The first vision: A war won, a war still being waged

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 4

Revelation 12:7-17

Last week we studied the beginning of John’s first vision in the set of seven visions, beginning in chapter 12. We easily identified the dragon as the devil, because in tonight’s reading that much is spelled out for us by the Holy Spirit. He’s called the ancient serpent, the one who has been tempting, deceiving, and accusing mankind since the Garden of Eden. He’s called the Devil and Satan, because he opposes God and His Church and accuses sinners in God’s heavenly courtroom. That dragon was pictured last week trying to destroy the male Child, Jesus, when He was born. But he failed.

The first part of our reading this evening focuses on that failure of the devil. It’s depicted as a war in heaven. People have seen this war as something that happened in the beginning, when the devil first rebelled against God and he and his angels were cast out of heaven, but that doesn’t fit the context. No, this war is in connection with Christ’s victory over the devil. Not His final victory at the end of the world, but one that comes before that.

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

We’ve talked about Michael before in Bible class. He’s mentioned by the prophet Daniel as the great prince who stands watch over the people of God. Daniel says that Michael will “stand up” in the last days, and that when he does, a time of great tribulation will follow, after which the people of God will be saved once and for all. That’s why many see this Michael in the book of Revelation as representing Christ Himself. But whether he represents Christ or serves as the chief angel under Christ, it doesn’t matter, really. The point is, God’s side wins this crucial victory over the devil’s side. As a result of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, combined with the preaching of the Gospel that went out afterward, the devil is no longer able to accuse before God those who belong to Christ, those who have been baptized in His name and who trust in Him as their Savior.

And so John hears a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!

Now, remember, this isn’t the end of the world yet. The coming of this salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ—it’s already come! Heaven rejoices in the atonement Christ made for sin, and in the success of the Gospel that applies that atonement to sinners as it brings them to faith—faith that leads believers to be ready to give up their earthly lives in order to hold onto the heavenly life Christ has purchased for us. That’s what it means when it says, They did not love their lives to the death. They did not love their earthly lives so much that they shrank back from death when faithfulness to Christ required it of them. That is part of Christ’s victory, too! That is part of the devil’s defeat! That he hasn’t been able to turn believers away from God! That he hasn’t been able to separate them from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus! Those who make it all the way through this life clinging to faith, with the help God provides in His Word and Sacraments, have won the fight with the devil!

But the fight isn’t over yet for those who still live on the earth. That was the last part of what the loud voice said. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Since the devil couldn’t win against Christ or against those believers who have already departed this life, he turns his attention toward those who are still vulnerable, to those who are part of this Church Militant, to you and me and the rest of the Christian Church on earth. His time is “short,” relatively speaking. He knows that he won’t be allowed to persecute Christians forever. Either we’ll make it safely to the end of our own personal races, or Christ will come to put an end to all the devil’s attacks. I am coming soon, Jesus says. In that sense, the devil’s time is “short.”

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

Remember from last week, we identified this woman as a symbol of the Church. The devil persecutes her, but she’s given eagle’s wings to fly to that place in the wilderness that God has prepared for her to be nourished for that same time period that is 42 months or 1,260 days or a time, times, and half a time, that is, 3-1/2 years, basically the duration of the New Testament period. The true Church doesn’t look glorious on this earth. It looks like fleeing into the wilderness and hiding in the desert. The serpent, the devil, can’t attack the Church directly, so he “spews water from his mouth like a flood” to get at her. That flood can be false doctrine. It can be societal pressure. It can be governmental oppression. It can be hardships of many kinds. We probably can be too specific about how the earth helps the woman by swallowing up the flood from the dragon’s mouth. It’s enough to say that every time the devil has tried to overwhelm the Christian Church on earth, something has stopped the flood from drowning her and carrying her away. But still the devil tries and continues to wage war with believers, with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

