The royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Judica – Lent 5

Hebrews 9:11-15  +  John 8:46-59

We often speak of the threefold office of God’s Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of David: the office of Prophet, Priest, and King. All three offices were prominent in the Old Testament, usually occupied by different people, although sometimes they overlapped, as with David, for example, who, in addition to being king, was an inspired, prophetic writer of many of the Psalms, earning him the title “royal Prophet.” At the beginning of the Lenten season we saw how Jesus, the Son of David, defeated the devil’s temptations and so became qualified to serve as our great High Priest, who was without sin and, therefore, able to offer His own blood as the perfect sacrifice for all sin, being the Mediator and Priest of a New Testament to fulfill and replace the Old. Today’s epistle spoke of that same thing, and it’s the main theme of Holy Week.

On this last Sunday before Holy Week, we heard a Gospel that highlights Jesus’ role especially as Prophet and King, like His forefather David. Prophet, in that He was sent by God to speak the very words of God to the Jews, and to reveal God to them, although most refused to acknowledge Him as a true Prophet; and King, in that Jesus confronts the enemies of His people to put them in their place. Modern kings, where they still exist, usually sit in safety and luxury, giving orders from afar, from the comfort of their palaces. Ancient kings sat on thrones when they were making decisions, but they also led the charge in battle. Throughout this whole chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus does battle, not with earthly weapons, but with the sword of His almighty word. He takes on His enemies, the Jews who were becoming more and more motivated to kill Him. And He takes them on, not for His own sake—on the contrary, these confrontations would eventually get Him killed. No, He confronts them for our sake. He bears their insults and accusations, refutes them, and makes the bold statements that form the foundation of our faith and provide pure comfort to all who believe. So watch as the true royal, priestly Prophet goes into battle for His beloved Church.

The Jews had been challenging Jesus all day. So He challenged them back: “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” And no one could, for as much as they hated Him and were eager to find sins to convict Him of. The fact that they couldn’t proves yet again that Jesus was indeed qualified to serve both as the great High Priest and as the perfect Sacrifice, to heal the breech between God and sinful mankind, to reconcile God and man through His blood and mediation.

And if I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears God’s words. That is why you do not hear, because you are not of God. Jesus was “of God” from the start, making Him both the perfect Prophet, who spoke God’s words faithfully and was supposed to be believed, and the perfect Priest, who, as the God-Man, can perfectly represent God to man and man to God. Believers become “of God” when they are born again, when they are brought to faith. But the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus proved that they were not “of God.” They didn’t have Him for a Father. They weren’t His children. They weren’t on His side. Instead, as Jesus had pointed out earlier in this dialogue, they were of their father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Yes, Jesus dared to declare these powerful, well-respected religious leaders to be sons of Satan, to be working for the devil, to be enemies of God, because they refused to use Jesus, the Mediator, to be reconciled to God. That’s true for everyone who fails to hear and believe the word of God that Jesus speaks, the word of God that’s recorded in Holy Scripture. There is no fellowship with God for those who do not believe the things that Jesus says. And, tragically, it’s often people inside the Church, people who claim to be God’s children, who reveal themselves not to be God’s children by their rejection of Christ’s teaching—a sobering warning for all of us.

The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and that you have a demon?” They were dripping with hatred and condescension toward Jesus. Who did He think He was? They were the famous Pharisees! They were the experts! They were the leaders of the Church! How dare He declare them to be outside the kingdom of God! He must be the one who’s a half-breed and in league with the devil!

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and who judges.” There He is as Prophet and as King. As Prophet, Jesus honors His Father by speaking His Father’s words faithfully. He honors His Father by doing His will in the world, always, without fail. As Prophet and as King, Jesus stands against these unbelievers and warns them that the One who is heaven seeks glory and honor for His beloved Son, and who sits in judgment against everyone who fails to give it. This is the same Jesus whom John saw in his vision in the Book of Revelation, with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. Here He slashes the Jews with it and speaks condemnation against them.

Meanwhile, the same sword of His mouth works great comfort for those who believe, even as it continues to destroy those who disbelieve. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. That’s a defiant assertion against His enemies, who would surely see death, and even eternal death, because they wouldn’t keep His word. But for all who do, it’s a proclamation of pure comfort, for all who keep His word, for all who believe in Him and in the words He speaks. Here is Christ the King, stepping forward to take on death itself on behalf of His beloved Christians.

