"He Loves Us To The End" (John 13:1-17, 31b-35)

Listen on Spotify

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come 
to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

 

Jesus utterly loved His apostles. Jesus utterly loves you. He loves His whole creation.

 

Tonight is Maundy Thursday, or also called, Holy Thursday. The word “maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum, which means command. For it was on this night that Jesus gave the command to His disciples saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

 

“God is love” (1 John 4:16). John 3:16-17 sum up God’s love for us: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

 

It was out of God’s love that caused Him to create the world in the first place. And His love endures forever. Jesus is the embodiment of this love. He is love in human flesh.

 

But we are the opposite of what God intended us to be. Instead of truly loving God and loving our neighbor, we are curved in on ourselves. We love ourselves. We would rather be served by others than to serve. We daily sin against the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods,” since we want to be God. We grasp equality with God as Adam and Eve did. We follow right in line with the original sin. We all want to be almighty God. This is supreme idolatry.

 

We so often fail at love. But what are we best at? We are best at being selfish. We are best at putting ourselves as the center of the universe and that everyone else should love and serve you. We use people. We manipulate people for our own benefit. A holy and just God would have every reason to give us what we truly deserve: eternal death apart from God. May we repent of our selfishness.

Because of our sinful condition, we cannot change ourselves into holy and righteous people. All we can do is possibly turn us poor, miserable sinners into sinners. Maybe, we could sin less, but we will continue to sin. And all sin separates us from God. It’s our sin that pulls us away from God’s love, while God is reaching out to us in His love. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with God and His unconditional forgiveness.

 

For us to change, we must die and be born again as new people, with new minds, new thinking, and a new disposition. Clearly, we cannot do that. We can’t kill ourselves and make ourselves alive as holy people.

 

But God is love and as a loving God, He “desires all people to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4a). So, how does God show this love so that people would be saved?

 

We see this love in the Son of God who came down from heaven to serve, give everything, even Himself. He was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin and placed in a feeder’s trough. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head”(Matthew 8:20). Jesus was willing to leave everything behind and empty Himself of all the glory of heaven and the treasures of the entire universe to live among us and one of us.

 

What man covets; God laid aside. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

 

We all try to serve. We attempt to lose ourselves in service to our fellow man, but ultimately, self-righteousness and a self-serving attitude win the day.

 

But Jesus loves us to the end. On that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus used that occasion to demonstrate His complete, unwavering love for them and for us, a love He bore to the very end. The Passover dinner was underway, and this would be His last. On this night, He would institute the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of our sins and to strengthen our weak faith. On this night, He knew that He would be betrayed. Yet, Jesus was still in control. Heaven’s plan was coming together. It was now up to the Son of God to see it through.

 

So, Jesus, gives His disciples an old commandment, to which He renews. He speaks the words of Leviticus 19: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), to which He had previously renewed elsewhere in the Gospels. But Jesus uses this occasion to not just speak of this commandment, but to show this commandment in action.

 

So, Jesus rose from dinner and served His disciples as a slave would serve his master and his master’s guests. He washes their feet.

 

Now, is Jesus instituting a new sacrament? No. For He says, “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done for you” (John 13:15). What Jesus is doing serves as an object lesson, a pattern of humility for Christians to follow, that still applies to us. You see, a true leader, a true friend, a true neighbor, is one who serves others. This act of washing His disciples’ feet tells us that a follower of Jesus will act in humble service as Jesus did.

 

This new commandment is not being spoken about, but shown. And by showing His love in action, He is giving this commandment a fresh and new quality. So, Jesus’ command was to love one another as He had loved them by lowing Himself to a servant. And from that night on, Jesus’ disciples were to practice that love in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

 

This love is called “agape.” This love sacrifices for others. Jesus is the embodiment of this love. He gives and He gives, and He gives. He gives of Himself tonight in His very body and blood under bread and wine to forgive your sins.

 

Later that night, Jesus would “give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) as He would “give for the life of the world [His] flesh” (John 6:51). 

 

As Jesus hung on the cross one day later, He took upon Himself all our wickedness, all our iniquity, all our brokenness, all our pain. He reconciled you and me back to God the Father. He changed us. He took all our selfishness upon Himself. He made a way to reconciliation. He made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20).