It’s nothing new, is it?, this vision of Michael and the angels defeating Satan, and then Satan taking out his anger on the Church. It’s the same old story, but told in fantastic pictures. It should remind you to rejoice in Christ’s victory and in the victory of all those who have entered the Church Triumphant. It should remind you to be vigilant, watchful, conscious of the devil’s rage against the true Church, and of how threatened and imperiled and destitute the true Church appears in this world. To be a Christian is not a matter of feeling comfortable in the world or having fun at church. A war has been fought over you—and won! —by Christ and His holy angels. And now a war still rages against you, as long as you remain in this world, as long as you belong to Christ, as long as you are among those who keep the commandments of God and hold onto the testimony of Jesus Christ. Understand the Church on earth in this way. Understand your role as one who is fleeing from the devil, and yet not in fear, but in anticipation of the victory that awaits after the time of fleeing is done. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on The first vision: A war won, a war still being waged

A blessing from two godly women

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon
Download Sermon

Service
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/841696674 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for the Visitation of Mary

Isaiah 11:1-5  +  Luke 1:39-56

Today, July 2nd, has historically been celebrated as the Visitation of Mary, which you heard about in today’s Gospel. The birth of John the Baptist is celebrated on June 24th, six months before December 24th, because John was six months older than Jesus. Using those dates, John would have been circumcised on July 1st, and since we’re told that Elizabeth was about six months pregnant when Mary first came to her, and that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, it’s likely that she stayed until John was born, circumcised and named, so July 2nd marks the time when Mary would have completed her visit with Elizabeth and returned to Nazareth.

But the Gospel for today’s festival tells us, not about the end, but about the very beginning of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, about her arrival at Zacharias’ and Elizabeth’s house, when Elizabeth was about six months pregnant with John. This encounter between these two God-fearing women was something the Holy Spirit chose to have recorded for us, so that through their words of blessing, we, too, might receive a blessing.

“Blessed are you among women!” Those were the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary when he informed her that God had chosen her to bear His Son by the miracle of a virgin-birth. Now Elizabeth echoes those words verbatim, as she has been “filled with the Holy Spirit.” “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” calling her the “mother of my Lord.” We can certainly go overboard in honoring Mary; we are not taught by the Christian Church to practice any kind of devotion to her, nor are we taught to pray to her, or to seek help from her. But we certainly don’t deny the words of Gabriel or the Spirit-inspired words that Elizabeth spoke to Mary. Mary was blessed among women. That doesn’t mean she was better than or superior to other women. It means that God had given her a greater gift than He had given to other women. She was the only one in history whose womb gave human life to Him who is the Life. She was the mother of Elizabeth’s Lord and ours. Her womb and her descended-from-King-David genes were the Holy Spirit’s raw material for crafting a human body and soul that was taken up into the Person of the Son of God, so that there is now one Christ who is both true God and true Man, God incarnate (made flesh) as a man to save men from their sins. Mary was given a vital, intimate role in the incarnation of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Even Elizabeth’s unborn child perceived that and leaped for joy in the presence, not of Mary, but of God-with-us. That was a confession of faith on the part of John, not just that the Lord is present, but that it’s a good thing, something to jump for joy over.

Why? Not for any earthly reason. Jesus wouldn’t make anything better here on earth, especially for John the Baptist, who would one day be put to death for his faithfulness to Christ. But now the Lord was finally present, not as He is always present everywhere, but tangibly present in human flesh. Not “God-out-there-somewhere,” but God-right-here-in-the-midst, to reveal God to us, to carry our sorrows, to receive our stripes, and to die our death, to make atonement for the sins of all men, and to grant eternal life to all who believe.

That God-right-here-in-the-midst is no longer growing in Mary’s womb, or lying in a manger, or walking around the land of Israel, or hanging on a cross, or lying in a tomb. He’s sitting at the right hand of God, which means He’s ruling everywhere, though still right here in the midst in the preaching of the Gospel, in the waters of Baptism, and in the giving out of His true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Finally, Elizabeth said to Mary, Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. What a contrast with Elizabeth’s own husband Zacharias, who had disbelieved the word of the same angel Gabriel and had been struck dumb for those nine months that John was growing in Elizabeth’s belly. Zacharias was “cursed,” in that sense, but Mary was blessed—fortunate, enviable—because, unlike Zacharias, she believed the angel’s word, even though what he had told her was humanly impossible. And in believing God’s Word about something that was humanly impossible, Mary was walking in the footsteps of her forefather Abraham, who believed the Lord, against hope, that he and Sarah would have a son in their old age. Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. Mary believed the Lord, and she, too, was blessed. These examples spur us on to faith, too, to trust in God’s amazing promises, to believe in the Word of God, even if no one around us believes, because He is faithful, and through faith in His promises, we will be blessed, because faith is counted as righteousness in the sight of God.

