Deaf ears open when the Son of God speaks to them

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Trinity 12

Isaiah 29:17-24  +  Romans 10:9-17  +  Mark 7:31-37

We have another one of Jesus’ healing miracles before us today. Before we discuss this particular Gospel, it would be good to review the two basic truths that the Holy Spirit always wants us to see and believe in every healing miracle recorded in the Gospels:

1) First, the sickness of all sinners and the compassion of Jesus, who, by the power of His word, gives immediate healing to all those who come to Him for healing.  Now that Jesus has died and risen and ascended to the right hand of God, the healing God sends us to Jesus for is the spiritual kind, that we should look to Him for the healing of our sin-sick souls, the immediate healing that comes from the forgiveness of sins pronounced on you in your Baptism, and in preaching, and in the Sacrament of the Altar.  This is the healing that saves you out of Satan’s kingdom, brings you into the kingdom of Christ, into the Church of God, and keeps you there.

2) The other basic truth in every healing miracle is the power of Jesus who promises one day to return to completely heal us—inside and out—of every sickness, weakness and infirmity—eyes, ears, tongues, backs, knees, feet, arthritic hands and all the ravages of age.  Even as He healed the bodies of those who came to Him for help when He walked the earth, He will one day heal our bodies from every weakness, even from the curse of death itself.  This is the healing that saves the Church from all the attacks of Satan and brings her into glory everlasting.

The first kind of healing, the spiritual kind, the forgiveness kind, is yours now—to all of you who look to Jesus for that healing.  The other waits for the appointed time.  Let every healing miracle of Jesus remind you of those two kinds of healing and give you confidence in the mercy and the promises of Christ.

Each healing miracle has its own special emphasis, too.  Today Mark’s Gospel gives us the account of the healing of the deaf man whose ears and tongue didn’t work. 

First, we see the faith and love of the friends of the deaf man.  They had heard the good word about Jesus—that He is kind and compassionate and heals all the sick people who go to Him for healing.  Maybe they even made the connection between Jesus and Isaiah 29, today’s OT reading, where Isaiah prophesies about how the Messiah would open blind eyes and deaf ears. These friends of the deaf man already had faith in Jesus, the Healer.  Where did that faith come from? As we heard in the Epistle and sang in the Alleluia Verse today, “Faith comes from hearing the message.”

But their friend, the deaf man, couldn’t hear.  He couldn’t even ask for help—his tongue didn’t work. So his friends who heard and believed that Jesus could help showed love for their friend and did for him what they could they could.  They brought the deaf man to Jesus.  They didn’t try to heal him themselves. They brought him to Jesus for healing.

Let’s make an application here.  You have heard the good word about Jesus.  You trust in Him to heal sin-sick souls, don’t you?  You know that He heals all who come to Him for healing.  Maybe you have a friend or loved one who is deaf to the Gospel and who is unable to speak, to confess the faith.  What should you do?  Throw up your hands and say, “They don’t believe the Gospel. They’ll never listen. They’ll never confess the same faith as I do.”  Are you sure?  They’re a lost cause, are they?  So was this deaf and mute man in the Gospel.  Don’t underestimate the power of the Word of Christ to convict sinners and to convince sinners of the goodness and mercy of God in the Person of Jesus Christ.  Your unbelieving friend needs your friendship, your love and assistance, your invitation to come to church, to talk with the pastor, to accompany you to Bible class, to find healing with Jesus, the Healer.

Now, the friends of the deaf man came asking Jesus to lay His hands on the man, but Jesus did much more than that.  He could have just spoken a word and performed this healing, but He didn’t. He could have done it without saying a word, I suppose, but he didn’t do that either.  He performed a series of actions with the deaf man, and every action of Jesus in this miracle is a kind of “word.”

