The Spirit convicts the world before the Day of Judgment

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Fifth Sunday of Easter – Cantate

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

I almost didn’t waste my time preparing a sermon for this morning.  After all, if you’ve been following the news, you know that Judgment Day was supposed to come yesterday, May 21st, and with it, the Rapture, sweeping all believers up to heaven and leaving behind the unbelievers on earth for awhile.  Of course, we Lutherans reject the teaching of a Rapture, because the Bible clearly teaches that when the end comes, it will come for all at once – believers and unbelievers alike.  That day, Jesus says, will come like a thief in the night. “No one knows the day or the hour.”

That means that they are frauds and false prophets who set the date for Jesus’ return for judgment and plaster it on billboards and signboards.  They make a mockery of the real day of judgment that is to come, like the boy who cried, “Wolf!” when there was no wolf, and so on the day the wolf did come, no one in the town was prepared.

You and I know that the real Judgment Day is coming, Jesus has told us that.  And he’s told us that when that day comes, it will be too late to prepare for it.  You have to be ready now; you have to be ready before that day comes, because the actual judging takes place before Judgment Day.  That’s a good thing, though, because it means that those who believe in Jesus now don’t have to wonder what the final judgment will be.  And those who don’t believe now are still being given time to be convicted of their guilt and to turn to Christ for forgiveness.

And the one who does the convicting is the Holy Spirit himself.  That will be our theme this morning: The Spirit convicts the world before the day of Judgment.

Again, like last week, our Gospel today takes us to Maundy Thursday evening, the night before Jesus went away to his death.  He’s told his disciples that he’s going away – referring to his death but also to his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father. And they’re very sad about that, but Jesus tries to comfort them.  He says, I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.  Why?  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  A few verses later, Jesus identifies that Counselor as the Holy Spirit.

And what will the Counselor – the Comforter – the Helper (there are many meanings for that word in the Greek) do?  When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

First, before the day of Judgment, the Spirit will convict the world in regard to sin.

The world already has an idea about sin, but it’s incomplete.  The world knows, for example, that adultery and homosexual behavior and drunkenness are sins that deserve God’s righteous judgment, that disobedience to parents and others in authority is bad, that murder and stealing and lying are wrong.  That isn’t to say the world doesn’t try to change what it knows.  In our times, the world has been very successful at painting any or all of those things as normal, acceptable, even good.  Still, try as they might, people can’t escape the law of God written on all men’s hearts that identifies those things as sin.

What the world doesn’t understand about sin is that it infects everything people do. Original sin makes us altogether sinful and unclean, so that everything is bound together as sin before God.  That’s why it takes the Spirit of God to reveal the ultimate sin to the world: He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, Jesus said, because men do not believe in me.  There it is, staring the world in the face.  For all those who thought they were doing a pretty good job avoiding sin, the Spirit of God deals a crushing blow. Everything is sin, and forgiveness is found only in Jesus. Not believing in Jesus is the chief sin and that which makes a person guilty before God forever.

Now what does it mean to believe in Jesus?  Not just acknowledging his existence, or that he is the Son of God or that he died, or even that he rose again.  To believe in Jesus is to believe that he took your sin to the cross and paid for it there and reconciled you to God through his perfect life and his innocent death.  To believe in Jesus is to believe that he rose from the dead and is your living Advocate before God the Father, and to trust that your sins are forgiven for his sake alone.

That is the Holy Spirit’s message to the world, and through it, he convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin, because they have not believed in the One whom the Father sent but have wanted instead to hold onto their sins, and that means they have to answer for everything – every word, every deed, every thought and attitude of their hearts. Above all, they have to answer for their rejection of God’s Son.

Second, before the day of Judgment, the Spirit will convict the world in regard to righteousness.

Now, the world already has a notion about righteousness.  Righteousness, in the eyes of the world, comes from you, comes from your prayers, your good deeds, your acts of charity.  And, let’s be honest, the unbelieving world can do lots of great things – helping the needy and the sick, being nice neighbors, helping you change a flat tire.  Those are good things and should be done, but here’s the problem: when an unbeliever does those things, he doesn’t do it for love of Christ.  He does it as part of his own righteousness that he offers up to God.

But Jesus says that the Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer.  In other words, all the righteous acts that the world does count for nothing when it comes to a person’s standing before God.  True righteousness comes only from Christ who earned for us all righteousness and innocence by his perfect life and innocent death, and who now has gone to the Father where he holds his righteousness up before God so that all who believe in him can claim it as our own.