Then we have the beautiful words of Mary, which have been sung in the Church ever since in the canticle called the Magnificat, “magnifies.” My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

First, Mary gives thanks to God and rejoices in Him for what He has done specifically for her. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name.

Mary knows the source of her happiness, the source of her blessedness. It’s the Lord God, her Savior. We often point to this verse as inconsistent with Rome’s unscriptural teaching of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Mary didn’t need a Savior if she wasn’t conceived in sin, like the rest of us. But we don’t need to rely on this verse alone. The teaching of original sin is very simple. Everyone born in the natural way, of man and woman, inherits the innate corruption of our nature. Mary, too. She was righteous in the eyes of God only by faith, and from that faith came a righteousness of life, obedience, and love. But still, she was only righteous by faith, because God, her Savior, had brought her to faith and pronounced her righteous through faith in Him and the promised Christ, who was now growing in her womb.

And so she magnifies the Lord. She “makes His name great” because of the “great things” He, the Mighty One, had done for her. She hadn’t suddenly been made rich, nor would she ever be. Her life hadn’t gotten easier with this conception; it had gotten a good deal harder. The great things were all wrapped up in Christ. God had given Mary the gift of bringing His Son into the world. Through Him, Mary’s sins were forgiven. Through Him, Mary received grace upon grace. Through Him, Mary knew her God personally, and she knew that He cared for her and would never abandon her. And because of her Son, she also knew that she would be called blessed, that is, remembered fondly by all generations, not because she deserves our honor, but because God had shown her favor, and so we recognize and give thanks for her.

Then Mary goes on to bless the Lord for how He treats the rest of His believers. And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. Mercy on those who fear Him, in every generation, from Adam and Eve to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to David, to Mary, to you and me, to our children and grandchildren who fear Him. What a promise! This is the special, personal, fatherly mercy for those whom God has brought to faith and who continue now in faith and the fear of God, who fear and revere, not just any god, but the God who sent His Son into the womb of the blessed virgin.

This is why we Christians cry out in our liturgy, Lord, have mercy! Because Mary was right. His mercy is on those who fear Him, and we can count on His mercy, from generation to generation, even when we don’t understand how His mercy works.

In this sense, God treats those who fear Him differently from how He treats those who don’t fear Him. Mary goes on to show the great contrast:

He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.

It’s very much like Jesus often said, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. How has God “scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”? How has He “put down the mighty and sent the rich away empty”? By telling them the truth: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You want to take pride in yourself? No human being has any reason to do that. God doesn’t let anyone trust in their own works, in their own strength, or in their own riches. God says to the proud, You will surely die, unless mercy steps in to save you.

But mercy did step in, wrapped up in Christ Jesus. So despair of yourselves and trust in Him. He has mercy on those who fear Him. He has exalted the lowly and the poor and the despised. He has filled the hungry with good things. As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

And He raises up the lowly, as Mary confessed, out of faithfulness to His own promises—promises which He first made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the fathers of the Israelite people—and to their seed forever. He promised those patriarchs that, through their Seed, all nations on earth would be blessed. That seed was Christ Himself, the Rod from the stem of Jesse, as Isaiah called Him, the Branch from Jesse’s roots, from the house of David, through David’s daughter Mary. This is the only reason why the nation of Israel has ever mattered in the world, and the only reason it should still matter, that God, in His faithfulness, gave His Son into the world through that chosen nation, according to His promises made to them long ago.