 

God loved you so much that He died for you. And God did not remain dead. He rose, so that you would also rise. In Christ alone, you are a new creation. In Christ alone, you are born again. This is what happened at your Baptism. It was through the water and Word that the Holy Spirit gave you a new mind with new thinking and a new disposition. 

Now, through Christ’s love, you are able to look outside yourself. You are now able to serve your neighbor in agape love – sacrificial love. You don’t ask for anything in return. You just serve out of love. You serve in loving service to God.

 

God’s heart is one of eternal love, of sacrificial love. He loved you even before you loved Him. For “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

God loves us to the end. He loves by serving. Serving is what defines the one true God. He serves us sinners with His forgiveness in Word and Sacrament. He serves us life and salvation. May we all repent of our selfishness and receive Christ’s love through the forgiveness of sins. And may He continually empower us to “be imitators of God, as beloved Children” walking in love as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:1-2) by giving and serving our neighbor in sacrificial love. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"Numbered with the Transgressors" (Luke 22:35-38)

Listen on Spotify

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Jesus said: “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me has its fulfillment” (Luke 22:37).

 

This is Jesus’ final passion prediction before He would be handed over by Judas Iscariot to the Jewish authorities. This is also a direct quote from Isaiah 53:12, which describes the necessity of the death of Jesus. So why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t there have been another way?

 

Before man’s Fall into sin, God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would name them. Adam personally named each creature he met. He was naked and unashamed. But when Adam and Eve fell into sin as they ate of the forbidden fruit, they noticed their nakedness. They were ashamed. So, God in His love clothed them with garments of skins. These skins were to remind Adam and Eve of the result of sin, which is death. 

 

As time went on, the offerings of animals to God became the way of cleansing man of their sins. We see this in Genesis 4 as Abel offered the firstborn of his flock to God. But the sacrificial system did not officially become doctrine until God rescued His chosen people from slavery in Egypt. It was through a complex sacrificial system that an animal’s life was offered as atonement before God through the blood. The Lord said to Moses, “The life of the flesh is the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11).

 

So, what is atonement? Atonement is when an innocent life is offered as a substitute for a guilty life. Atonement brings cleansing. Atonement brings redemption.

 

Our God is just. He is perfect. He demands perfection. So, in perfect justice, atonement for sin demands a blood covering. The animal’s blood was a substitute for the life of the person – as a blood covering for the people’s sins. 

 

With His words to His disciples, Jesus is saying that He must be the blood covering for the whole world’s sins. 

Those animal sacrifices all foreshadowed the sacrifice of the perfect High Priest, Jesus Christ, who would not offer the blood of animals, but His own precious blood and carry it into the heavenly Most Holy Place as a blood covering for our sin.

 

All those Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the one all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and the perfect High Priest. As fully God and fully man with His ordinary human frame, Jesus lived a perfect life under the Law and then died the death that we all deserve, because of our sins. Through the shedding of His own blood, He would offer His life as the Great Exchange for the life of the world.

 

You see, Jesus became man so that He could take our sin, our guilt, and our punishment. In return, He gives us His righteousness, His perfection. It could only be this way. Sins must be atoned for. Blood must be spilled from the perfect Lamb.

 

Through Christ’s death on a cross as He hung between two transgressors, God puts the righteousness of Christ upon us. There, God reconciled the world to Himself. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). In this Great Exchange, our filthy rags of guilt and shame, iniquity and transgression, our bondage to death and the devil is all taken off us and put on Christ. And Jesus gives us His righteousness, His perfection, His life. He gives us everything!

 

So just as the high priest took the animal’s blood into God’s presence in the Most Holy Place and brought the most holy blood out to cleanse the altar, Jesus offered His own blood, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and entered into the heavenly sanctuary with His blood and flesh. Now, in Holy Baptism, Jesus sprinkles us with His most holy blood. He sprinkles us on the outside to cleanse us and to pardon our sin, to set us apart as His Holy people to serve God in our holy callings. Then in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus sprinkles us internally to set us apart to serve in the heavenly sanctuary with the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, praising God for our Blood Covering.