  • He took the man aside and dealt with him one on one. Jesus wanted there to be no doubt in this man’s mind: “You are the sick one. You are the one who needs help, and I know it and am willing to help you, as if you were the only man on earth.  You and I.  Focus on me!”
  • He put His fingers in the man’s ears. “Your help comes, not from the inside, not from you and your works, but it comes from outside of you, from me, from my Holy Spirit.” 
  • He spit. “Healing comes from my mouth alone, from my Word, from my saliva, from my blood shed for you, from my body given for you.”
  • He touched the man’s tongue. “When my body touches your tongue, you are healed.” 
  • He looked up to heaven. “God the Father has sent me to be your Healer.”
  • He sighed. “Sin has done such terrible damage to the human race and caused so much pain and sickness and trouble.” But…
  • “Ephphatha!”  “Be opened!” The Word of the Son of God is more powerful than all the pain and destruction sin can bring.

The power to heal, the power for the deaf to hear, the power for the unbeliever to believe, comes, not from the deaf man, not from the unbeliever, but from the Speaker, Jesus Christ. He speaks to deaf ears, which seems foolish.  But when the Son of God, by His Holy Spirit, speaks to deaf ears, they open.

What a comforting Gospel for all who mourn over their sin and its consequences, for all who recognize how deaf we are by nature to God’s truth, how speech-impaired we are to confess the faith rightly and to praise the grace of God!  Jesus has taken each one of you sin-sick people aside and done for your soul all that He did for this deaf man.  He took each one of you aside at your Baptism, and with that holy spit, has cleansed you from all unrighteousness. He has put His Holy Spirit into your ears, calling you to faith through the Gospel.  He has placed His own body and blood on your tongue for the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of the Altar. And He has opened the ears of your heart to hear His Word and believe in Him and has opened your tongue to confess His name.  You were deaf to His Word, but He spoke to you anyway, and faith comes from hearing.  And it is with the heart that a man believes and is justified, and it is with the mouth that a man confesses his faith and is saved.

The Gospel account ends in such a mixed way. Jesus healed the deaf man’s ears and tongue, and then ordered the crowds not to use their tongues to spread the word of this particular healing.  He didn’t want this word to get out.  Then they went on to misuse their ears and their tongues, to not listen to Jesus’ direct order, to disobey the Son of God by telling everyone about this miracle.  Surely they did what they did from good intentions. They wanted people to hear this good news of what Jesus had done, but it doesn’t matter.  Jesus had His reasons for the order He gave them, and they were to obey His Word, whether they understood or agreed with His order or not. Could God have gotten the Word out about His Son in a God-pleasing way?  Of course He could have! He didn’t need these people to despise the word of Jesus in order to fulfill His plans. What they did was wicked, sinful and wrong.  The end didn’t justify the means. And yet, in spite of their wickedness, God worked to spread the news of His Son.  God worked their evil for good, as He always does.

We can apply this part of the Gospel in any number of ways. For now, consider just this application. You want people to hear the Gospel.  You want people to know Jesus, to be part of His Church, to stay members of this church.  That’s a good goal, a God-pleasing end.

But it doesn’t justify the means you use to get the word out to people.  It doesn’t justify sinful behavior, even if you might have the goal of saving someone’s soul through your sinful behavior.  For example, Jesus does not authorize any and every activity under the sun to get people into church.  He calls us to avoid all things that would give people a wrong impression about Jesus or about the Church or what it means to be a Christian.  He calls us to be honest with our neighbors and to simply tell them the truth about God’s law and His Gospel. 

Or, Jesus comes along and charges you not to tell your friend, your loved one who has stopped coming to church, or who is living together outside of marriage or living in adultery—that everything is OK, that they’re doing fine.  Jesus has charged you to rebuke your fellow member who is living in impenitence, even if you think such a rebuke would not be taken too kindly or heard very well.

Remember, deaf ears open when the Son of God speaks to them.  He doesn’t need us to disobey Him in order to fulfill His good purposes.  And if you have disobeyed Him in the past, all is not lost.  Here is forgiveness again, along with the reassurance that God gets His work done, sometimes through our obedience, but more often than not, in spite of our disobedience.

Deaf ears open when the Son of God speaks to them.  May your hearts take courage again today.  May your ears be opened by His Word, and may your tongues be loosed to declare the praises of our Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Faith is the difference between those who are justified and those who are not

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 11

Genesis 4:1-15  +  Ephesians 2:1-10  +  Luke 18:9-14

As we have learned from God’s Word on many occasions, the whole world is divided in two, and has been ever since the days of Adam and Eve.  There are Cains and there are Abels.  There are Pharisees and there are tax collectors. There are spiritually dead people and people who were once dead who have now been made alive.  There are children of wrath and children of God.  The damned and the saved. The not forgiven and the forgiven. The unrighteous and the righteous.  The not justified and the justified. 