Of course, the same Isaiah to whose prophecies Mary had been alluding in her Magnificat prophesied about how God’s kingdom would extend through the virgin’s Son far beyond the nation of Israel, how the Christ would be a light to lighten the Gentiles, for the creation of one great Church to fill the world, the New Israel that proclaims the God of the Old and New Testaments, the Church made up of sinners only, who recognize their need for mercy, and God’s merciful gift of the Savior who visited Elizabeth long ago, still in his mother’s womb, and in whose presence John the unborn child leapt for joy.

The same joy is for all the humble and lowly who look to Him for salvation. Learn that from Elizabeth’s words and from Mary’s, and receive the same blessing that those lowly women received. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on A blessing from two godly women

The first vision: The woman, the child, and the dragon

Posted on June 28, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon
Download Sermon

Service
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/840676243 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 3

Revelation 12:1-6

All right. Let’s review. Overall, there are seven sets of seven visions in the Book of Revelation. Each set essentially covers the whole time of the New Testament from different angles, focusing on different things. So far in the book of Revelation we’ve considered the first three sets: (1) the vision of the seven letters to the seven churches, (2) the vision of the seven seals, and (3) the vision of the seven trumpets. Three sets down, four to go.

The fourth set of seven visions can simply be called the “seven visions.” There are seven scenes that John sees in chapters 12-15. The first vision is covered in chapter 12, and it’s divided into three parts. We’ll cover just the first part tonight: the vision of the woman, the child, and the dragon.

It’s hard to go verse by verse here, because it takes all the verses together to understand who the woman, the child, and the dragon are. So let me read the whole section one more time:

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

The child and the dragon are easier to interpret than the woman, so let’s start with them.

The dragon is clearly identified a few verses later as Satan. He’s described here as a fiery red dragon, fiery red for the fires of hell. He’s described as having seven heads and ten horns, with seven diadems on his heads. Seven has been used throughout the book as a number of the perfection that comes from God. And Satan was created perfect in the beginning. But when he rebelled against God, he went from being a holy angel to being like a deadly dragon. Horns are symbols of strength and rule, and ten of them means he’s very powerful, or that he works through the full number of kings and rulers among men to fight against God. The diadems he’s wearing are a special kind of crown. At the time of John, the wearing of a diadem by a king meant that he considered himself to be a god and that he demanded to be worshiped as a god. A very fitting description for Satan, who isn’t God but desires to be worshiped as a god. Remember, he wanted Jesus to bow down to him and worship him during the temptations in the wilderness.

The dragon sweeps his tail across heaven and draws a third of the stars to the earth. That seems to be a reference to how the devil convinced many of the holy angels to abandon their place in heaven and to follow him in his rebellion in the beginning.

The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth in order to devour her Child as soon as he was born. Well, the male Child who was born, persecuted by the dragon, who will rule all nations with an iron scepter, and who was taken up to God and His throne—there is no question that the Child represents Jesus. From the moment He was born the devil tried to snuff out His life. Think of the slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem. Or think of how Satan entered Judas Iscariot, using him to betray Jesus and get Him killed. But in the end the dragon was not successful, even in Jesus’ death on the cross, because Christ turned the tables on the devil, rose from the dead victorious, and ascended into heaven to reign on His Father’s throne.

So who is the woman who gave birth to this Child, the woman who was clothed with the sun, who had the moon under her feet?

Roman Catholics have tried to make her the Virgin Mary, but that is completely inconsistent with the rest of the vision. Yes, Mary gave birth to Jesus. But “clothed with the sun”? The moon beneath her feet? Wearing a crown (that is, the victor’s wreath) with twelve stars? None of that fits with the Virgin Mary, unless you have made her into the Queen of heaven, contrary to the rest of Scripture. But the last verse of this section makes it absolutely impossible to interpret this woman as Mary. We’re told that after the Child was caught up to heaven, she fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. That period of 1,260 days (which is the same as the 42 months or 3-1/2 years mentioned earlier) is the entire period of the New Testament. So this cannot possibly apply to the Virgin Mary.