“Death” has various meanings. The most literal meaning is the separation of body and soul that takes place when the lungs stop breathing and the heart stops beating and the brain stops sending signals to the rest of the body. That physical death awaits us all, by the ancient command of God that cursed our race after the first man and woman chose death over life. But the death that believers in Jesus will never see is far worse. That death is called eternal death, the death of pain and torment that comes after physical death—torment for the soul, and then torment for body and soul at the end of this age, when Jesus returns and raises all the dead, when the righteous will go away to eternal life while the unrighteous will go away to everlasting punishment. That death is truly dreadful. That death is permanent. But we have the assurance of the Christ, our Prophet and our King, that those who keep His word will never see that death, not at all, not any part of it, not hell, not purgatory, not any sort of torment after our physical death occurs, but only life, joy, peace, and rest.

Of course, the unbelieving Jews were oblivious, as usual, to Jesus’ true meaning. Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets. And you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

Yes, the prophets and patriarchs experienced physical death. The Jews claimed Jesus was demon-possessed because, as they saw it, He was promising to keep people from dying physically, when, in fact, He was talking about eternal death in hell. They thought He was making Himself out to be greater than Abraham and greater than the prophets. In that, however, they weren’t wrong. Our royal priestly Prophet Jesus, the Son of David, was and is greater than Abraham or any of the Old Testament prophets, greater than the greatest men who had ever lived, greater than Elijah and Elisha, who did raise a couple of people from the dead. But those people just got a few more years added to their earthly lives before they died again. Jesus could do far more!

But first, before the big reveal, before revealing who He truly was, our King tossed another grenade at them: Jesus answered, “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. You do not know him; but I know him. If I were to say, ‘I do not know him,’ I would be a liar, like you. But I do know him and keep his word.” The royal priestly Prophet from heaven knows the Father perfectly, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten of His Father before all ages. He knows God and He reveals God to mankind. Meanwhile, those who reject Jesus and don’t listen to His word, but who still call themselves children of God or worshipers of God—they’re nothing but liars. And Jesus isn’t afraid to say so.

Finally, the King is ready to set them on fire with His words about Himself. Your father Abraham was glad that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced. Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! And you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham saw the coming of His promised Seed by faith, and he laughed. He rejoiced, not only in the birth of his promised son Isaac, but in the coming Seed, the promised Christ, in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. But more than that, Abraham literally saw the person of Christ every time he interacted with God, because Jesus is the exact representation of the Father, the eternal God Himself, Yahweh, Jehovah, the great I AM, as He revealed Himself to Moses.

That’s what the Prophet Jesus declares about Himself. So don’t even think about claiming to be a religious person, much less a Christian, if you don’t believe it, and if you don’t believe in Him. He is the only true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the true Prophet, Priest, and King, anointed by God the Father to speak for Him as Prophet, to offer His blood and to mediate for sinners as Priest, and to reign over the house of God as King, doing battle against every enemy as a mighty Champion, until death itself is thoroughly defeated. Believe in Him! Take refuge in Him! And He will share with you His victory over sin, death, and the devil. Amen.

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Small Catechism: The Ministry of the Keys

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon on the Chief Parts of the Catechism, Part 5

2 Samuel 12:1-15 +  Matthew 16:13-19

The Fifth Chief Part of the original Small Catechism was simply entitled, “How the simple should be taught to confess,” providing Christians with a basic outline of what private confession should look like. It assumes that Christians are going regularly to confession, as had been the practice in the Church for centuries by Luther’s time. It also assumes that Christians already know about the authority of a minister to pronounce absolution in God’s name. Later generations added a preface to that, dealing specifically with that authority that God has given to His ministers, which we call “the ministry of the Keys.”