 

It had to be this way. There was no other way. Jesus had to die a shameful death between two criminals. He had to identify Himself with sinful humanity, place Himself in solidarity with sinners, and die on behalf of all, so that He would make atonement for all people. So, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

Sermon for the Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Sunrise - "Easter Living" (1 Corinthians 5:6b-8)

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

Had Christ not been raised, our preaching and your faith would be in vain, you would still be in your sins, but in fact, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

 

Since you have received forgiveness of your sins, through the Crucified and Risen Christ, the Apostle Paul calls Christians to be Easter people. He is calling us to Easter living. Paul is calling us to celebrate the Easter festival not in celebrating our sins, but as forgiven people in Christ.

 

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul writes, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5b-7).

 

The Apostle Paul fathered the church in Corinth, but this church caused the most headaches for its father. In so many ways, Corinth most closely resembles the western Christian church today. 

 

For the most part, the western Church has deluded itself into believing that the caring thing is to be infinitely nonjudgmental and inclusive. But this is simply a demonic lie. This lie causes the church to allow cancerous abuses to continue unchecked to the point when that cancer takes over the whole body and the body dies.

 

So, what was going on in Corinth? Well, they should have all been ashamed of an incestuous relationship in their midst, but instead, for the most part, the church was fine with it as Corinth took pride in their openness and tolerance. They were complacent about sin. In fact, they encouraged all sorts of sexual immorality, saying, “Love is love.” They were boasting that the forgiveness won for them by Christ Crucified gives them outright permission to do every sin imaginable.

 

To all this pride in sin, St. Paul admonishes them. Paul says to them, “You have the Gospel and you have become Christians, but you are also to live according to the Gospel by fleeing and avoiding everything that is not in conformity with faith and Christian conduct.”

 

In a culture where bread was the staple food, the Holy Spirit inspires St. Paul to offer this wayward church an object lesson: “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:6b-7a).

 

You see, everyone knew how a little leaven would permeate a batch of flour, causing it to swell and rise, ready for baking. At the same time, this powerful ingredient, so useful for baking, also came to symbolize evils which had the power to spread.

 

One of those evils was false doctrine. As it is with leaven, false doctrine works the same way. It may appear like a good thing at first, but quickly, false doctrine takes over and Christianity is lost. As it was for Corinth, they wanted to preach the Gospel of Christ, but mixed with the fallen world. This is the case with the mainline western church today. As the mainline denominations reasoned away Biblical authority, the sinful flesh and the fallen world took over. Truth was lost. 

 

You see, when one begins to give way to the flesh and to abuse freedom, even under the name of the Gospel, then that yeast is mixed into the right Christian conduct and quickly corrupts faith and conscience, it sweeps on until Christ and the Gospel are completely forgotten.

 

If it wasn’t for Paul admonishing the church in Corinth, Christianity would have been lost there. With love, Paul admonished and urged them to seep out this yeast, since the church has already begun to practice all kinds of sinful acts. 

 

With only one drop of poison, sweet wine and medicine are made harmful. Likewise, if only a drop of impurity is added to God’s Word, it is corrupted and it is good for nothing. The worst thing about leaven is that it spreads and adheres so strongly that it cannot be gotten out. It’s like cancer. It needs to be completely removed.

 

So, Christianity cannot tolerate false teachings. If it is mixed with human additions, then it will be obscured and damaged, and souls are led astray. To this, Christ says in Matthew 9:16, “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.”

As Easter Christians, faith cannot coexist with living according to the depravity of the flesh in sins and vice against the conscience. In one chapter later, Paul writes, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, no adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

 

So, as Easter Christians, we must sweep away the old yeast of sin – whatever sins they may be – and we are to teach those in our midst to sweep away the old yeast, those who have given into the devil’s lies. We must teach them and tell them that their old yeast must be swept away and that they are not Christians if they consistently give in to their sinful flesh and purposely remain and persist in sins against conscience. For it is so much worse when sin is done under the Name and cover of the Gospel, for in that way the Name of Christ is slandered and despised.

 

For, if we are Easter Christians, we are “a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We must sweep away the old yeast. Being a new dough and letting the old yeast remain is not fitting for celebrating Easter, for if it is not swept out, the new dough will be completely leavened and corrupted, so the previous sinful life would gain the upper hand and overthrow faith.

 

Through the Crucified and Risen Christ, we have become unleavened. Christ says to us, “You are clean because of My Word” (John 15:3), but Christ also says, “Every branch that does not produce fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2).

