Tag: Concordia Pulpit Resources

Christ brings light to every dark place in our life

Posted on by nfuller

The guide on the cave tour gave the warning- it was about to get dark- real dark. Deep in a massive cave there was no way that natural light could make it into this part of the cave. Once the lights were switched off, the darkness was all encompassing. Nobody would dare move around much. I made sure I knew where my kids were and that my youngest was being held and would not wander off. After a while the darkness is hard to bear for some. The guide does not wait too long before turning the switches back on.

When the switches are turned back on and everyone can see again, all is well.  But what if the power to the cave goes out, where would we be then? Things would get interesting real quickly.  Can you really put that much trust in artificial light in a situation where there is so much darkness?

The truth is that you do not need to be deep in a national heritage cave in order to be surrounded by darkness.  There is plenty of darkness around us no matter where we are.  Even with the sun coming up every morning darkness abounds.  No man made lights can provide escape from this darkness, the darkness of sin and the spiritual death it brings.

Yet as God’s people we are not without hope, we are not without light. The season of Epiphany is all about appearing. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Unlike any artificial light, the light of Christ rescues us from the daily darkness of death for the endless light of eternal life. Darkness may encroach all around us, but it cannot bring us down.

The gospel of Matthew makes clear that Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah about light into darkness: 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

What made Galilee a place of darkness? Was Galilee like our winter this year, just very cloudy all of the time? Like Seattle?  The tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali were on the very Northern edge of Israel and as such were more exposed to troubles from foreign nations. The area was called Galilee of the Gentiles because many people were transported there from foreign lands.

This means more influences from outside of Israel that potentially could distract from the knowledge of truth in God’s Word. Instead of relying on the light of truth of God’s Word, people were settling for the artificial lights of worshipping the innovations and achievements of man, and worshipping man made gods.

Jesus withdrew to this area of Galilee after John the Baptist’s arrest. And this is the area where Jesus grew up, where he lived before beginning his ministry at his baptism by John in the Jordan River.  Now in returning, Jesus is himself the living light seen by those in Galilee who live in darkness.

When you spend some time outdoors in the dark, the firelight of a campfire appears brilliantly bright.  You appreciate light when you are without it for a time.  This is the picture our reading from Isaiah paints, a people in darkness for too long a time, a people who have experienced the wages of sin in their lives firsthand have seen the great light of Jesus.

As we go through a winter that is so often cloudy and grey, it reminds me of the weariness that a sin filled world brings. You can plan fun things to do to make the winter more enjoyable, you can watch entertaining shows and stay warm with hot tea. But after a while there is no replacement for the Spring and Summer. In the same way there is no replacement for the light that God brings to our lives in Christ.

And Jesus also shines his light in our current culture of death. Yesterday was the annual march for life in Washington D.C. The overturning of Roe V. Wade was a great victory for life and has saved thousands of lives already. Yet it also brought forward into the light more clearly than ever the passion for which pro choice activists hold on to the culture of death.  

One lawsuit in the state of Indiana was filled and now Abortionist doctors in our state brag about how they have personally performed hundreds and thousands of abortions since Indiana first placed its restrictions on Abortions following the Supreme Court Dobbs Jackson ruling.  

While we wait for the courts to decide on the constitutionality of a law passed by our state to ban abortion, more babies are executed by chemical and physical precision strikes by abortion doctors.  

As tragic as these needless deaths are, it is perhaps just as tragic spiritually that millions of people in America celebrate abortion as an enlightened practice of compassion and love. They fool themselves into believing something good has happened because a woman has made a choice that will seemingly make her future less complicated by the difficulties of parenting.  

But this is not a good thing, it is an evil thing because a child was sacrificed on the altar of our culture’s beliefs that we are gods ourselves who are permitted to command death.

Our culture prizes self centered living and mocks those who insist that we must obey God’s commands.  So many people believe they have found a better light than the truth of God’s Word.

The internet today is full of all kinds of answers for things in the world. One popular website is called Quora, where people post questions and a group of experts answer their questions. The word quora comes from the word Quorum, as in a group of people reaching consensus. 

And that is how our society determines the truth. If a group of people think something, our society coronates this as truth. The sinful human nature thinks that if you just get enough people to hold a position apart from God’s Word, and then it is true because society has reached a consensus- how could God possibly object to our consensus we think!

And once a consensus is reached by our society, do you really want to be the one who raises his hand and begs to differ and face the onslaught of persecution?