Let’s start with that. We’re talking here about the Keys of the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 16, which you heard this evening. Jesus had asked His apostles, Who do you say that I am? Peter answered for them, saying, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That’s when Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Jesus describes here what the “keys” are that He promised He would give to Peter. They’re the authority to “loose” a person from his sins, or “bind” a person to his sins. Now, He’s not talking here about sins people commit against one another. Each person has the right to forgive sins committed against himself. When someone sins against you, you have the “right” to give forgiveness to the person or to withhold it, the right to stop holding that sin against them or to keep holding that sin against them, as far as you’re concerned. Now, if the person comes to you in repentance and you choose to withhold forgiveness, then that’s how God will treat you when you come to Him in repentance, so you’d better be very careful if you want to refuse your forgiveness to the penitent. But you still have the authority to refuse it.

No, what Jesus is talking about here is the authority to forgive sins committed against God, the authority to speak for God in either absolving (or loosing) a person from his sins, or to refuse forgiveness, with the assurance that God in heaven is acting through these keys, either forgiving or retaining sins, unlocking or locking heaven to a person.

To whom has God given this authority? In every case where Jesus speaks of it, He’s speaking to His twelve (or eleven, or ten) apostles. Here in Matthew 16, He’s addressing Peter, who has just answered for the other disciples. But He repeats it to all of them in Matthew 18, and again in John 20, after Jesus rose from the dead, where Jesus breathed on His ten disciples (the eleven minus Thomas) and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit! If you forgive the sins of any, to them they are forgiven, and if you retain the sins of any, to them they are retained. The “power” or “authority” of the keys was given to the ministers of the Church at that time, just as the command to baptize was given to the eleven apostles. In fact, baptism itself is one of the uses of the Keys to forgive sins, as is the Lord’s Supper, as is the preaching of the Gospel in general. This is what the office of the ministry is primarily for, for men on earth to forgive sins in the name of God, with the full authority and approval of God. That’s why we call the ministry of the Word the Means of Grace, because the God attaches His promises of grace to Word and Sacrament, persuading us to believe what He promises and so to receive the promised gifts. The Lord Christ authorized the original ministers to act in His name, and then, through the call of the Church, He authorizes more and more ministers to go forth and act in His name and by His authority.

But God’s authority also comes with God’s instructions. God doesn’t authorize ministers to forgive whomever they please or to refuse forgiveness to whomever they please. He has instructed them to forgive those who repent and look to Christ for forgiveness, just as He has instructed them to refuse forgiveness to the impenitent and unbelieving. When ministers act according to God’s command, then we should believe with the certainty of faith what we confess in the catechism section on the ministry: I believe in what the called ministers of Christ do among us, by His divine command—especially when they exclude public, impenitent sinners from the Christian congregation, and when they absolve1 those who repent of their sins and are willing to mend their ways—that it is all as valid and certain in heaven also, as if our dear Lord Christ did it Himself.

So a minister first uses the key of forgiveness on a person in Holy Baptism as the personal application of the forgiveness of sins. He uses them in the Lord’s Supper. He uses them in a general way, by preaching the Gospel. And he may also use them in the private setting of confession and absolution.

Going regularly to private confession was never commanded by God. It wasn’t even practiced in a widespread way for the first few hundred years of the Church’s existence. It became more common, but still optional, in the 5th through 9th centuries. It grew in use until the year 1215 when, at the Fourth Lateran Council, it was first required to be practiced by Christians in the Roman Catholic Church at least once a year, where people had to list every sin for which they wanted forgiveness. Then, in the centuries leading up to the Reformation, it became more common for priests to require it as a condition anytime someone wanted to receive Communion.

That was the practice Luther inherited. And he didn’t entirely reject it. Instead, Lutherans confessed in the Augsburg Confession: We also retain (private) confession, especially on account of the absolution, as being the word of God which, by divine authority, the power of the keys pronounces upon individuals. Therefore it would be wicked to remove private absolution from the Church.

So, as Lutherans, we retain private confession, but not as a requirement. One could argue that requiring private confession, at least occasionally, made more sense in the large churches they had 500 years ago, where the pastors had much less individual interaction with most of their members. But even now, in our small congregations, our members should know that they can sit down with the pastor anytime they want and confess, in confidence, the sins that are weighing on their hearts, so that they can receive, one on one, both the word of absolution and personal encouragement and guidance from God’s Word. At the same time, that one-on-one setting allows the pastor to tend his sheep better, to find out about the struggles his sheep are facing, and to make sure that they aren’t going astray in any direction but are staying on the narrow path toward the heavenly pasture.