 

It is Christ alone who makes us clean. He makes us clean through the Word and faith. But this isn’t immediate. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ works in us daily to cleanse us until we become purer and purer. He makes us purer through the office of the Holy Ministry with admonition, rebuking, improvement, and strengthening, just as Christ did through St. Paul at Corinth.

 

So, how do we live as Easter people? Well, through the work of the Holy Spirit, He leads us to appropriate and transpose our lives and behavior. Just as was done in Corinth, He does for us! The purity of the Corinthian church was at risk, but the triune God didn’t leave them in their sins. It was the work of God who led them to repentance, faith in the forgiveness of sins, and the new life in Christ. And it is the work of God who leads us to repentance, faith in the forgiveness of sins, and the new life in Christ, too!

 

We must trust in “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2) as He has made Corinth and us a community of repentant sinners who live under the cross of Christ. We have “washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Fellow purified and redeemed, it is un-Christian to tolerate a fellow brother or sister in Christ who shows open contempt for the Gospel by their unwillingness to repent and look for forgiveness to Christ crucified for we are only made holy, redeemed, and clean through the crucified Christ. 

 

So just as Paul exhorted Corinth, he also exhorts us to properly celebrate the fulfilled Passover inaugurated by Christ’s crucifixion and His bodily resurrection! For Christians, Easter is not just today. It’s not just Sundays and Mondays with the mini-Easters of the Divine Service. No! For us, Easter is every day! We are forgiven in Christ, so let us live forgiven in Christ!

 

As we celebrate the new life in Christ, we should no longer be infected by “the old leaven” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) of sin and arrogance. Nor should this new life feature “malice and wickedness” (1 Corinthians 5:8). Rather, we live the new life in Christ with fresh, unleavened bread “of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

 

In just mere minutes, Christ will give us forgiveness of sins through the Easter Lamb of unleavened bread in the Sacrament of the Altar. We add nothing, except that we receive Christ’s body and it eat it through faith, which Christ bestows to us and gives to us through that eating and drinking.

 

May we always celebrate the Easter festival in sincerity and truth for Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year: "Your Judgment Day" (Matthew 25:31-46)

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Jesus said: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on His left” (Matthew 25:31-33).

 

How often do you think about the glorious return of Christ? How often do you think of the Final Judgment?

 

Jesus speaks of wars and rumors of wars. He speaks that many will fall away from the Christian faith only to betray one another and to hate one another. He speaks of an increase in natural disasters.

 

With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the war between Russia and Ukraine, one may think, are we close to Christ’s return? With an ever increase in Christians falling away from the one true faith, are we close to Christ’s return? With the news media and politicians lecturing us about the climate, is this a sign of Christ’s return?

 

Instead of pondering these questions, what does Jesus say? “Concerning that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36). So, life will be considered normal. Christ says that it will be like the days of Noah, since the general population was unaware until the flood came and swept them away. Christ says over and over again: “Be ready.”

 

But even with the call for us to “be ready,” the natural question is “when?” Now, we don’t know the day and the hour of Christ’s return. So, if someone tells you that he knows when, he is lying. So, you must dismiss him. And, if you forget about this, then some false prophet will make a fool of himself by claiming he knows what he cannot know and he might make a fool of you as well.

 

But Jesus does give us a question from today’s Gospel lesson that we can answer. At least this is one that the Lord tells us the answer. When will all this get decided? When does the judgment happen? When does the Lord make up His mind about who goes where? The big answer to when is this Final Judgment is: right now.

After warning us through the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Parable of the Tenants, this morning, everything comes to its climax. So, on this Last Sunday of the Church Year, Jesus again is warning His church – you and me – to be ready for the Final Judgment. As I said last week, on the one hand, we pray for Christ’s return, and on the other hand, we pray for His delay. Just the other day, I was waiting in line at Kwik Trip, and I thought: “How many of these people around me will be numbered with the goats?” It is a scary thought!

 

We have this conflict, because the Day of Judgment, which is magnificent, is also scary. It’s scary, since we have family and friends who are lapsed Christians. It’s scary, since we have family and friends who are being fed lies by false prophets wearing albs and stoles saying good is evil and evil is good. It’s scary, since we have family and friends who have never once stepped inside a Bible-believing church. It’s scary, because we all see so many people heading for judgment. It’s scary, because we see how urgent it is to tell everyone that their salvation has been won in Christ alone and that He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.