Is it God’s will that you lead holy, righteous lives? Yes! Do this!  Make choices in your life that honor God and serve your neighbor, choices that deny yourself and benefit those around you.  Stop doing things that hurt others.  But never for a moment imagine that these deeds of love on your part are what reconcile you to God.  Only the righteousness of another can stand before God, and that righteousness of Christ is credited to the one who has faith in him.

Finally, before judgment day, the Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to judgment.

The world has a notion about judgment – that it isn’t coming.  How many are scoffing even now after the failed prophecy of Harold Camping that Judgment was supposed to come yesterday?  Then there are men of the world who call themselves Christians.  Rob Bell, a rather famous Evangelical megachurch pastor, has recently written a book called, “Love Wins,” in which he teaches that God is too loving to judge anyone, to send anyone to hell.

People convince themselves that God is too loving to judge anyone, or that they have no one they have to answer to, that this world and this present universe is all there is – so turn to science for answers, look to outer space, trust in humanity, preserve the environment at all costs.  Live for this world. Make up your own morality.  Where is this “coming” that he has promised?

But then along comes the Spirit of God, who will convict the world of guilt in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.  The world is wrong.  There is judgment.  There will be condemnation.  You can be sure of it, because the prince of this world, Satan, has already been condemned.  The Christ has been raised from the dead, and by his death and resurrection, he has undone the work of the devil.  So if the prince of this world has already been condemned, then all the citizens of this world can expect the same condemnation.

But all of this convicting happens before Judgment day, right here and now, through the preaching of the Gospel.  Through the preaching of the Gospel, the world’s judgment is proclaimed now, so that men are without excuse.

So don’t expect that, when the Gospel of free forgiveness in Christ is preached, the world will come running.  That same Gospel convicts the world of guilt.  The world doesn’t want Christ and his Gospel. Those who, in the end, are sentenced to hell will go there because they didn’t want what God had to offer in Christ.

The thing is, you wouldn’t want what God has to offer in Christ, either.   You were likewise, at one time, dead in sins and trespasses, just as hostile to God and to his Christ.  But in his great mercy, God’s Holy Spirit has convicted you of guilt and has turned your hearts to look to Christ for forgiveness. In Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit worked death in you, death to the world, and also life, making you citizens no longer of this world, but citizens of heaven. The Spirit has convicted us of our guilt before Judgment Day, and now, as believers in Christ, we have been justified by faith and will be declared sin-free on that day, through faith in Christ Jesus.

A Christian’s purpose on this earth is not to hold up billboards and signboards with scary dates plastered all over them.  A Christian’s purpose on this earth is to sing the praises of Him who is our innocent verdict when that day of Judgment comes.  Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  As we sing his praises (“Cantate!”), the world will hear, and some of the world – God’s elect – will be converted by our singing – or speaking or preaching or proclaiming, because our songs tell the story of God’s salvation in Christ, and that’s how the Holy Spirit convicts the world to get it ready for the day of judgment.  Sing to the Lord a new song! Amen.

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True joy is bound to the resurrection of Christ

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Fourth Sunday of Easter

Jubilate – “Shout for joy to the LORD!”

Isaiah 40:25-31  +  1 Peter 2:11-20  +  John 16:16-22

Jubilate! “Shout for joy to the LORD!” Can you?  Can you shout for joy to the LORD?  Are you in a joyful mood today?  Or, for some of you, would it be more of a whisper, or a whimper, or a shrug of indifference toward the LORD or a cry of sorrow?

The world links its joy to all sorts of things: a body that’s healthy and pain-free, when all is well with your family, when a healthy child is born.  Joy may be tied to your bank account, your popularity, your stuff.  Joy may be tied to a recreational activity you enjoy, to faithful friends, to a future that’s looking bright.  If those things are present, then joy is present.  If not, then not.

What all those things have in common is that they’re all here today and gone tomorrow.  You can’t count on them.  If joy is bound to any of them, then today’s joy will be replaced with tomorrow’s sorrow.

Jubilate! “Shout for joy to the LORD!”  It’s not a command, you know.  God is not ordering you to put on a fake smile and muster up some joy in the midst of your sadness.  God is not talking only to those who feel joyful today, or asking you to pretend at something you don’t really feel.  Instead, God is giving you something to be joyful about.  True joy, Christian joy, is linked to something solid and dependable and powerful, to truth that no one can ever change or take away.  True joy, Christian joy, is bound to the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 1) to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, 2) to the promise that, after a little while, you will see him again, 3) and to the future hope of his glorious appearing.