In any case, the Fifth Chief Part of the catechism provides us with a simple format for private confession, similar to what we use on Sundays in our general confession, where confession consists of two parts: First, that a person confesses his sins. Second, that a person receives the absolution or forgiveness from the minister, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that his sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven. Because, as we said, the forgiveness that the minister gives is not his personal forgiveness, but God’s own forgiveness, given by God’s command, given through means, given through a humble servant of God, so that his words carry the full weight of God’s own words: And I, by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive you your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! Amen.

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Bread with a higher purpose

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Laetare – Lent 4

Galatians 4:21-31  +  John 6:1-15

A lot of people are giving up bread these days as part of their diet. And not just those who have a gluten allergy or an intolerance for wheat. A lot of people are giving up bread altogether, because of potential contamination with harmful chemicals, or because of all the starches and carbs it has, or because some of them hold to a paleo, evolutionary view that man was never meant to consume grains or the breads that are made from them.

From a Biblical perspective, bread itself is a good thing, a gift of God, something for which we are taught to ask for in the Lord’s Prayer, something for which we ought to give thanks to God, even if there’s something wrong with some people’s bodies that makes it impossible for them to eat it.

But, bread can also become harmful if a person consumes too much of it. It can even become an idol, if a person becomes too focused on it, if he becomes more interested in acquiring bread for his body than he is in serving God with his body, or than he is in feeding his soul. As Moses said to the Israelites, as Jesus later said to the devil, Man does live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Here “bread” represents food of all kinds. The body needs food. It has a purpose for sustaining our bodies. But man is more than the body. We’re body and soul creatures, and the soul needs to eat, too. And in today’s Gospel, we see a higher purpose for the bread that Jesus provided, although that purpose was not fulfilled for everyone who ate.

The feeding of the five thousand took place at a time when Jesus was trying to get away from the crowds for a little while. He had gotten into boat with His disciples and crossed the sea to a deserted place. But the multitudes had seen Him leave and had left on foot to meet Him on the other side of the lake. John tells us why they pursued Him: Because they saw all the signs He was doing and they wanted to see more. And they wanted to have their bodily illnesses healed. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, wandering aimlessly, attracted by the “flashing lights”—by all the miracles Jesus was doing.

So, as the other Gospels tell us, Jesus spent the rest of the day teaching them and healing their diseases. And when evening came, Jesus had one more lesson to teach, both to His disciples and to the crowd—a lesson that centered on bread. After all, as John tells us, Passover was near. Passover—and with it, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

People’s minds should have been wandering over to that important annual celebration, just as most of us think about and plan ahead for Christmas, and (hopefully) also Easter, weeks in advance. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread—a reminder of God’s physical providence in redeeming Israel from slavery in Egypt, of the unleavened bread they ate in their haste to leave, and of Moses leading them through the wilderness where God provided bread for them every day in the form of Manna, teaching them to rely, not on their own strength to provide for themselves, but only on God and His Word, for everything. But the Passover was also a reminder of God’s spiritual providence in His promise to redeem Israel by the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, the Prophet who is greater than Moses, who would offer the true Bread from heaven, the sustenance that mankind needs most of all: Himself as the one Mediator between God and man. There it is again: bread for the body pointing to a higher purpose for the soul.

First, Jesus tests Philip and the other disciples. Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat? They looked to their own ability to buy bread and they knew immediately that they couldn’t possibly provide it. All they found was a boy who had five loaves of bread and two small fish, but, “What are they among so many?” They’re nothing, in the hands of men. But in the hands of the Son of God, they’re more than enough.

Jesus had His disciples seat the people on the grass—5,000 men, plus women and children. Then He took the boy’s bread and fish, gave thanks to the Father for providing this good food, and then started handing out bread and fish to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes, and the food just kept coming. All 5,000 ate their fill, with twelve baskets of broken pieces left over, enough to feed still others when they got back to town.