What other “woman” could it be who was there before the coming of Christ, gave birth to Him, and then spends the rest of the New Testament period fleeing from the devil and being provided for by God? Only one “woman” fits the bill. It’s the Church herself.

God often refers to Old Testament Israel as His bride, or sometimes as His daughter. Those are just figures of speech, of course. But it’s the same way He speaks of His New Testament Church, sometimes as His bride, sometimes as His children. It was literally the Virgin Mary who gave birth to Jesus, but it was figuratively the Church who carried Him throughout the Old Testament period through the promises God gave to Israel over the centuries, as believers waited expectantly for the Child to be born. The Church is “clothed with the sun,” that is, made radiant by the God who chose her to be His bride and clothed her with Christ. She has the moon under her feet as she has been exalted by God over the creation. She wears a victor’s crown with twelve stars—twelve again being the symbol for the Church.

And most notably, after Christ ascended into heaven, the Church is left here below to be persecuted by Satan in this wilderness that is not our true home, provided for by God until the end of this New Testament period. We’ll hear more about that next week.

So this first part of the first of the seven visions is a very brief picture of the whole history of the world. The devil and his demons were there early on, demanding to be worshiped as gods, threatening God’s precious Church, which, throughout the Old Testament period, was like an expectant mother, waiting for the day when Isaiah’s prophecy would finally be fulfilled, “Unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given.” And for as much as the devil tried to prevent Christ’s birth by leading Israel astray, and then tried to defeat Him after He was born, he couldn’t do it. God’s Word was fulfilled. And now, although Christ has ascended into heaven, His Church remains here below, fleeing from the devil, just as Peter said in Sunday’s Epistle, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being brought upon your brothers in the world.

But see how God views His precious Church! As His glorious bride whom He preserved until the Christ was born. And just as God the Father protected His beloved Son from being wiped out by the devil, so He will continue to preserve His beloved Church until the end. The devil is a fierce dragon and a dangerous enemy, but the story is already written, as it were. The Child is safe, and so will be the woman who gave birth to Him. The dragon does not win. The Church wins, with God’s help. Amen.

 

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on The first vision: The woman, the child, and the dragon

Seeking both openly rebellious and secretly self-righteous

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon
Download Sermon

Service
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/839522775 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Trinity 3

1 Peter 5:6-11  +  Luke 15:1-10

I think you probably know the story of the prodigal son; it’s at the end of Luke chapter 15. Today’s Gospel doesn’t include that story, but that story gives us a useful perspective that helps us understand the two parables we have before us today: of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father has two sons. One is openly rebellious, the other is openly obedient but is revealed in the end to be secretly self-righteous. In that parable, both sons become lost, but in different ways. Both sons need their father to go looking for them. Both sons need to repent. Both sons need saving.

That’s the story of all mankind in a nutshell. All people are lost, by nature, by birth, neither knowing nor worshiping the true God. We all start out life openly rebellious against the true God, pursuing our own beliefs, our own passions, our own pleasures, our own good. People’s rebellion begins in their heart from the earliest age and then manifests itself in all kinds of ways. (You don’t get a “pride month” recognized and celebrated around the world without most of the world being openly rebellious against the true God.) Now, some of those openly rebellious people are brought to a knowledge of the true God and make a beginning in His Church. They fix up their lives, for the most part, and become openly obedient children of God. But then many enter into another state of lostness. They become secretly self-righteous. They begin to trust in their own goodness and merit before God, as if He should be proud of them for being such good people. Openly rebellious or secretly self-righteous—in the end, it doesn’t matter, because both groups of people are lost. Both wretched in the eyes of God. Both under His condemnation.

And yet, our God wants no one to remain lost. He wants no one to be condemned. And so He goes out looking, pleading with them now, before it’s too late. Because one day soon, He will come, not seeking to find the lost, but to give them the everlasting punishment they deserve. For now, He still seeks, as we see in today’s Gospel, where we encounter both groups of lost people.