True joy is bound, first of all, to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection.  On the night before he died, Jesus mercifully prepared his unsuspecting disciples for the events of the next few days.  “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”  I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. The disciples scratched their heads and couldn’t figure out what Jesus was talking about.  But in just a little while, they would begin to understand.  Within 24 hours Jesus would be crucified, dead and buried, and they would see him no more.  The stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb seemed so…permanent.  They did weep.  They did mourn and grieve, because they had thought that Jesus was the Son of God, that he would make things right between God and them.

But the disciples’ grief turned to joy after just a little while, when they saw Jesus again.  A living Jesus meant that death had been conquered, sin had been paid for, God was reconciled to the world in Christ, and their faith had not been in vain.  The fact of Jesus’ resurrection meant that everything would be all right.

The fact of Jesus’ resurrection became the permanent source of joy for those who saw Jesus. And because nothing could change the fact of the resurrection, nothing could rob them of their joy, so much so that in every hardship, under every form of persecution, through beatings and floggings and stonings and in the very face of death, the Book of Acts tells us that the disciples rejoiced. They rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name – the Name of the one who was dead but now is alive forevermore.  Their souls were safe in his hands.

True joy, Christian joy, is bound to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection.  That’s joy that the world can never understand.  The world rejoiced when Jesus died and has not stopped rejoicing since, because the world still thinks Jesus is dead, and therefore, people think they can get away with their sin. A dead Jesus means God is unknown and unknowable, and therefore we are not responsible to him.  We can take his Word or leave it, as we wish.  We can be self-centered, we can worry about ourselves, we can stay angry at those who bother us and shoot them a dirty look, and we can even justify our anger and our lack of compassion, because, well, Jesus isn’t here to see.  That’s how the world manages to go on rejoicing.

But God’s people know better.  The fact of the resurrection – which we know to be true, means that Jesus is here to see.  He is here to see hearts breaking over sins committed and to hear lips confessing what miserable and wretched creatures we are, that we should ever fail to consider our neighbor’s good above our own.  He is here to speak forgiveness through his called servant. He is alive to fulfill the Word God spoke through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40, The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak, so that you soar on wings like eagles.  If Jesus were dead, you’d have none of that, no hope, no salvation.  But the fact of the resurrection makes all the rest of it true, too, and there is joy to be found there.  True joy is bound to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

True joy is also bound to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the promise that, after a little while, you will see him.  “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”  Now, the Apostle John records this saying of Jesus not for himself or the other apostles, but for you and me, because it’s not only in those three days in the tomb that Christians lose sight of Jesus for a little while.  The true joy that is bound to Jesus’ resurrection is always available to us, but it is not always experienced by us.

Christians go through some times in their lives experiencing the joy of knowing the risen Christ is on our side and by our side at all times.  Those are the up’s.  Then there are the down’s – when Christ seems so very, very far away, completely out of sight.  When the world starts beating up on you, when a guilty conscience just won’t be silenced, when you have no friends, or you have friends who don’t behave like friends, when your family’s future is uncertain, then joy is hard to find.

Every Christian experiences this “little while” of Jesus being hidden behind pain and suffering. The Apostle Peter knew of it and wrote to his dear Christian friends about it, “now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” And, let’s be honest, sometimes that “little while” from God’s perspective is way too long from ours.  But then there’s this little promise of Jesus, that to us may seem awfully little but to God it’s long and deep and high and wide.  “After a little while you will see me, and your grief will turn to joy.”

On this earth, you don’t see Jesus in the flesh, but you do see enough of him to turn grief back into joy.  He’s placed himself in his Word and Sacraments, which are so powerful – listen to how Peter describes what they can accomplish, Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

It always baffles me when Christians are going through the most difficult of times, they’ll stop coming to church, because they’re waiting for things to get better first.  And then they complain about how God is testing them too severely.  And I say, obviously he hasn’t tested you severely enough yet, because you’re still not coming to see him!  You still seem to think you’re strong enough without him.  Don’t be foolish!

Here in his Word and Sacrament, the risen Christ appears to you and to all who hear and who eat and drink.  Here he wants you to see him, to hear him speaking words of forgiveness and comfort to his disciples but speaking also to you. Here he insists that you see him – his real body and blood, present with his whole Church in heaven and on earth at the same time in the Holy Supper. And he is powerful to break through the pain and suffering and hardship so that, after a little while of worrying and wondering, you’ll see him again, and you’ll know joy again, even in the midst of suffering.  That’s his promise to you.  And that promise is linked to the resurrection.  True joy is bound to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

…finally, to the future hope of his appearing.  I’ll go back to First Peter once again, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice.