It is hard to stand against the enlightenment of society. The beginning of Psalm 43 asks for the courage to speak the truth: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
    against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!

Jesus has fulfilled this prayer and he sends us the light of truth. The truth is that God is with us, and God is for us all the way to the cross.   From this truth the God who is with us calls us to live without fear. With confidence Jesus promised to Peter and Andrew, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus’ kingdom is not a kingdom of consensus of human opinion like on the website Quora, and not a kingdom of earthly power like the other kingdoms of the earth. Instead, he brings to us a kingdom of real love that has the courage to call sin what it is, so that forgiveness can be real, and that love can be real.

It is a kingdom built on the truth of the Father’s love for the Son and Jesus’ love for the Father and all people in the Father’s creation- including us. This kingdom brings us past the slavery to the needs of the moment and toward a lasting future where we will be fully restored into God’s image, perfected in his likeness and living in a world where there is no darkness at all.  

His kingdom is one in which today our sins of seeking to be a light for ourselves are forgiven, today even our sins of trying to make good out of sacrificing a child are forgiven.

Jesus invites us to follow him with the same confidence that he will make us his own, and that he will lead us out of the darkness and through the darkness of our society.

Darkness no longer has the upper hand. We have no need of artificial light that yields futile results.  Jesus has come to push back the rod of the oppressor, to push back all the evil that the world inflicts on us.

His light continues, nobody can put a lid on this light, no matter how fiercely they rage. His gifts of life and salvation will continue to be preached from the pulpit and given in the Lord’s Supper.  We will continue to hear the truth that the body of Christ is broken for you, the blood of Christ shed for you. This is the true light that has come into the world, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, and concern ourselves with the darkness no more. Amen.   

In Christ we pass through the narrow gate on the way of salvation

Posted on by nfuller

We are all on a pilgrimage, a journey through this life. It is a difficult and rough pilgrimage, requiring patience and endurance.  Every person on this earth is on a pilgrimage, whether we be infant or aged, rich or poor. This pilgrimage extends from here to eternity. But to where are we going? What is our destination?

Some look inward, digging deep into their innermost being, to discover the answer inside themselves. Some conclude there is no destination, only the journey matters. Others believe in humanity’s journey of societal evolution. And still others think of all of us being shaped by the Divine- but not knowing exactly what this means.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 13 that even the view that we are being shaped by God and brought to heaven, whether we realize it or not- is a wrong view.

There are two paths and only two paths. Either one or the other- the wide way to hell or the narrow door to heaven. To think of our earthly pilgrimage as the chief destination itself is a path along the wide way to hell.

To think of it as a group effort, to where all humanity is going, is also along the wide way to hell. To forget hell and to believe that all go to heaven no matter what- this is walking along the oh so wide path to hell.

“Strive to enter through the narrow door” Jesus says.  Right now, the narrow door stands open, and many will try to enter it through their own means, on their own terms- but they will be unable to do so. They will think they’ve lived a good enough life, given enough to others, believed enough. Your life is never good enough for God. You can never give enough to please God. Your belief, when it is not in Jesus Christ, is never enough.     

We chanted the first half of Psalm 50. This Psalm provides an illustration of what it looks like when people try to go through the gate on their own terms instead of through Jesus.

“I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

God is clearly spelling out to Israel that simply offering sacrifices because it is the right thing to do and it hedges your bets to be forgiven by God, that is not true worship. God is saying, do you think I need all of these sacrifices to be fed? The Lord is telling us that such actions translate to “I’m going to earn the way of salvation on my own.”

The true worship of our living God is to offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to live in a relationship of love and trust with God that we are willing to call upon God in a time of trouble- instead of seeking to rely on ourselves and save ourselves. This is the narrow door of salvation, to have faith in the deliverance God has promised to His people.

The narrow door is standing open, but the time is coming when it will be closed forever. When Jesus returns descending on the clouds and ushering in the Last Day, the door will be closed. It is hard to believe that something that is always open could one day be closed. 

If someone offers you a job and gives you an offer letter you know you have made it through the application process. When you receive a letter that you have been accepted into a college, you know you are in. Once you are in, you can even wait a few months before sending in any confirmation or payment- maybe see if you get in somewhere else. After all you know a spot is being held for you.