First, we see the tax collectors (who, at that time in Judea, openly practiced legalized theft and extorsion) and the “sinners” (that is, well-known, public scoundrels, sex workers, and adulterers). They’re openly rebellious against God. They’re impenitent—not sorry for their sins but determined to keep living in them. They have no desire to change (or to be changed). At least, not until they hear Jesus. These tax collectors and sinners in our Gospel were coming near to hear Jesus preach, calling them to repentance, offering a clean slate with God the Father to all who came to Him, seeking God’s mercy through Him. And Jesus was happy to have them come.

Second, we see the other lost group. In the Gospel they’re called Pharisees and scribes. These are the self-righteous religious people. They’re lost, too. They’re impenitent. They don’t believe God when He tells them that all people (including them!) have sinned and fall short of His glory. They don’t humble themselves before God, as Peter told us to do in today’s Epistle. Instead, they exalt themselves before God. They signal their own virtue before the world. They don’t cry out for God’s mercy, they don’t appreciate His grace. In fact, they’re so arrogant and condescending that, when they see the tax collectors and sinners coming to Jesus, they get angry: The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Since we have two groups of lost people in our Gospel, it’s fitting that we also have two little parables, one for each group. The parables are similar in many ways and we wouldn’t want to press the distinction too far. But we might say that the parable of the lost sheep focuses on the lost openly rebellious sinners, while the parable of the lost coin focuses on the lost secretly self-righteous sinners. (While the parable of the prodigal son that follows deals with them both.)

The tax collectors and sinners were like the one sheep out of a hundred that goes astray and becomes lost. They rebelled against God and lived for themselves, oblivious to the very real devil who, as Peter says, is like a roaring lion, prowling around looking for someone to devour. But God, the Good Shepherd, wasn’t willing to give up on them. No decent shepherd would be, as Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees, that any of them would do the same thing for one sheep that went astray. How much more shouldn’t God seek to bring back the human beings (His special creation, made in His own image) who have gone astray! Of course He receives them when they come to hear Him! Of course He welcomes them back into His Church and into His family when they repent and seek forgiveness from Jesus! He is, after all, the one who would soon give His life on the cross to pay for all the wrong they had done. He’s thrilled when sinners recognize the error of their ways and come to Him for mercy! And all of heaven rejoices with Him when that happens. I tell you, in the same way there will also be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.

Such is the care and concern of God for every sinner, yes, even for the openly rebellious. That includes all non-Christians, no matter how decent they may appear, because all non-Christians are, by definition, open idolaters, people who deny the true God and refuse to worship Him through His beloved Son Jesus Christ. It also includes the Christians who have rejected the holy life to which God has called us and have chosen instead to live in sin. It includes all LGBTQ supporters and practitioners, and all those who have committed or supported abortion. It includes all the heterosexual people out there, too, who shack up or hook up outside of marriage. It includes porn stars, and porn producers, and porn watchers. Thieves. Race-baiters. Liars, false accusers, etc. God sent His Son Jesus into the world to suffer rejection, torture, and crucifixion as the payment for their sins—for the sins of the world. And now the risen Lord Jesus sends out ministers in His Church to call sinners to repentance, to look for them and to find them with His Word, with His Law and His Gospel. And the Holy Spirit works through the Law to bring them to see how lost they were, to change their attitude toward sin, so that they no longer love it and embrace it, but come to hate it and reject it. And through the Gospel the same Holy Spirit leads them to flee in faith to Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. And when they do, God and His angels and all the saints, in heaven and on earth, rejoice over them.

But there are some, like the Pharisees in our Gospel, who do not rejoice over them when they come to repentance, because they have come to believe that they have earned God’s approval, and that other people need to earn it just like they did if they are to have it. No mercy! No forgiveness! Certainly not for free!

The Pharisees in our Gospel were like the one silver coin that the woman lost. Now, a sheep may be dirty and smelly and prone to wander. But a silver coin was seen as very valuable. And the woman who lost it didn’t have a hundred of them; she only had ten, so losing one was a much bigger deal than losing one sheep out of a hundred. And yet, for as much value as that coin may have, it’s absolutely worthless as long as it remains lost. It can’t purchase a single thing. It’s good for nothing.