You don’t see Jesus now, for a little while.  For a little while longer, you see a world that’s on its last legs.  But you know that Jesus’ resurrection is a fact.  You see him now in humble Word and Sacrament. And you will see him again, in a little while, in the glory of his resurrected body.  All this that you see will pass away, and you will know joy that no one can ever take away from you, joy that will have no end.

Since that is true, since your joy is bound to the future hope of Jesus’ appearing, since your home is in heaven and your heart is set on seeing Jesus on that great day, that makes you, as Peter says in the Epistle Lesson, aliens and strangers in the world.  As such, Peter pleads with you, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.   Let the world see your good deeds.  Let them see your acts of love and compassion.  Let them see your joy!  The joy of a Christian in the midst of hardship has caused more than a few unbelievers to take notice, to be amazed, and then to ask, why? How?  And then you tell them why and how.  Because Jesus lives.  Because sin and death are conquered.  Because Jesus is coming back, and all this pain and suffering here is, as Jesus himself calls it, labor pains, the pains of a woman in childbirth, which are terrible and awful and dangerous and scary. But at the end, a child is born. The sorrow is forgotten, and joy remains.  True joy, Christian joy, is bound to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jubilate! Whether you’re in a joyful mood today or not, “Shout for joy to the LORD!”  Because Jesus lives, and you will see him in a little awhile.  And even in those times when he’s covered up by grief, rest assured, he still sees you, and that is something to be joyful about. Amen.

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Jesus wants to be known as the Good Shepherd

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Third Sunday of Easter

Misericordias Domini – “…the steadfast love of the LORD”

Ezekiel 34:11-16  +  1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

“The LORD is my shepherd.”  Of all the images that the Scriptures give us of Jesus, the tender image of Shepherd stands out above them all.  The Old Testament Scriptures paint this tender picture of God, the Lord, Yahweh, as the true Shepherd of his people, his sheep.  Here, in his shepherd-care for his people, you truly see the Misericordias Domini, the mercies, the steadfast love of the Lord.

So when Jesus comes on the scene and declares himself – twice! – to be The Good Shepherd, it’s no small claim.  He is claiming to be God, the Lord, Yahweh, the true Shepherd of his people, his sheep.  It’s a claim that packs all of the Gospel into one beautiful image of a shepherd caring for his sheep, even laying down his life for the sheep. It’s a claim that needs Easter Sunday for it to be any good, because if Jesus is dead and gone, then you and I have no Shepherd – only the memory of one, and are left to fend for ourselves in this evil world against the devil, the world and our sinful nature, with zero chance of survival.

But because Jesus laid down his life for the sheep and then took it up again on Easter Sunday, he is able to be for you and me just what he says, and this is how Jesus wants you to know him now and forever:  Jesus wants to be known as the Good Shepherd.

To know Jesus as Shepherd is to know Him… as the caregiver for sickly sheep.

“I am the good shepherd.” Jesus says. And he summarizes all that he is and does as the good shepherd in this phrase: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  At the same time, he summarizes all that we are and do with that one word, “sheep.”  Sheep are unintelligent, untrainable, prone to wander and go astray, can’t take care of themselves, totally dependent creatures.  That’s how Jesus would have his people know themselves.

But it’s even stronger than that.  What kind of sheep does Jesus care for?  Remember what God said through Ezekiel? I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.  The sheep for which the Good Shepherd cares are not even the sleek and the strong sheep, but the lost, the straying, the injured and the weak.  These are the ones Jesus shepherds; these are the ones Jesus goes looking for, cares for, heals and helps, not just once, but always, for their entire lives.  These are the ones for whom the Good Shepherd lays down his life and sacrifices all – for weak and sickly sheep.

Christ would have us view his kingdom, not as a tidy, orderly sheep pen that’s only for pious, strong, good-looking Christians, but rather, Christ would have us view his kingdom as a hospital.  In the future, in heaven, all of God’s people will be sleek and strong and sinless.  But here on this earth Christ’s kingdom is nothing but a hospital for sick people, sinful people, people who are too often rude and self-centered, people who are weak, too often offensive to others and too easily offended by others, too quick to get angry and too slow to forgive.

But, in his mercy, Christ constantly calls his sheep to repentance and faith, to look to him constantly as the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for sickly sheep, for sinners, for you and for me, the Good Shepherd who stared the wolf in the eye and, after all the hired hands had fled, said, “Take me and let these go free,” who took up his life again so that he could shepherd us for all eternity, which includes applying to us the medicine of his Holy Supper. Never see yourself in this life as healthy enough to check out of Jesus’ hospital.  This is how you are to know Jesus, as the Shepherd who cares for sickly sheep.

To know Jesus as Shepherd is to know Him…as the One who knows you.