 

Again, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, … He will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31a, 32b).

 

So, on that great and magnificent day, Jesus will divide all mankind into two groups: sheep and goats. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus likens this to the customary practice of the shepherds in Israel. You see, during the daytime, the shepherd would let his sheep and goats graze together in the same pasture, but at night, the shepherd would separate the sheep and the goats. As it is with a shepherd, this separation is easy, since a shepherd can easily tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. So, on the Last Day, this will be a simple matter for Jesus. “He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left” (Matthew 25:33).

 

The sheep are those who God made righteous through Holy Baptism, so they live as sheep. They gladly hear and learn God’s Word. They share the good news of salvation. They care for God’s creation. They take care for those around them.

 

The goats are those who ignored the call of God. They chose to do other things instead of gladly hearing and learning God’s Word. They chose to reject God’s grace. They chose to ignore the cry of their fellow creatures. They chose eternal death. So, in return, God gives them what they chose. They chose to share in the same fate as Satan and his demons – eternal punishment apart from God in hell.

Now, what to make of “right” and “left”? Well, “right” signifies complete approval by the One who has all power and authority. By contrast, “left” means rejection, or sinister.

 

During the French Revolution, the French National Assembly was divided as “right” and “left.” In fact, our Congress has adopted this framework. But do you know the origins on this seating arrangement? You see, those who supported the Church sat on the “right” and those who supported the revolution sat on the “left.” It may be unknown to them, but the French Assembly and even our Congress is attempting to divide in a similar way as that of Christ on the Last Day.

 

But then we come to a problem. I thought true believers were not judged. Remember Christ saying, “Whoever believes is not condemned” (John 3:18a)? What about: “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24)?

 

But then we come to: “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Romans 14:10) and “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). 

 

Hmm. What is going on here? On one hand, those who trust in Jesus are not judged and on the other hand, everyone is judged. How do we resolve this?

 

Well, let’s look in what manner Jesus speaks of the sheep and the goats. To the sheep, Jesus does not mention a single sin of theirs. He only speaks in glowing praise. But to the goats, Jesus makes a specific mention of their sins, which have brought them into everlasting condemnation.

 

To the sheep, the Last Judgment is a witness of exactly what they by faith expected. At the sight of Jesus, the sheep are filled with great joy, since Jesus is their Brother and Friend. To the sheep, He calls them “blessed by My Father” (Matthew 25:34).

 

To the goats, the Last Judgment is a witness of exactly how they lived apart from faith. For them, at the sight of Jesus, the goats are filled with fear, since Jesus who they denied, is actually real and present before them. To them, Jesus says, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

 

The goats may have known Jesus, but they chose to deny their faith before man. Remember, even Satan and his demons believe in Jesus. So, by denying their faith and living no different than an unbeliever, Jesus casts these goats into hell. 

 

I mentioned earlier about the big answer to when is the Final Judgment. I said that this Final Judgment is right now. But what about that separation of the sheep and the goats? Well, right now everyone’s fate is being decided. As for the Last Day, that is when everyone’s fate will be publicly announced, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is vindicated as the truth before all people: the sheep and the goats. So, for the sheep, the same Jesus you believe and trust in today and throughout your life is the One in whose righteousness you shall stand on Judgment Day.

 

But what about right now? Each Sunday, we publicly confess that Christ will “come to judge the living and the dead.” We confess that this day is not a day that we – as sheep – dread, for we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. We have the forgiveness of sins that covers all our sin. For us sheep, Judgment Day marks the public and eternal announcement of God’s judgment in Christ: “Your sins are forgiven, so you are righteous for Jesus’ sake!”

 

Each Sunday, we too, confess that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and “cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Galatians 3:10b). According to God’s Law, the sinner deserves God’s “present and eternal punishment.” This is the judgment of the Law.

 

But this judgment, which we all deserved, fell upon Christ in His death on the cross. Because He took our sin into His flesh, God the Father punished His Son. Christ bore the suffering and death that we deserved. “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed” (Psalm 53:5).

 

The judgment of the Gospel is that the death of Jesus and the shedding of His blood covers the sin of the world (1 John 1:7). The judgment of the Gospel is that the sinner is declared righteous for the sake of Jesus who has paid the price for his sin. And this word of forgiveness is received by faith. The righteousness of Christ clothes the baptized believer. It covers his sin with forgiveness, so that on Judgment Day, the Christian stands before God righteous and holy for Jesus’ sake as His sheep. 