But with the same care and concern as the shepherd had for his one lost sheep, the woman in the story lights a lamp and sweeps the house and searches until she finds her one lost coin. And with the same joy as the shepherd had over finding his lost sheep, she rejoices and calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me! For I have found the silver coin that I lost.

The Pharisees were outwardly good citizens, shiny and valuable, like the silver coin. But they were secretly self-righteous, still lost, still impenitent, and, therefore, useless before God. They trusted in themselves, not in God. They looked down on others, instead of loving them as God demands. They didn’t seek the repentance and salvation of the tax collectors and sinners around them; no, they wanted to see them all burn in hell. They were generally mean and nasty people, because pride and self-righteousness always end up making a person mean and nasty. But God valued them just as much as He valued the tax collectors and sinners. He wanted to find them and to have them found just as much. The blood Jesus shed on the cross for the tax collectors was the same blood He shed for the Pharisees, and His joy when any of them repented—like Nicodemus, or like the Apostle Paul—was just as great.

We don’t have Pharisees anymore. But there are plenty of Christians out there who share much in common with them. These are the ones who think highly of themselves and who look down their nose at everyone else. They’re proud of how religious they are, or how orthodox they are, and they mock those who don’t live up to their standards. What they don’t realize is that, by their self-righteous attitude, they have broken away from Christ. They have become lost. They need finding. And so our merciful God goes looking for them, too, warning them to recognize and repent of their self-righteousness, persuading them to seek God’s approval in Christ, and never in their own worthiness.

Now, I ask you this morning to examine yourself. Do you find yourself among the openly rebellious? Do you find yourself among the secretly self-righteous? If so, then repent! And what does repentance look like for both groups? It looks like coming to hate your sin, whether it’s open rebellion or secret self-righteousness. And then, it looks like trust in the Lord Jesus, who paid for those sins and yearns for you to be found and find peace and comfort in the forgiveness of sins. It looks like being baptized. And then, it looks like a life lived within God’s holy Church, a life of daily contrition and repentance, a life of prayer, a life of hearing and learning God’s Word and receiving the Holy Supper of Christ’s true body and blood, a life now devoted to fighting against your own sinful passions and desires, a life now devoted to loving God and to loving your neighbor.

As Peter expressed in today’s Epistle, living in repentance as someone who has now been found by the Lord Jesus also means you get to cast your cares upon the Lord, because He cares for you. It means being sober and diligent as you watch out daily for the many ways in which the devil tries to lead you back to impenitence and lostness. It means resisting the devil, and there’s hope in that, because it means the devil can be resisted. As a penitent child of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, you can stand against the devil. You don’t have to go along with him either into open rebellion or into self-righteousness. You don’t have to follow him into hatred or into despair. Peter reminds us that, for as much as we may feel alone in this world, suffering so many attacks from the devil, the world, and our flesh, we aren’t alone. It just feels that way. In reality, Peter says that the same sufferings are being brought upon your brothers in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Seeking both openly rebellious and secretly self-righteous

The seventh trumpet and the happy ending

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon
Download Sermon

Service
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/838527728 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 2

Revelation 11:15-19

It’s been a challenging journey so far through the book of Revelation. Throughout the book so far, but especially in the vision of the seven trumpets, we’ve seen many pictures and symbols that are hard to interpret with much certainty. We’ve seen scary images of destruction and violence, including the destructive force of false doctrine as it ravages the Christian Church on earth, destroying the false Christians and causing much tribulation for true believers.

It’s time for a little break from all that. It’s time to skip ahead to the end of the story. Every story has an outline, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and each of those main parts is divided up into smaller parts. The end part of the outline for a thriller, for example, is made up of the crisis, the climax (which is like the final showdown), and the resolution, after the hero comes out victorious.

This evening we have before us only five verses, the sounding of the seventh and final trumpet. They’re clear, straightforward, and easy to understand. And, even though this isn’t the last chapter of the book of Revelation, these verses take us to the very end of the world—as each series of visions does. They take us to the resolution and show us the final victory of God over His enemies and ours, and the everlasting joy of God’s people.