I know my sheep, Jesus says, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.  There is no pretending with Jesus.  You can’t fool him into thinking you’re one of his sheep by saying the right things on the outside but on the inside you’re still relying on your good works for salvation.  And you don’t have to prove to him with your prayers and your works that you really are his sheep.  He knows his sheep.  He sees the faith that no one else can see.  He also sees the good works that always flow from that faith, the good works that are done in the sight of all, and the good works that are done in secret, that no one else even knows about. He knows about them.

He knows the mothers out there who trust in him, with all your flaws, with all your mistakes, with all your dedication and sacrifice. He knows you.  He knows how much you can handle, and how much you can’t.  He knows your guilt and your shame – both real and imagined.  And he laid down his life for you – not just for your children, but for you, and has branded you – and your children, with his own name in Holy Baptism. To know him as Shepherd is to know him as the One who knows you.

To know Jesus as Shepherd is to know him as both Savior and example.

My sheep know me, Jesus says, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.  For all their sins and weaknesses, Jesus’ sheep know that no sin is so bad that Jesus hasn’t paid for it.  They know him as Savior and the one whose death on the cross paid for every sin of every sinner.  They hear words from an old book called the Bible, but they know their Shepherd is speaking to them there, and that he speaks to them, too, through the pastor whom he has called to be his voice in their midst.  They know Jesus as the one who leads them through the valley of the shadow of death, through every hardship, through all the pain.  And even when your knowledge of this Shepherd is clouded by fear or pain or loss, the Shepherd’s voice breaks through it all.  “I lay down my life for the sheep.”  That’s the voice you know, the voice of Christ you’ve known all along. Jesus’ sheep know him as their faithful and reliable Savior from sin and all its consequences, even from death and from the devil.

But Jesus’ sheep also know him as example, as the perfect Shepherd in whose very steps we would follow, who is so good and kind and compassionate that we want to be like him, just like him, to imitate him, to walk in his paths of righteousness.  That means knowing him as the one we want to follow in all things, even if it means suffering like he did.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Finally, to know Jesus as Shepherd is to know him as the only Shepherd of The One Flock.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The sheep pen, when Jesus spoke these words, were the believers among the Jews.  The “other sheep” were those who would believe among the Gentiles.  In Christ, there are no longer two flocks or many flocks, but one, just as there is one Shepherd.  It’s easy for us to forget that, as believers in Christ, we are not an isolated little flock here at Emmanuel Lutheran Church. We’re part of something so much bigger. As confessional Lutherans, we have to recognize that the doctrine that has been passed down to us from our Lutheran forefathers is not a new doctrine of a different shepherd, but the same doctrine handed down by this shepherd to the apostles, confessed in the ancient Church and preserved by the Lutheran Reformers.

Now it’s our turn to confess the whole gospel of Christ, and to confess is rightly.  Now it’s our turn to speak the Gospel of the Good Shepherd and trust Jesus when he says that his sheep will listen to his voice.  We can’t gather his flock.  Only he gathers his flock, and he does it perfectly and wisely and amazingly.

Today, Good Shepherd Sunday happens to coincide with Mothers’ Day, so moms, take comfort in this. You have the high calling to live as Christian mothers, wholly dedicated to pointing your children to the Good Shepherd – bringing them faithfully – every Sunday! – to church, to Sunday School, and later to Catechism class, telling them Bible stories, listening to their memory work, living in your homes as pious and devout Christian women and as godly examples of what a loving mother and a submissive wife is supposed to be.

Christ has given you the monumental task of raising your children to know him, but he doesn’t make you responsible for their faith or for their eternal future.  I am the Good Shepherd, Jesus says.  He’s the only one who could lay down his life for the sheep and he’s the only one who can gather them into his flock and keep them there.  You never take the place of the Good Shepherd. Your children are his, sheep of the Good Shepherd and members of his flock.  He will care for them, even as he cares for you, and for all of you whom he has called by the Gospel to be known by him and to know him as he wants to be known – to know him as the Good Shepherd. Amen.

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Jesus shows himself to you now in His Word

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter

Quasimodo Geniti – “Like newborn infants…”

Ezekiel 37:1-14  +  1 John 5:4-12  +  John 20:19-31

“Show me!  Show me, show me!  I won’t be convinced until I see it for myself,” said Donald Trump for the past many months.  “Show me your birth certificate, President Obama.”  “Show me!” says the great state of Missouri.  “We are a skeptical bunch of people and not easily convinced.  Don’t just tell me.  Show me that I can trust you.”