And you can’t tell them apart by looking at them.  You can’t tell them apart by the color of their skin or by how they’re dressed, how rich they are or how poor. And you can’t necessarily tell them apart by what they do.  When you get right down to it, there’s one thing that separates them from one another, and that thing is faith in Christ. Faith is the difference between those who are justified and those who are not.

You couldn’t tell any difference between Cain and Abel in how they looked on the inside.  They were both born in their father Adam’s image—his sinful image that is passed down to all of his children (except for the One born of a virgin). You couldn’t tell any difference between Cain and Abel in their worship.  People have tried to point to the different types of sacrifices each one offered—Cain with his grain offerings and Abel with his animal offerings—as if God preferred the animal sacrifices to the grain sacrifices.  No.  One thing separated Cain from Abel, and that thing was faith. As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts.

In the end, of course, Cain’s unbelief was betrayed by his actions.  But the unbelief was there first, the unbelief that made Cain unacceptable to God.  But didn’t Cain believe in God, too?  No, and that’s where we get confused today about what faith is.  Faith is not knowing that God exists—something that Cain certainly knew.  Faith is trust in God, reliance on God for mercy, for forgiveness.  Abel offered his sacrifices in that trust.  Cain offered his sacrifices without it. And even though Cain lived many more years, he was already dead due to unbelief.  And even though Abel’s life was cut short, he is still alive and in glory with God today.  As Hebrews says, And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

In our Gospel today, Jesus saw the true groups before Him—those who were confident in their own righteousness, and those who trusted in Jesus for mercy.  In fact, he directed His parable primarily toward those who didn’t believe in Him and so were not justified, toward the “Cain group” who hated the “Abel group” and showed contempt toward them, just as Cain once hated his brother.

We see the two groups represented in Jesus’ parable by a Pharisee and by a tax collector.  Both of them go to the temple in Jerusalem to pray.  Now, this wasn’t a church service, like a synagogue service would have been.  You didn’t go to the temple for a structured service.  You either went to offer a sacrifice on the big altar, or you went to an open area to sit at the feet of a Rabbi like Jesus and listen, or you went to find a quiet place to pray.

The Pharisee and the tax collector went to pray. Now, to the naked eye, it was easy to see which one must be in the justified group and which one in the not justified group.  The Pharisee must be justified, righteous before God!  At least, he certainly thinks so.  He’s the respected member of Jewish society, the good guy, the decent guy. He’s the law-abiding citizen who loves his country.  He’s the one who gives the big offerings at church. And if he has any minor flaws—and everyone has some flaws—he is sure that God will overlook them because, all in all, he’s a good person.

He’s so convinced of his own goodness that he feels justified in looking down on those who don’t measure up to his standards.  He’s so convinced of his own goodness that he boldly prays to God in order to thank God that he is so much better than the sinful tax collector over there in the corner.

The tax collector, even if he’s an honest one—and there weren’t many honest ones.  Most were thieves.  But even if he’s an honest one, everyone assumes he’s dishonest.  He’s considered a traitor to his country by his fellow countrymen because he works with the Roman government to tax his own people and collect the taxes, with a certain commission that goes into his own pocket.  To the naked eye, it’s clear that this tax collector is the one who belongs to the group of the unrighteous, the not forgiven, the not justified.

His prayer there in temple is so unlike the Pharisee’s prayer.  He doesn’t see anything good in himself at all, only sin and neediness.  He doesn’t hold anything up to God for God to see and smile. He can only look down and beat his breast and whisper the words, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

And then Jesus reveals what the naked eye can’t see.  Jesus reveals God’s verdict on each of these two men, and it’s just the opposite of what the crowd there before Him would have expected.  I tell you, this man—the tax collector! — went down to his house justified, rather than the other.

Why?  The Pharisee was a good person, and the tax collector was a sinner!  No.  God’s law accused them both of being sinners and equally deserving of condemnation.  The Pharisee and the tax collector—both sinners by birth and sinners by thought, word and deed, even though the Pharisee was better at hiding it.  In what they deserved, they were the same.

