here for a moment and consider this a little further. Some will say, “A really good preacher can convince a lot of people.”  That may be true when it comes to earthly things, but when it comes to spiritual things, it’s an absolute lie.  Neither a preacher’s eloquence nor his level of sincerity nor his friendly personality will move people a hair’s breadth closer to Jesus.  Nor will his lack of those things prevent the Holy Spirit from doing His work. Some will say, “If you really engage the world, attract the world, impress the world, give the world some of what it wants, then you’ll convict the world.”  That’s a lie.  Some will say, “If you ‘do church’ a certain way, if you worship in a certain way, then you’ll convict the world.”  That’s a lie.  The Holy Spirit convicts. 

Ah, but some others will say, “Right on! The Spirit convicts.  But!  He expects me to gather him an audience.  He depends on me to get people through the door, so that he can do his work.” That’s a lie. The Spirit convicts the world.

The Helper convicts the world through the weak and powerless mouth of Jesus’ apostles.  He chooses the weak things of this world to shame the strong, and the despised things to shame the noble things.  The Helper brings Jesus to the world in the humble message of Christ crucified and risen.

He will convict the world concerning sin…, because they do not believe in me. What is sin?  Ask the world what sin is, ask a lot of Christians what sin is.  What will they say?  At best, they’ll agree that breaking the Ten Commandments is a sin, although most people aren’t even convinced of that anymore. When more than half of our country can’t even admit it’s a sin to kill a little baby in her mother’s womb, it’s pretty clear that the truth about sin has gone out the window.

What is sin?  Sure, it’s the abuse of drugs and alcohol, it’s gang violence, rape and murder and theft and sex outside of marriage.  It’s also greed and lust and hatred and bitterness and grudges. 

But Jesus doesn’t mention any of these here.  What is sin?  “They do not believe in me.”  That is the chief sin, from which all other sins flow. Not to believe in Jesus, the Son of God, the seat of God’s mercy. Because where there’s faith in Christ, he wipes out all sin.  Sin can’t exist where Christ is.  He forgives it all, because he paid for it all.  The righteousness of Christ cancels out all sin in those who believe in him.  So not to believe in him leaves a person guilty of everything.

He will convict the world…concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.  Who would have thought?  That righteousness does not consist in giving to charity.  Righteousness does not consist in making lots of money or in nice and proper speech or in standing up for women or for children, for rich or for poor.  Righteousness does not consist in a dedicated prayer life or in going to church.  Righteousness consists in Jesus Christ and him crucified, buried, risen and gone to the Father and reigning at his right hand.  He is the world’s righteousness, if the world wants him.  But either way, the world stands convicted by the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness before God is faith in the ascended Christ. And where there’s faith, then the heart that didn’t want to do a single good work now produces good fruit as naturally as an apple tree produces apples, or a grapevine produces grapes.

Who would have thought that righteousness is not something we are to offer to God, but rather is something that Christ has done and now offers to us, like a gift wrapped up in Jesus? Again the works of the world are condemned.  The righteousness of Christ is only handed out by the Holy Spirit in the Gospel.  That’s part of his work as the ascended Lord Christ. To send out His Spirit to hand out his righteousness through the Gospel, to faith.

Finally, he will convict the world concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  What a horrifying message for the world: its prince, the devil has already been judged. Judgment happens here and now.  The Spirit convicts and announces the judgment—condemnation for the devil and for all who are found in his kingdom. All false belief stands condemned.  All adding to or subtracting from the Scriptures stands condemned.  All the works of the world stand condemned.  Not by you or by me, but by the Spirit of God. 

And as He convicts the world concerning judgment, His Word is always effective—it always produces some result.  Either people will be convicted and enraged, or they will be convicted and brought to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus in whom there is now no condemnation, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, in whom there is no judgment or answering for sins, because his blood answered and blotted out sin for all who believe in him.

This is the Spirit’s work.  This is the gift Jesus sent back to his disciples from heaven. The Spirit of Truth, the Helper brings Jesus to the world.

You realize, don’t you?, that this is better than if Jesus himself were walking around, going from here to there and preaching His Word?  Because this way, by the help of the Helper, Jesus can be here with you today, with each one of you, and wherever his Word is preached and wherever his body and blood are given to eat and to drink.  This way, Jesus doesn’t have to come through town one time to preach the Gospel and then leave you to go somewhere else.  Instead, he takes up residence here in His baptized believers and never leaves.  This way, you don’t need to fly to the land of Israel to receive mercy from Jesus.  Instead, the Holy Spirit brings His mercy to you, so that all who look to him for mercy receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. 

The Helper has brought Jesus to the world and will continue to bring him until His work is done and the world is convicted and those who have been called out of the world to faith in Christ are brought home safely. You and I have never known Jesus in any other way than by the work of the Helper in the Gospel.  And if we can know Him and love Him here and now by the work of His Spirit without seeing Him, just think of the joy there will be when we do see Him face to face.  If we sing for joy now, we will truly sing for joy then.  Amen.

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