“Show me!” said Thomas to his ten fellow apostles.  “Show me the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and the hole in his side where the spear impaled him.  Show me the man I used to believe in who, you say, came back to life after he was crucified.  Let me see him with my own eyes and touch his wounds. Because I don’t believe you, and I never will, unless you show me!”

“Show me!” Christians, too, often plead when the devil attacks our faith, when our Christian religion starts to fade into the realm of fantasy, a great story and all that, but hardly relevant to my daily doings and struggles.  When it looks for all the world like Jesus can’t possibly be even real, much less risen from the dead and reigning, the Christian pleads, “Won’t you just show me?”

And Jesus answers, “No, not yet.  First hear me, hear my Word, and believe.  Then you will see, in good time.  Then I will show you everything.”

It was different with the Eleven apostles, but only a little different.  They heard Jesus’ Word and believed in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, long before they saw Jesus risen from the dead.  In fact, if they had only held onto the Word of Jesus and the Old Testament Scriptures in their hearts, then they would never have doubted his resurrection.

As it was, they forgot his Word, and as a result, they were cowering in fear behind closed doors on that first Easter Sunday, afraid, because even though two of them had seen the empty tomb, and Jesus had appeared to Peter, and all of them had heard the reports of the women who had seen Jesus with their own eyes, they still weren’t convinced. And so they were afraid: afraid of the Jews, afraid of being tried and convicted as Jesus had been, afraid of death, afraid of life, afraid of God, afraid of everything.

Until Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  “Shalom!” “Everything’s all right!” And that word of peace from Jesus, combined with the visible proofs of his crucifixion and resurrection turned the disciples’ fear into joy.

Well, almost.  Luke’s Gospel fills out this resurrection appearance for us, and as he explains it, even after all of that, the disciples still weren’t fully convinced that this was the risen Lord Jesus and that everything really was all right until Jesus opened their minds to understand the Word of God, the Old Testament Scriptures, that told how the Christ had to suffer, be crucified, rise from the dead on the third day, and then one more thing: repentance and forgiveness of sins had to preached in his name to all nations.

But he wouldn’t be doing that himself, or at least, he wouldn’t be doing that by showing the nations his hands and his side. And so, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

And with that Great Commission, Jesus gave his apostles all they would ever need to convince people that he truly was risen from the dead, that he was truly the Savior of the world.

But what about when the nations cry, “Show me!”  Jesus, won’t you come with us and show yourself to people so they can see you, as we have seen you? Won’t you give us some scientific proof of your resurrection? And Jesus says, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age,” but no, I will not show my hands and my side to the world again, until the end, until everyone already believes who is going to believe.  Then all people will see.

How, then, will they believe, if you won’t show them your hands and your side?  “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

You see, this is how Jesus has chosen to show himself to the world and build his church and keep his saints – his disciples –  in the one true faith – not with periodic resurrection appearances, but by the power of his Holy Spirit, whom he sends forth in the preaching of his Word.  Rather than walk through these church doors today to show you his hands and his side, rather than walk into your hospital room or your living room or wherever it is you’re suffering, the Lord Jesus has instead ordained that you should see him – crucified and risen from the dead – through words; that you should know him through words; that you should receive him and trust in him, not by feeling him or perceiving him in your heart, but by listening to the voice of his called servant when he announces to you the forgiveness of sins in Christ, and the unforgiveness of sins to the one who hopes to be justified before God in any other way than by Christ alone.

Where does Thomas fit into all of this?  He wasn’t there on that first Easter Sunday, but he was there on the second Sunday of Easter, still disbelieving, still demanding, still putting the Lord to the test, “Show me!”  Imagine the shame he must have felt when Jesus came in and showed him what he should have believed all along and had no reason to disbelieve.  It’s one thing if a person is known as a deceiver or less than honest.  Then you might have reason to disbelieve his word.  It’s one thing if a person is accustomed to making promises he can’t keep. Then you might have reason to disbelieve his word. But when you have a person like Jesus, who has always kept his Word, who has always proven himself faithful and always keeps every single promise he’s made and every promise that’s been made about him in God’s Word, then the only reason to disbelieve is that you are a sinner who has been deceived by the Deceiver – not Jesus, but the devil.

The devil pulled Adam and Eve away from God’s Word in the Garden of Eden and he’s been doing it ever since.  “You can’t trust him, you can’t trust God.  Make him prove his love to you. Make him show you!”  And people fall for it!  Thomas, one of the Twelve apostles, fell for it.  You and I have fallen for it, too, haven’t we?  “The Word of God is irrelevant to my life. The Word of God is unreliable. The Word of God is not enough.  Show me!”