And, in what God had done for them and was doing for them, they were the same.  Jesus would soon get up on that cross and have the sins of both men pressed down on His shoulders.  Jesus would make atonement for the sins of both men.  He would be the propitiation—the One who satisfies the demands of God’s law for both men, and for all men.  And God wanted both men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

The difference between the two men was this:  faith.  The Pharisee stood before God’s judgment seat and held up his works under the law, while the tax collector had faith in God’s mercy and appealed only to God’s mercy, there in the temple.

Why would God forgive sins in this temple? Because this is where atonement was made for sin in the sacrifices.  This is where God had promised to be propitious—merciful, favorable— to all who call on Him here for mercy.  Literally, the words of the tax collector in his prayer were, “God, be propitious to me, a sinner!”

The temple was a picture of Christ, whom the Apostle Paul calls the propitiation-place, the mercy seat, the throne of grace.  The Apostle John says that Jesus Himself is the propitiation for the sins of the world.  The temple in Jerusalem has been replaced with a man—the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  He is where God promises to hear and to be propitious, to be merciful, to forgive sins and to justify sinners.  Whoever looks to the Son of God has eternal life, receives forgiveness, is justified.

This is why we say in the Apostles’ Creed, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Luther’s catechism explains that phrase rightly, “In this Christian Church the Holy Spirit daily and richly forgives all sins to me and all believers in Christ.”  Not just this one Christian Church called Emmanuel, of course.  Wherever Christ is preached as the way, the truth and the life.  Wherever the Sacraments are rightly administered.  Here is where God forgives sins. Why do we say that God forgives sins “in this Christian Church”?  As the old WELS catechism explained, “We say this because Christ has given the Gospel to His Church on earth; in the Gospel we have the forgiveness of sins.”

But outside of this Christian Church, where Christ is not preached as the propitiation-place, where there is no faith, there is no forgiveness of sins. Whoever does not look to the Son for mercy stands condemned already, not justified, according to the words of Jesus—like the Pharisee who held up his own righteousness to God instead of trusting in the righteousness of Jesus that was being held out to him.

Is it possible to come to church and still not receive forgiveness?  Yes, just like the Pharisee.  If you come looking to offer God your good behavior in coming to church today, if you come looking to praise God for making you better than the rest, if you come just to socialize or be seen, then, even though you came to the right place today, you will not go home justified. If you come looking to Christ for mercy, you will find it.  Here it is, Christ for you!

As I said at the beginning of the sermon, Jesus directed this parable primarily to those who were like the Pharisee.  And his Word to them was that they were not justified.  But why such a harsh Word?  Just to tell them off for their arrogance and contempt?  Not at all.  But by telling them the truth, that they were not justified before God because of their unbelief, that is the very Word that cuts to the heart and convicts sinners before God so that, by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, they may see their need for mercy and seek it in Christ where they are sure to find it.  And so Jesus concludes His parable by calling out to all of them listening, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.  But whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  Jesus pleaded with them, just as He now pleads with you.  Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand that He may lift you up.  Christ, with all His mercy and forgiveness, dwells not with the proud, but with the humble. Do not go to your house today like the Pharisee—confident in yourself and not justified.  Instead, go to your house today like the tax collector, humble before God and man, and yet confident in the merit and the mercy of Christ, steadfast in the faith by which you, like the tax collector, have been justified.  Amen.

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The Stone of Stumbling / The Stone of Salvation

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 10

Jeremiah 8:4-12  +  Romans 9:30 – 10:4  +  Luke 19:41-48

(The sermon was given from an outline again today, so again, audio only this week.  I apologize for the inconvenience and intend to have the text posted for future sermons.  +Pastor Rydecki)

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God is faithful

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Trinity 9

2 Samuel 22:26-34  +  1 Corinthians 10:6-13  +  Luke 16:1-9

(audio only this week)
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Judge the Prophets by God’s Word

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Meditation for Trinity 8

+  Matthew 7:15-23  +

For our brief meditation this morning, we will consider the words of Jesus in the Gospel, the words with which He drew to a close His Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus addressed these words to all of His disciples at that time, all of His followers. And that’s important.