But what if the weeks and weeks go by, and then months and you make no reply. The school year starts and you are still just content that you have the job offer or the admission to the degree program. It would be foolish to think you could just start a job two or three years later after you receive an offer letter. It would be the height of pride and folly to let year by year go by and tell yourself, the door is open, I got in. I will go through some day, when I am not so busy with these other life priorities.

The time of grace will end on the Last Day- the time of grace will end when the door that has stood open all this time is finally closed. The owner of the house will turn away from him those who have nothing in common with him. And if you chose to live your life in a way where you tried to enter through the door of faith on your own terms, instead of through the narrow door, you would on that day stand there shocked, desperate, anguished, and enraged.

Then you would begin to say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” We came to church, we gave to the poor, we did many mighty works in your name.” These are the words that will come out of your mouths, as if what you did can save you. 

As if just being in church on Sunday morning will save your soul, or as if just living in a sort of American Christian nation and thinking of yourself as a God fearing patriotic person who really means it when you sing God bless America- as if that will save you.

Jesus continues in our gospel lesson the reply to these protests: “But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me all you workers of evil!”  This is his final reply. There will be no more pleading, the narrow door will be closed. All those supposed good works are counted as filthy and unrighteous before the eyes of God almighty.

Do not be one who hears Jesus, but does not believe. Follow not the wide path to hell, rather strive to enter through the narrow door.

Jesus tells us that people will come from east and west, north and south, taking their places at the royal feast in heaven. The door is not narrow in the sense of only being for certain people in certain places, people from all tribes and languages and places in life will come. But they will all fit into the one narrow criteria of faith in Jesus.

Jesus the narrow door is standing there, drawing all people unto himself. He has come into this church, teaching among us, preaching his saving Word, and calling out to you. He does not wish to slam the door in anyone’s face but wants each one to enter into the feast he has prepared. This is the call of the Gospel, the universal call to all people. And this is God’s call to you.

“And behold some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Jesus the only begotten Son of the Father, who was first has become last. And you who are sinners, who were last, have become first. This is the point of Jesus’ pilgrimage on earth This is why Jesus of Nazareth was traveling onward to Jerusalem, to his death on the cross, to his glory.

But God doesn’t leave you alone on this earth to find the way. He is the way. He doesn’t force you to labor on your pilgrimage or to labor upon reaching your destination. Rather he grants rest- bestowing on you an honored place at the heavenly feast. On your path, God directs you to the narrow door. This is life under His grace.

God is gracious to you. He speaks his sacred Word of Absolution: “I forgive you all your sins.”  As you partake of the Lord’s Supper, you have already a foretaste of the eternal feast of heaven, the forgiveness of your sins, the very body and blood of Jesus your sacrificial lamb.  God uses these means of grace to keep you on the path to the narrow door. God uses these means to guarantee your salvation.

While we don’t always know where we are going, Jesus knew where he was going. He knew his destination, his destiny. He set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem, to the cross of calvary. And Jesus spread wide his arms on that tree of death, the narrow door to heaven was thrown open.

You need not look inward to find where you are going. You need not be deceived by your own flesh, the world, or the devil. Rather look where Jesus looked. Your destination is the same as his, the cross.

Your pilgrimage ends on that sacred mount- on that altar in which Christ offered himself as a sacrifice to God the Father. Your pilgrimage ends there. He calls out to you, enter the narrow door, Recline at His table, your journey ends here.     

Washed clean by the blood of the Lamb

Posted on by nfuller

Many people say, there are good days and there are bad days.  Why is that? Why are some days better than others? Is it a superstitious thing, cross your fingers and hope it is a good day? Sometimes we know what kind of day it is going to be and sometimes we do not know.  What kind of day is today? Does anyone here know? According to the book of Hebrews, today is a bloody day. But it is not the first of its kind or the last.

There will be a bloody day. We heard from our Old testament reading in Daniel and from our gospel lesson, blood violence and destruction will mark the Last Day and even the days before it. This is what the world has coming on account of sin.  Remember Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

Who will be delivered from this body of destruction, this time of trouble? They will be the saints, the excellent ones in whom the Lord delights, who will not see corruption, but walk in the path of life. Psalm 16 says this much. They are the ones who receive the free gift of God in the second half of the verse Romans 6:23.  Are you in the category of Saint that the Psalm talks about?

Listen to our reading from Daniel again: “They will be ‘those who are wise and therefore shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who may turn many to righteousness , like the starts forever and ever.  Are you wise? Have you turned many to righteousness?