Aren’t we miserable creatures that way?  It goes to show how lost we are by nature, how unreasonable, how unbelieving, how totally and completely we cannot save ourselves and are dependent on God, not just to help us along to salvation, but to do everything for us, even the bringing us to faith part.

But Thomas – Thomas is given to us as a gift by the Apostle John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that, instead of despairing when we realize how foolish and unbelieving we’ve been in the past, we should take heart and hold all the more firmly to the Word of Christ, who announces “peace be with you” not only to those disciples who have believed, but even to this one who disbelieved.

But it won’t always be that way.  A time is coming when those who disbelieve the Word of Christ will be condemned forever.  When he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, people won’t get the chance to say, “Oh, there is he!  It’s true!  Now I believe in him!”  There will be no more chances to believe in him, no more chances to hear his Word and receive forgiveness of sins from him and enter into his heaven.  That’s why he says to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

That’s you and I. It’s for our sake that the Apostle John wrote his Gospel in the 90’s AD, to people who, he knew, would never in their lifetime see the risen Lord Jesus as John had been privileged to see him.  But that was OK.  He had completed the written record of Christ, which, he knew, was more than words.  It’s the Gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.  And that was enough. Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

That’s you and I – baptized into the name of a Savior whom we have never seen, and yet in whom we have believed as the Christ, the Son of God, and the one who gives us the gift of eternal life through faith, created by his Word.

That brings us back to our Introit and the famous name for today, the Second Sunday of Easter. Quasimodo geniti, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word.”  The Word of the risen Christ gave you faith, and with faith, life. The same Word sustains your life.  Without it, you cannot live, just as newborn infants cannot live without milk. It’s in the Word of Christ that he shows himself to you now, that you see him now.  There are three, really, that testify, as John said in today’s Epistle: The Spirit, the water and the blood, and they’re all connected to the Word.  The Spirit, breathed onto the apostles, who grants forgiveness of sins through the Absolution of a pastor, the water of Baptism that washed you by the wounds of Christ into God’s family, and the blood of the covenant in Holy Communion that keeps you in communion with the risen Lord Jesus, whom you see now in bread and wine, whom you will see one day as he truly is.

Thomas and the other disciples saw and then believed.  But for you it’s reversed.  You believe, and then one day, you will see.  You will see with your eyes the risen Lord Jesus, just as the disciples did.  Until then, you and I live by faith and not by sight.  Until then, Quasimodo geniti –  “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word.”  That’s where you meet the risen Lord Jesus.  That’s where he shows himself to you.  Peace be with you. Amen.

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The Resurrection enables Jesus to finish the work of salvation

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Easter Sunday

(Catechism emphasis: The Apostles’ Creed, Third Article)

Mark 16:1-8  +  Job 19:23-27  +  1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Those faithful women – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome – were some of the very first eye-witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection.  In the Gospel we heard a moment ago, they witnessed the stone rolled away, and the empty tomb, and the angel who first announced the good news:  “He is not here.  He has risen!” We preach Christ crucified, a Jesus who truly died on a cross as the payment for the sins of the world, a Jesus who truly came back to life on the third day, Easter Sunday, whose body was raised from the dead and glorified, never to die again. The most basic truth of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ died and now is no longer dead.

And because he lives, he can finish his work of salvation.

But, didn’t he say, “It is finished!” before he died on the cross on Good Friday?  Of course he did, and it was finished, once and for all – his work of becoming the perfect Substitute for sinful man, his work of redeeming the world – suffering the punishment for all sin, paying the price to purchase mankind for God.  Every work that ever needs to be done to satisfy God’s righteous law has been done by Christ.  It is finished.  Every drop of blood that ever needs to be spilt for sin has been spilt by Christ.  It is finished.  Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation has been acquired by Jesus for the world.

The part of the work of salvation that remains is not your part of the work.  This work is Jesus’ work, too.  The part of the work of salvation that remains is for his salvation to be delivered to men, one by one.  You don’t go searching for it. You don’t try to run back to Calvary’s cross, or even to Jesus’ empty tomb.  Jesus brings his finished work of redemption to you.  He brings it to you by his Holy Spirit, which brings us to our final Catechism focus on Easter Sunday, the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  Amen.

 “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” What does the Holy Spirit do?  Oh, his work is absolutely critical.  Jesus said, “The one who believes in me has eternal life.” Or you may know this Bible verse, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”   It’s faith – believing in, relying on Christ the Redeemer that saves and justifies a person and allows you to stand before God innocent and holy and righteous.