Yes, man does live on bread. That’s how God designed us. But who provides it? Where does it come from? It comes from God the Father; it comes through Jesus, the Son of God and the Word of God. It comes from God usually through parents or through hard work. But God can also rain bread down from heaven or multiply what’s in the pantry, if that’s how He has to keep His promise to provide for His people. Recognize God as the source of your bread. Recognize Jesus as the Giver. And receive your daily bread with thanksgiving. Receive it with gladness. Enjoy it while you have it, and share the leftover pieces with those who need it.

But recognize that bread has a higher purpose than just sustaining your body. It sustains your body so that you can stay alive long enough to be brought to faith in Christ Jesus! It sustains your body so that you may have the chance to hear God’s word, so that you can receive God’s teaching about sin—your sin, and the sin of everyone else, and the sin that has corrupted even nature itself, the sin that will result in the death of your body and the destruction of this earth. Your soul needs to feed on God’s teaching about His grace—His gracious plan of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, His gracious acceptance of all who believe in Christ, His gracious gift of His Holy Spirit to begin a new obedience in the Christian, His gracious help in bearing the cross each and every day, until you reach the goal of the undying life.

Tragically, the multitudes in our Gospel today fixated on bread for its own sake, most of the Jews at that time did, who wanted to stick with Hagar, if you recall the Epistle today from Galatians 4. They wanted to stick with “Jerusalem below,” with the First Covenant of the Law, focused on a living a good life here on earth, instead of the Second Covenant of grace and of the Promise of forgiveness and eternal life through Christ. The people in our Gospel believed that Jesus was the Prophet who was to come, but what most of them wanted from and expected from the Christ was an earthly king to fill their bellies with bread, to fight their battles with political opponents, to give them social justice, a pleasant and comfortable earthly life. As it says at the end of the Gospel, the people who ate the bread were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king. And so, as we learn from the rest of John 6, those very multitudes pursued Jesus to the other side of the lake on the next day, and then quickly abandoned Jesus when He refused to give them more bread, when He insisted on offering them Himself instead, as the living Bread who came down from heaven who would give His very flesh and blood to reconcile them with God and to bestow on them, not an extended earthly life, but an eternal heavenly one.

Like those crowds, people today are happy to follow Jesus, if it’s the Jesus who gives away free things—material things, who gives them a better life, who makes them feel good. They’re happy to have a Jesus who didn’t create the world, who doesn’t demand any sort of obedience or worship. They’re happy to follow a Jesus who does only the things they think He should do, who works together with other religions to solve social problems, who would never pass judgment. Such a Jesus the people of this world might have for a king.

But the real Jesus appeared, teaching that He is the Creator of all, and the Judge of all, the only true God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the One who came to call poor sinners to repentance and to terrify the impenitent with the fiery judgment that awaits. The real Christ came to suffer the judgment we deserved for our sins and to offer forgiveness of sins and eternal life to the penitent and believing. The real Christ calls people to repent and be baptized. He calls them to sit at the feet of the pastors whom He has sent, just as He didn’t distribute the bread and fish to the people directly, but through the hands of the apostles. He calls Christians to be active in a church that teaches His truth purely, to receive His very body and blood in His Sacrament, and to recognize His Word and Sacraments as the true food for the soul and as the source of a life that’s so much bigger than what we can see here.

That Jesus was not accepted then, and He still isn’t accepted now—not by most of the world, even by most of your neighbors, even by many churches that bear His name.

But, by the grace of God, you know better, don’t you? Look to the Lord Jesus for daily bread and receive it from Him with thanksgiving. But remember that the bread He provides serves a higher purpose. Look to Him for the higher things, for the things that last: for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation which He earned for you through His suffering and death, and which He now hands out for free in His Word and Sacraments. Then and only then will you be able to “rejoice with Jerusalem,” not with the earthly Jerusalem that rejects Jesus’ word, but with the Jerusalem above, which is the home of all the blessed who are saved by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. Amen.

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Small Catechism: Holy Baptism

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon on the Fourth Chief Part of the Catechism

2 Kings 5:1-14  +  Matthew 28:16-20

The first three chief parts of the Catechism teach us (1) about God’s commandments for how His people are to live; (2) who God is, what He has done, is doing, and will do for us; and (3) how God has taught us to pray to Him, and the things for which we should ask. The last three chief parts teach us about three specific ways in which God interacts with us, three gifts He has given to us in the Christian Church. The first of these is the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

First, let’s define a “sacrament.” The word isn’t in the Bible. When Lutherans use the word “sacrament,” we’re talking about outward ceremonies that God has established and commanded, ceremonies in which some earthly element, like water, is used, ceremonies to which God has attached a promise to do something for us, namely, to forgive us our sins and to save us from sin, death, and the devil.