Or listen to what Revelation chapter 7 says about the Saints. “They will be the ones coming out of the great tribulation, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”

Will you be delivered from bloody destruction? Yes, for their already has been a bloody day for you!

There was a bloody day. Jesus sacrificed himself. On the day of his bloody destruction, Jesus fulfilled all prior sacrifices. The whole priesthood and even the temple were destined for destruction with a single sacrifice.  Where none of our sacrifices and self justifications can do anything, Jesus did it all with that one sacrifice.

Jesus was delivered over to a bloody death and he was destroyed in order to deliver you from the coming destruction you deserve. He the righteous was delivered for you the unrighteous.

Jesus knew this was coming, he told the disciples that the chief priests and the scribes would condemn him to death and deliver him to Gentiles who would mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.

Normally Jewish people went to Jerusalem to worship the LORD by making animal sacrifices. The innocent blood of the animals paid for the sins of the people.  Jesus went to Jerusalem to be the sacrifice himself. The sinless sacrifice that took away the sin of the world.

As Jesus sacrificed himself, Jesus made you holy, He sanctified you.  Jesus has cleansed you by his blood and Jesus has forgiven you all your sins.  Jesus has claimed you by His blood to be his holy one, his saint. “As for the Saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

Jesus opened for you by his body and by his blood the “new and living way” to approach God and stand before him in holiness now and forever.”  Our reading from Hebrews talks about this new and living way that Jesus brings for us to come into God’s presence.

In the Old testament time people were kept from the holiest presence of God with the curtain of the Tabernacle. We are now on the other side of the curtain! What no one could ever have dreamed of, we are right there in the holy presence of God- this is the new and living way!

Because Jesus opened this way for you this is a bloody day. Jesus is present with you in His body and blood, and He is your new and living way to enter the presence of God in confidence. Hebrews 10:22 talks about drawing near to God with a true heart.  If you think about the beginning of our worship service, we draw near with a true heart through the practice of Confession.

Before we dare approach our God in the Heavenly Sanctuary as we do in our worship service, we must confess our sins and receive absolution from Jesus our great High Priest. As the Concordia Commentary series puts it: “The Father’s Word of pardon opens the door for entry into the heavenly realm and admits pardoned sinners into God’s Holy presence.”

During those Sundays when we have a cross processional, this occurs right after confession and absolution.  The processional cross is meant to illustrate to us that it is by Jesus’ blood and with Jesus himself that the congregation enters the presence of God.

The processional cross in this way provides a picture of Jesus walking down the aisle and leading us to the throne of God’s mercy at the altar. We come before God this day because we have entered by his blood.

And now that we have entered into his presence Jesus calls us to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Christ calls you to embrace the future he has prepared for you.  You are called to remain steadfast in your faith until you stand before God on the last Day.

 Jesus calls us to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. He calls you to forget yourself and remember others, not neglecting them, but being compassionate for them- just as he has had compassion for you by his blood.

May we continue here at Christ Lutheran to stir up one another to do the works of love God calls us to do. We stir up one another through encouraging one another to not be content with what good works we have done, but to instead strive to serve in new and more meaningful ways, reaching our potential as the Holy Spirit would guide and direct us.

And the Holy Spirit is working in us through God’s Word. As you draw near, the Holy Spirit descends to destroy you and deliver you through Jesus’ blood.  He destroys you.

The Spirit aims to destroy every idol, including your own righteousness. The Spirit aims to release us from the bonds of our sins which we have brought upon ourselves. The Spirit aims to put to death self centered ways in you by writing his laws on your heart and mind. There is indeed destruction today.

And he delivers you today. Just as he delivered you on the day you were washed, when your name was written in the book. Just as he forgives your sins today and forgets them again, just as he brought you near by the blood of Christ, so he brings you near today by Jesus blood in His Supper.   

Today is a bloody day as the Spirit sanctifies you, makes you holy by Jesus’ blood, and gives you all the gifts Christ won for you by his sacrifice on the cross.  Therefore everyday is a bloody day. By the blood of Jesus, you, God’s Church are the excellent ones in whom the Lord delights, who will not see corruption but walk the path of life.

By the blood of Jesus you will shine with the brightness of the sky above like the stars forever and ever. Now every day is a day to be the Church by the blood of Jesus.  Everyday you are cleansed by the blood of Christ, every day you are confident by Jesus’ blood, and every day you are compassionate by Jesus’ blood.  There may be good days you have or bad days, but every day is defined by Jesus’ blood for you. Amen.