Here’s the problem: Faith is something you can’t come with.  And we confess that in our catechism explanation of the Third Article, “I believe that I cannot, by my own thinking or choosing, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him.”  You have no strength or ability to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, or that his death paid for your sins or that he will give you eternal life as a gift.

But faith doesn’t come from you.  It’s God’s gift to you, given by his Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.  Faith comes by hearing the message, the Word of Christ.  Because he lives, Jesus now sends his Holy Spirit into the preaching of his Word, so that whenever you hear this Gospel of Jesus – the Good Friday/Easter Sunday Gospel, you can be sure that the Holy Spirit is calling you and convincing you to repent of your sins and trust in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. 

He does that for unbelievers and turns them into believers.  He does that also for believers, to sanctify you, to convince you no longer to live for yourself, but to live for him who died for you and was raised again.  The Holy Spirit keeps you in the true faith.  Because Jesus lives, he sends forth his Holy Spirit into the world to gather and keep a Holy Christian Church, a great congregation of people who believe in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t do it magically, and he doesn’t do it automatically.  He calls you to faith and keeps you in faith through what we call the Means of Grace. We summarize it this way, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

“I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Stop and think about that.  If you believe in the forgiveness of sins, then you must also believe several other things.  You must believe, for example, that you have sins that need to be forgiven, as well you should believe. On the first Easter Sunday, when Jesus appeared to his disciples, he opened up the Old Testament Scriptures to them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations.”  To preach repentance is to proclaim to all people everywhere, “You have sinned against the Holy God.  It doesn’t matter who you are or how good and decent you think you are.  God doesn’t see you that way. You have not worshiped him as God, but instead you have followed your own ways, and you must surely die for your sins.”  That simple truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, convicts people and brings them to sorrow over their sins and to fear God’s righteous judgment.   That’s repentance.

But to believe in the forgiveness of sins is to believe that God forgives sins – not anywhere and everywhere, but in Christ Jesus, who has borne the punishment your sins deserve and has risen from the dead to give you forgiveness. 

To believe in the forgiveness of sins is to believe that he really and truly gives forgiveness where he says he gives forgiveness – through the preaching of the gospel: through the mouth of his called servants whom he has authorized to apply forgiveness, through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism where he promises to give forgiveness, through the Sacrament of Holy Communion, where he promises to deliver his forgiveness for your sins, not for some of them, but for all of them. In this Christian church he daily and fully forgives all sins to me and all believers.

What a load off!  What a burden removed!  It’s what gives us the courage to say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”

Understand what that means.  It’s not just the resurrection of Jesus’ body you’re confessing here.  Whether you believe in Jesus or not, your body will be raised from the dead.  Whether you believe in him or not, you will stand before God on your own two feet, with a brand new, restored body that cannot die again.  The resurrection of the body is for everyone.   “There will be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked.”  But the “life everlasting” is only for the righteous. Death everlasting awaits those who deny this Jesus, who live in rebellion against this Jesus, who die in unbelief in this Jesus.

Who are the righteous who will share in the life everlasting?  They are the ones who claim only the righteousness of Jesus before God, and not their own righteousness.  They are the ones who rely on Jesus’ sacrifice to cover their sins.  They are the ones who believe in him who is the resurrection and the life.  These believers, these saints will inherit the life everlasting.  On the Last Day he will raise me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.

On this Easter Day, you take a good, hard look at your young, healthy, beautiful body that won’t stay that way for long. You take a good, hard look at your ailing body, your broken body, your old, old body that is tired and worn out and almost dead, and then you remember the new, glorified, ever-living never-again-dying body of your Lord Jesus who promises to give you one of those so that you can be like him and spend the life everlasting with him, and with all who have believed in him.  (Sigh.)  That’s what you have to look forward to because Jesus rose from the dead.

Only hold on, just a little bit longer.  No one can take that promise away from you, but you can forfeit all this by foolishly neglecting the Means of Grace by which the Holy Spirit keeps you in the one true faith unto everlasting life. You can foolishly get all tangled up again in the dying things, in the dying life, in the dying routine of a dying world, in sins that lead to death.  On this Easter Day, hear the Word! Repent and believe the good news!  Jesus Christ is risen.  You who have been baptized, give thanks to the risen Lord who gave you this gift. If you have not been baptized, then put it off no longer.  If you’re a communicant member here, then come to the feast today and often – the Holy Supper of the risen Lord.  If you’re not a member here yet, then take the time to take the classes in order to join us here for this feast.

Because Jesus lives and loves each one of you here today, he has brought you into contact with his Easter Gospel, and so has sent his Holy Spirit into this sanctuary, into this place, to call and to comfort you, and to give you the strength to face both life and death with courage, and even with joy. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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