 

You are His sheep! In Holy Baptism, He claimed you as His own as He gave you His name! As His sheep, we believe the judgment of the absolution which declares you forgiven!

 

So, today, you are judged. Through Christ’s death and bodily resurrection, you who believe in Him are now declared innocent. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20a). When Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He declared that His death paid the price for all sin, and our salvation was accomplished. When He rose from the dead, He proclaimed the forgiveness of sins to His disciples when He said, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19, 21). Then He sent them out to proclaim the judgment of the Law and Gospel on His behalf, in order that sinners might be brought to repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

 

So, our Judgement Day is today when a sinner is either “bound” or “loosed” from his sins through the preaching of the Law and Gospel in sermons, in catechesis, and in confession and absolution. This takes place daily in the life of the Christian as he is brought again and again to repentance and faith in Christ. This is the life of the Christian. We hear the preaching of the Law that exposes our sins, which flow from a mistrust of God. God’s Law cuts us to the heart (Acts 2:37) as we feel the judgment of the Law that Jesus felt on the cross. But then you hear the preaching of the Gospel, which declares your sins forgiven for Jesus’ sake. The word of the Gospel covers your sins, creates faith in Christ, comforts the heart, and gives the penitent and forgiven sinner the joy of salvation and the sure and certain hope of eternal life.

 

So, when you hear, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” you are hearing the judgment of God. It is as if you are hearing, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.   

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for Pentecost 14: "The Heart of Man" (Mark 7:14-23)

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro: Follow Your Heart]

Follow your heart. Oftentimes when people ask questions when looking for advice, the response is “follow your heart.” You may hear:

• "You can’t live a lie. You have to follow your heart.”
• “Follow your heart. You must walk your own path.”
• “You’ll never find peace of mind unless you listen to your heart.”“Your own heart never lies.”
• “Trust your inner voice, your heart knows what is good for you.”
• “There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
• “Always follow your heart! When your heart feels at peace, rest assured, you are on the right track.”

But is trusting your heart the best advice? Are we to always follow our hearts? Are we to always trust our feelings?

Thanks be to God, we have the gift of logic and reason. But our logic and reason is often flawed, due to our sinful nature.

Today on this 14^th Sunday after Pentecost, Jesus gives us the correct answer.

So, would Jesus tell us to follow our hearts? Let’s hear His answer, God’s answer: He says, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:21-23).

Ouch! This is a pretty ugly list. This is what occurs when a person follows their heart. According to Jesus, following your heart is the worst advice a person could give to another, since it is all about trusting your emotions. Instead, we are to be disciplined by the Word of God.

Naturally, our heart is opposed to God. Our heart leads us to do what we want, rather than what we ought to do, as God commands and teaches. Our heart’s condition only leads us to condemnation, that is, eternal death apart from God.

[What Defiles a Person?]

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus is defining what the word “defile” actually means. For the Pharisees, they believed “defile” meant ceremonially unclean. The Pharisees were focused on the external, the public display of ritual washing, rather than on a decent lifestyle. Jesus turned this definition upside down and corrected this error. Jesus said “defile” means “to make not holy, not set apart.”

As the Pharisees were more concerned with outward appearances, Jesus said it’s not ultimately about that. This defilement has a source, and its source is the heart.

So, the real defilement is not just outward things – the words and deeds. The real issue is the source of these words and deeds. These actions – the words and deeds – are sinful and hideous because they come from an evil, ugly source – the heart, the source of your thoughts.

As the Pharisees were looking for only outward actions, Jesus ups the ante. For the Pharisees, this assessment of the Law is radical, unsettling, and offensive to any pious Jew.

So, Jesus rattles off a list that nobody wants to hear – the Jews then, and us today. Who would not feel guilty? Everyone on earth is included in this list of vices.

The first nine of the 12 vices deal essentially with the Second Table of the Ten Commandments, with sins against our neighbor: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, and envy. The final three deal with the First Table of the Law, with sins against God – essentially making oneself “god” and the focus of attention: slander, pride, and foolishness.

Our sinful nature certainly does not like this list of vices. Our sinful nature would like to run away from this list of vices and do just what we want. Our sinful nature says: “Follow your heart.”