And so we turn, first, to the first sacrament, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. There are four parts to the catechism-explanation of Baptism. First, What is it?

Christian Baptism is always a washing with water. It’s always a “water Baptism.” The Evangelicals have tried to separate “Spirit Baptism” from “water Baptism,” placing a much greater emphasis on “Spirit Baptism.” But, to be blunt, they don’t know what they’re talking about. We’ll get back to that in a moment.

For now, understand that, when we talk about Christian Baptism, Holy Baptism, we’re always talking about water. But not plain water, not just any use of water. The Greek word itself, “baptism,” can be used for any washing. It can refer to dipping someone or something in water, as Naaman dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River in the first lesson you heard this evening, where the Greek word for “dipped” is actually “baptized.” But it can also refer to sprinkling water or pouring water, or to the ritual washing of hands, pitchers, cups, or couches. In those cases, a “baptism” is just a washing with water.

But actually, in Naaman’s case, it was more than that, wasn’t it? Because his washing in the Jordan River was done at the command of God. God, through the prophet Elisha, told Naaman to “go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and you shall be clean.” So Naaman’s washing was done at God’s command.

So it is with Holy Baptism. It’s the water included in God’s command and connected to God’s word. Our Lord Christ says to His apostles in the last chapter of Matthew, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The eleven apostles received the command and authorization from Jesus to baptize, and they, in turn, along with the rest of the Church, later ordained other ministers to carry out this important command. Meanwhile, “all nations” are the ones who are to be baptized, just as Peter commanded the crowds in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you!” God has commanded the washing of Holy Baptism.

Second, What does Baptism do? As Luther says in the explanation of the catechism, it works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation, to all who believe this. This is very important: Baptism does something. Look at what happened with Naaman. God had promised, through Elisha, that washing seven times in the Jordan River would result in his being cleansed of leprosy. When Naaman finally gave in and washed himself according to God’s command, he was cleansed! Because God promised to do something miraculous for him through that simple washing.

So it is with Holy Baptism. God promises to do something through this simple washing. Repent and be baptized, Peter said in Acts 2, for the forgiveness of sin. Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, said Ananias to Saul. Baptism now saves you, Peter declares in 1 Peter 3. He who believes as is baptized will be saved, says the Lord in Mark 16. You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ, says Paul in Galatians 3. God promised physical cleansing to Naaman in that one-time baptism-like ceremony he was to undergo in the Jordan River. He promises to give spiritual cleansing and even greater spiritual blessings to all who are washed in Holy Baptism, no matter where they are or who they are.

But faith is required in order for a person to receive the promised blessing. Baptism works salvation…to all who believe this. Naaman didn’t have a strong, unwavering faith in God’s promise, but it took at least a little faith to do what the prophet had told him to do, or else he wouldn’t have dipped in the Jordan those seven times. So Jesus also says, not, “Whoever is baptized shall be saved,” but, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.”

Third, How does Baptism do all this? It isn’t the water that does it. All the power is in God’s word and promise. With the word of God it is truly a Baptism—a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit. Faith comes by hearing, because the Spirit of God is at work in the word that’s preached. So, too, the Spirit of God works in the word that’s preached in connection to water. The word of God says to a person, “Be baptized and have your sins washed away!” And the Holy Spirit convinces the person that, yes, God will do as He has promised. So the person proceeds to the washing of Baptism, takes God at His word, and is born again of water and the Spirit, having his sins washed away.

Let’s get back to “Spirit Baptism” for a moment. The Spirit is and has always been at work where the Word of God is preached. But the original “Baptism with the Holy Spirit” took place on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was “poured out” on the believers in Jerusalem. That Day of Pentecost was unique. It doesn’t keep recurring. What does keep happening is the giving of the Holy Spirit to the baptized in connection with Holy Baptism. As Peter said at Pentecost, “Repent, be baptized…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Not necessarily the outward, miraculous gifts of the Spirit, but the Spirit Himself dwells in and with the baptized believer, so that St. Paul can say to each baptized believer, Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

And that leads us to the fourth part of Baptism. What continual significance does Baptism have in the life of the baptized?

It signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned, and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a New Man should daily emerge and arise again, to live forever before God in righteousness and purity.

We’re only baptized once, because Baptism is like being born. It can’t be repeated. It’s God’s adoption ceremony, an initiation ceremony into the New Testament and into the Holy Christian Church, our initial being clothed with Christ Jesus in the sight of God. It doesn’t erase or remove the sinful nature, the “Old Adam” that we’re all born with. It covers it. It adds something to it. It creates a second nature, a new nature, a “New Man” within the Christian. And it’s the New Man in us whom God calls on continually to “walk with the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit dwells alongside the New Man in us, constantly urging him to drown the Old Adam by daily contrition and repentance, so that the Old Adam dies with all his sins and evil desires. At the same time the Holy Spirit coaxes and guides the New Man to emerge and arise daily, to live before God in righteousness and purity, now, in this life, and forever in the life to come.

That daily dying to sin and arising from the grave to live a new life is pictured in Baptism. Remember, Baptism is not only a picture or a symbol; it actually does some amazing things. But it is also a picture or a symbol, a picture of dying and rising again. God calls on you, His baptized children, to live each day in your Baptism, to count yourself as dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ, our Lord, remembering that it was through Baptism that God united you to the death of Christ, buried you with Christ, so that you may also arise each day and walk with Him in a new life, the new life that began with, the new life that still receives its power from, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Amen.

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Hear and keep the word of the Stronger Man

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Oculi – Lent 3

Ephesians 5:1-9  +  Luke 11:14-28

There were at least three beliefs about Jesus floating around Israel as He carried out His earthly ministry. He’s either out of His mind, or He’s working with the demons, or He’s the very Son of God. Believe it or not, it was His own earthly family who thought, for a time, that He was out of His mind. St. Mark tells us that in His Gospel just before he records the same events you heard in today’s Gospel from St. Luke. The scribes and Pharisees thought He was in league with the demons, as you heard in today’s Gospel. And, as St. Matthew records this same event, there were still others who believed that Jesus was the promised Christ, the Son of David, the very Son of God. But what those people thought about Jesus isn’t nearly as important today as what you think about Jesus, what you believe about Jesus, because the only way you escape the devil’s control and the devil’s kingdom is by believing in Jesus as the Son of God, as the only One who is stronger than the devil.

Jesus was casting out demons again as our Gospel begins. This one was both blind and mute, holding the poor possessed man in a terrible state of isolation. Jesus used no incantations, no sacred objects, no magic spells. He didn’t even command the demon to depart “in the name of God.” He did it in His own almighty name, and the demon had to obey. That display of divine power caused some in the crowd to conclude, “Could this be the Son of David?”

But the scribes and Pharisees were quick to dissuade those people from believing in Jesus. He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Why did they think that? Well, they saw supernatural power at work, and there are only two sources of supernatural power: God (who also empowers His holy angels), or the devil and his demons, who still retain some of the power God gave them in the beginning, before they turned against Him. The unbelieving Jews just couldn’t accept that Jesus was the very Son of God, just as they couldn’t accept His word which declared that all men, including them, were in need of a Savior from sin, because no one is good enough to earn his own salvation. Since they rejected Jesus’ word, they saw Him as a false prophet, in league with the devil, while they viewed themselves as being on God’s side.

But Jesus showed them how absurd their accusation was. (Worse than absurd, actually, because by claiming that Jesus’ power was from the devil, they were actually committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because it was the Holy Spirit of God who was the One who was truly at work in Jesus’ miracles, and they were branding Him “Beelzebub.”)

His first argument was this: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to ruin, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. It was foolish to claim that Satan was helping Jesus to drive out Satan. That would show division among Satan’s ranks, weakness, and it would mean that his kingdom would soon self-destruct, just like any kingdom or house divided against itself eventually does (which makes one wonder how much longer our own divided country can possibly survive!). But Satan’s kingdom isn’t divided. He and all his demons are united in their love for wickedness and in their war against God and against the people of God. Satan’s kingdom is strong. He’s strong. And his kingdom will not self-destruct. The only way for men to be rescued from Satan’s powerful kingdom is if someone comes in from the outside, someone stronger than Satan, someone who actually has our best interests at heart. That’s Jesus.