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

You may recognize these words from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. When the final angel sounds his trumpet, it signals the end of the world, the day of judgment, and the beginning of the open, visible, glorious reign of “our Lord and of His Christ.” The Father has entrusted the reign to His Son, to “His Christ” during this New Testament period, as the One who died and rose again, as the Head of the Church, as the Bridegroom in heaven ruling for the benefit of His Bride still on earth. But in the end, St. Paul writes that Then comes the end, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

That’s in keeping with what we confess in the Athanasian Creed, that the Son of God comes from the Father, not the other way around, and that He is equal to the Father with regard to His divinity, and lesser than the Father with regard to His humanity. Christ reigns now at the Father’s right hand, with the Father’s complete approval. He will still reign at the end, together with the Father, but somehow (and we don’t need to know how) His role will change at the end after He wins the final victory for His Church, and the Father will reassert His primary role as King of kings and Lord of lords. All the power of the powerful people of this world will vanish. And, willingly or unwillingly, the kings and presidents and rulers of the world will lay down their crowns at the feet of God.

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

If you recall, we identified the twenty-four elders earlier in the book of Revelation as the sum total of all believers from the Old Testament and the New Testament. They describe themselves a few verses later as Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great. Once God wins the final victory over all the forces of evil in this world, the Church will give thanks. We give thanks now, of course, and rightly so. But that final thanksgiving will be the most joyful of all, because now, to our thanksgiving, we inevitably add a, “Lord, have mercy!” Now, to our thanksgiving, we tack on a prayer for God’s help and for His continued providence and preservation during this time of tribulation. But then, at the end, when our God has finally removed every harmful and painful thing from our lives, every danger, every hardship, every sorrow, our joy and thanks will be unending and perfect.

The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

The nations were angry. We see it even now. The nations rage against the Lord and against His Christ. Everything Christianity has touched is right now, at this very moment, being dismantled by the rulers of the world. Western society, Biblical morality, the Bible’s version of creation and the history of the world, Christianity’s condemnation of sin and its insistence that there is only one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But if you compare the anger of the nations with the wrath of God—well, there is no comparison. As Jesus once said, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The prophet Zephaniah spoke of this day, and his : The great day of the LORD is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the LORD’s wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.

So let the nations be angry with God and with His people. God’s anger is far worse, and it’s about to be revealed against all those who failed to take refuge in Christ. He will destroy those who destroy the earth. That’s not talking about climate change or environmental impact. It’s talking about how men destroy the earth with their pride, with their violence, with their deception and crookedness, and, yes, with their destructive wars. They themselves will be destroyed—not wiped out of existence, not annihilated, but punished eternally in hell, even as God destroys this present earth and replaces it with the new heavens and the new earth.

As for believers in Christ, the time has come that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great. This is when Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes are fulfilled: Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Or as Peter wrote, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The reward of our eternal inheritance, the reward of God’s visible presence among His people, the reward of happiness untinged by sadness, the reward of eternal life unthreatened by death will be handed out to each one of those who have remained faithful until death. That’s what the Last Day will be like for believers in Christ Jesus.

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

Even as the earth is destroyed, God’s temple in heaven is opened for believers. And the ark of the covenant, which symbolized God’s presence with Israel on earth but which was covered up 24/7 by a veil, will not be covered in heaven. In other words, God will no longer hide His presence from His people or restrict access to Himself. Terror will strike the unbelieving as they are escorted to their doom, even as God’s people sit down with our Father and with His Son at the heavenly table, where we will dwell with Him forever.

You and I have lived our entire lives in the end-part of the story, in the climax section, where things are at their worst in the world. But it’s all building up to the Hero’s victory over every evil, and tonight we’ve seen just a brief preview of what life will be like after that. It isn’t cheating for us to skip to the end and read how things turn out. No, it’s God’s gift to you, to show you how things turn out so that you have renewed strength to remain steadfast in the faith until then. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , | Comments Off on The seventh trumpet and the happy ending