Through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, the Apostle Paul writes that those who do these such things “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:10). We have all certainly thought, spoke of, and done many of the vices on Jesus’ list. So, are we doomed? No! God does not say that such people are ejected from the kingdom of God immediately. But God does say that those who continue in these sins are in grave danger of exclusion from God’s gracious reign and rule, because those who do such things will not inherit God’s kingdom, in the end.

This is even a struggle within the wider Christian Church on earth. This is what makes this list of vices even more difficult. Why do some denominations and churches say these vices do not matter? Why do some denominations encourage many of these vices? This often causes so much conflict and doubt – and frankly church hopping. Again, this all goes back to our heart. With the “follow your heart” mentality, many of us choose a church based on personal feelings rather than on God’s truth.

[The Clean Heart]

In our Old Testament lesson, God commanded Moses to teach the Israelites and said: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2).

God’s commandments must be kept unaltered and untouched. Nothing must be added or removed. So, we should only lean solely on the Word of God, neither adding or subtracting anything. This still applies today – even if our sinful hearts do not like it. Moses said: “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

To this, Luther taught: “Watch yourself, therefore, as often as the Word of God is understood, so often it must be repeated. Scripture has two modes: the one, of teaching, by which we are wearied; the other, of exhorting, by which we are buoyed up. These two the Scriptures have everywhere.”[1]

So, how do we follow God’s commandments? We are only able to follow God’s commandments when we trust that only God is the source of all that is just, right, and good. Apart from God, our hearts are the source of only evil.

Today’s Introit gives us a big clue. After Nathan confronted King David with his sin, David recognized how thoroughly corrupt he was. He was corrupt because he followed his heart which led to adultery with Bathsheba. Even as he was thoroughly corrupt due to his sin, David trusted in His Lord for forgiveness. He wrote these familiar words:

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

(Psalm 51:7, 10-12; antiphon: v. 2)

Although David was corrupt due to his heart, he believed that only God could create a clean heart. We, too, can have a clean heart, but we cannot produce this clean heart by ourselves.

In order for us to receive clean hearts, God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus to take upon Himself our filthy hearts as He was declared guilty of all the sin and evil in this world. So, “for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This, Christ accomplished for us through His suffering and death upon the cross and His bodily resurrection from the dead, so that we – by faith in Him – would become clean.

Although His death and resurrection is where we become clean, God’s grace is always flowing over, so He gives us so many other means by which He cleans our hearts.

You see, at each Divine Service, God purifies our dirty hearts through His Means of Grace – His Word and Sacrament.

Ultimately, “[Christ] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Through our Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, we were given Christ’s robe of righteousness that covers all of our sins. And when we do sin – in thought, word, and deed against God – recall your Baptism, confess your sin, and trust in Him for your forgiveness.

He also purifies us through His Word as Jesus proclaims to us: “Already you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). Even in today’s Gospel text, which is full of Law, Jesus is making us clean. He is making us clean through His very voice of warning. You see, God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Even in this Word of warning, God is showing His steadfast love.

We are also purified through Christ’s very Body and Blood in and under the bread and wine, which forgives our sins and strengthens our faith.

Remember, when the Lord washes us, we are clean, we are as white as snow. With the Lord, no dirt of sin remains.

Through repentance and faith in God, Christ alone has taken all of our sins upon Himself and replaces it with Himself dwelling in us. By grace through faith in Christ alone, we are clean!

With our New and Clean Heart, we follow His commandments as we are disciplined by the Word of God. And when we fail, we repent and receive God’s forgiveness. With our Clean Heart, we are set apart as holy people as we live in the world, but not of the world. With the Clean Heart, outsiders may want to know who and what the true God is all about, since we love one another, including those who do not yet know Christ. With the Clean Heart, we love in ways that the world does not do. This is living out the Clean Heart.

Today, Jesus certainly nails us with our sin. He certainly sees right through us. But He also creates in us Clean Hearts and all by grace through faith in Him alone!

6    By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
    In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
For though I know my heart’s condition,
    I also know my Savior’s voice.
My heart is glad, all grief has flown
Since I am saved by grace alone. (By Grace I’m Saved, LSB 566, stanza 6)

Amen!

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

---

[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Volume 9: Lectures on Deuteronomy (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1960), 57.