So when He says, “Beware of false prophets,” He is speaking to all Christians.  But, doctrine is for pastors to decide, right?  Seminary professors?  Synods?  You haven’t been trained at seminaries, after all.  It’s true, you haven’t been trained at seminaries, nor have you been called to preach the Word.  But you have been given the Word of Christ—the Word that is like fire, and like a hammer.  You have not been given the Word to proclaim it as a prophet.  But you have been given the Word to know and to believe, and to use in order to do what Jesus tells you to do in the Gospel—to beware of false prophets.  To judge the doctrine of those who come to you in the name of God.

Sometimes Christians would like to throw up their hands in defeat and say, “God’s Word is too hard to understand! Why study it?” Or, “I know enough already! I don’t need to study it!”  My friends, if you care at all about Jesus, if you love Him, if you believe in Him, then you cannot take that attitude.  All you have in this life is His Word, and as the Psalm says, God has exalted above all things His name and His Word. 

You do not know God apart from His Word.  You may think you do, as many people in the world think they know God.  And whatever they think about God, whatever they imagine He is like, whatever they have heard repeated often enough, that becomes doctrine for them.  And they seek out a church, not one that proclaims the clear Word of God from the Scriptures, but a church that teaches in conformity with their ideas about God, a preacher who preaches what their itching ears want to hear.

You do not know God apart from His Word. Apart from His Word you might think you’re a pretty good person. But the hammer and fire of His Word reveals nothing but sin in you.  Apart from His Word, you might think your works will get you to heaven, or that your sins are so bad that you must certainly end up in hell.  But the hammer and fire of God’s Word reveals only one way to be justified before a holy God: not by works, but by faith alone in Jesus Christ.

This justification is the work of the Triune God: our Savior-God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The fire of God’s Word reveals the grace of God the Father who loved the world and gave His Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 

The fire of God’s Word reveals the work of the Son of God on your behalf, the work of bearing the sins of the world, the work of redeeming mankind from the condemnation of sin by His holy, precious blood, and of earning for all people a righteous verdict in God’s courtroom.

The fire of God’s Word reveals that the Spirit of God is the One who works through the Word to convict condemned sinners of their sin and bring them to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  Whoever believes in the Son of God is freely justified before God.  Whoever does not believe, says Jesus, stands condemned already.

This is the simple truth of the Gospel, and Jesus calls upon you today in the Gospel to judge every prophet or preacher who comes to you, including me, by that Word of God.

Do you expect there to be peace in the Church and harmony among all who come to preach in the name of Christ?  Jesus says, no, there will not be peace on this earth.  There will be a continual presence of true prophets and false prophets.  And they will all look the same to you, Jesus says.  They will all come dressed like sheep, like true believers in Jesus who wear the name of God.  And they will all sound awfully similar.  They will all quote from Scripture.  They will all claim to teach in the name of God.  They will all call upon Jesus as Lord, and claim to preach in His name.  They may claim great glory for themselves.  But in the end, Jesus knows the truth.  Jesus knows those who believe in Him, those who have faith, and those who don’t.  Some will hear the terrible sentence on the last day, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

But where does that leave you?  You cannot see hearts like Jesus can.  Where does it leave you?  How will you know of whom to beware and whom to trust and what you should believe so that you can stand before God with confidence?

You cannot stand before God relying on popes or councils or pastors or synods.  All you have is God’s Word.  And it is enough, because Jesus says it is enough.  God’s Word in the hands of a child is just as powerful as God’s Word in the hands of the greatest preacher. You have all been given God’s Word to hear, to learn, to study, and to believe.  That faith is your shield against all the fiery darts of Satan.  And that Word is your sword, your only weapon to fight him off as he seeks to lead you astray with his lies and deception.  It is a powerful weapon.

If you have neglected the hearing, learning and studying of God’s Word, then today God calls on you to repent and to receive His forgiveness as you look to Christ for mercy.  He is the Throne of Grace and will never turn anyone away who looks to Him.  And if you look to Him for forgiveness, then look to Him also to strengthen you through His Word and to prepare you for every battle and for every affliction.  He is the faithful Shepherd, and He will never abandon His flock. Amen.

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