He continues His argument: And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, well-armed, guards his palace, his possessions are secure. But when a man who is stronger than he comes against him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides the spoils. To me, it seems clear that what Jesus means is that, although some of the Jews were going around attempting to cast out demons, they weren’t very successful. But Jesus was, every single time! That proved that He was using not the power of the devil but the “Finger of God” to cast out demons, which Matthew’s Gospel identifies as the Holy Spirit. His power over the demons was not proof that He was working under the devil. It was proof that He was stronger than the devil. Only Jesus was able to rescue people out of the devil’s kingdom.

And the same is true today. Whether the devil holds people under his direct control or whether he simply counts them among his children who are trapped inside his kingdom and, therefore, outside the kingdom of God, he and his demons are just as powerful today as they ever were. His grip on mankind remains firm, and his lies are potent. Look at how he deceives the nations! Look at the rising violence and addiction in the world, the widespread acceptance of wickedness and the widespread rejection of truth. Look at how the witness of the genuine Christian Church has been all but silenced. All this is Satan’s doing, aided by his demons and helped along by his allies among men. How can the Church prevail in the midst of all this? How can anyone still escape from the devil’s grasp? Only if there’s Someone stronger than the devil at work, Someone who actually has our best interests at heart. That’s Jesus.

And there’s no in between when it comes to Him. As He says in the Gospel, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. You’re either with Him by believing that He is the very Son of God and by keeping His Word, or you’re against Him, in league with the devil. You’re either gathering with Him, confessing Him before men as the very Son of God so that they come into His kingdom, or you’re scattering people, pushing them away from Him by promoting Him as anything less than the very Son of God.

Here I’d like to share with you a wise observation from C.S. Lewis, because, apart from the three reactions to Jesus that we mentioned above, which Lewis also mentions here as real possibilities, there is a fourth, absolutely ridiculous attitude toward Jesus that is very common today, just as it was common in 1952, when Lewis wrote these words. It’s the perception of Jesus as a great moral teacher who is not the Son of God. As Lewis writes, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). You’re not rescued from the devil’s kingdom or protected from the demons by having nice thoughts about Jesus, by thinking highly of His moral teachings, or by picking and choosing which doctrines of Scripture you’ll believe or discard. Only faith in Christ Jesus as true God and true Man, who bore our sins, suffered and died for them, and rose again from the dead, only faith in His promise to deliver us from the devil’s kingdom will actually result in a person being rescued.

But even after being rescued, there is still a risk of being recaptured! Whenever an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, it says, ‘I will return to my house out of which I came.’ And when it arrives, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first.” What does it mean that a demon goes back and finds its house “swept and put in order”? It means that the person who was at first rescued from the devil allows a vacancy to remain in his heart. Maybe he’s straightened up his life. Maybe he’s not indulging in open wickedness anymore. But unless the Word of Christ dwells in a person richly, unless the Spirit of Christ dwells in a person’s heart by faith, he remains vulnerable to the devil’s attacks.

So what to do? Jesus tells us in the final words of today’s Gospel. And it happened that, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” There it is. That’s the recipe, that’s the answer. That’s how to fill your heart so that the devil has no room to get in. Hear the word of God and keep it. It’s a simple thing, really, but it’s also a lifelong thing, to keep hearing God’s Word, and not just the verses you happen to like, but the whole thing, the whole of Scripture, and the preaching of it which God’s ministers provide, if they are faithful. And not only to hear it, but to ponder it, think about it, and then “keep” it. Treasure it. Hold it close. Do what it says. Or, as St. Paul put it in today’s Epistle, Be imitators of God. Walk in love. Walk as children of light. Then you will be blessed, happy, fortunate, enviable, because where the Word of God is heard and kept, there is the Spirit of God, and the Father, and the Son, making their home with the one who believes. And where God is—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—there the devil has no power. May the word of Christ dwell in you richly, that you may know Jesus rightly, follow Him steadfastly, and be preserved from every evil. Amen.

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