Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 64:1-9 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, December 3rd

Isaiah 64:1-9

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
    and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, December 3 2023, is from Isaiah chapter 64. verses one through nine. Oh, that you would render the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles, brushwood, and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down the mountains quaked at your presence. For of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No, I have seen a God besides You, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned in our sins. We have been a long time and shall we be saved. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind take us away. There is no one who calls upon Your name who rouses himself to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. But now, oh, Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our Potter. We are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, oh, Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please, look, we are all your people. Here ends the reading. This Old Testament reading is the beginning of the season of Advent. December 3 Is that first Sunday in Advent season. And so we're talking about God coming down. And this passage begins with God coming down with a mighty power. Oh, that you would render the heavens tear open the heavens and come down. It mentions earthquakes and fire fire so bad that it causes water to boil with the result that God would be made known to his adversaries and that the nations might tremble at his presence. Now, as we we Christians think about that, we think Wait, wait, wait, wait a second, we don't have adversaries. But we remember, in Isaiah stay, God's people was a nation. They had spears and swords and armies, they had borders, they had defenses, they had all sorts of things. And the enemies were the people who attacked that nation. We do not have physical enemies like that there are no borders, there are no spears, the people of God do not have swords to defend our territory. We do have enemies, though. They are the spiritual forces and the powers of this world. And there are times when even human beings become enemies of the church when they persecute us when they kill us when they do all sorts of terrible things to us. And so that still happens. We continue on, though talking about the power of God, from an old no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No, I have seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him. This is a fascinating look at the Christian hope in our God is that God acts for people who wait and trust in His salvation. There's quite a bit of Old Testament language about being still and know that I am God, that be still and wait for his salvation. And God does things. Without us. He saves us. And so he did that throughout the Old Testament. He did that with Abraham when he came to him and chose him out of all the peoples. He did that with Moses when he chose him as he was out tending the flock and the fiery Bush. He did it with Israel, when they were all pagan worshipers in the land of Egypt. And he called them out and made them a people. And he does did that over and over. You can think of Gideon, who was just hiding until God made him a mighty warrior and a leader of men. You can think of David who was just a shepherd when God chose him and anointed him as a king. But I think most of all, we don't see that what we see is that Jesus came down when no one was looking for him. We had no conception that God Himself would come down in human form and and enter into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey to be tried, betrayed and crucified for us. No, I had seen no ear has heard a God who does this sort of thing. Now, the reading then makes us shift as we consider what it means that God comes down and wrens the heavens and does stuff, we start to go. But that's not always good for us, right? Behold, you are angry and we sinned in our sins, we have been a long time shall we be saved? Isaiah was pointing to the sin of the people in ancient Israel specifically, you know, these people around his time, were were worshipping false gods, they were trusting in a Syria to save them, and all sorts of terrible things were going on. Which meant that if God were to rend the heavens and come down, it would be in judgment and not in peace. God would not come down and defend his people, God would come down and send the Babylonians in to take them over, destroying both the Assyrians and the people of Israel. And I think we can learn from that as well. Just like when we consider our own sins, we are unworthy. And as it says, we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, even our righteousness. And so if God were to come down in his judgment and his power, and we were to stand before him, without Christ, we would be crushed just like everyone else. But God does not do that. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to be crushed for us to take the punishment we deserve on the cross that we might have the reward that he deserves. And so it goes towards the end. And it gives a note of hope, and trust. But now, oh, Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our Potter. We are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, oh, Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. It calls on God to remember his promises. First of all, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Old Testament promises, but then all of those promises more gloriously fulfilled for the church, through Jesus Christ. We remind God, we are your people. You've given us a promise through your Son, Jesus Christ. When we were baptized, we joined in with him to become one with Jesus, which means we are truly your people. God, remember your promises and don't look at our sins. And he always promises to do so. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Last Enemy To Be Destroyed Is Death: Sermon for Sunday, November 26th, 2023

1 Corinthians 15:20-28

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are coming to the end of the Church year. Well, today is actually the end of the church here. And you've seen a decided turn in the judge Enos of our readings, right? Jesus comes with sheep and goats and sets them on one side and on the other, and judges them. And Ezekiel predicts something similar, that the the son of David the prince, the king would come and judge between sheep, and sheep, right? Jesus is coming, we know this, it will come with power on the clouds with power and might, we will divide the world into two, giving the righteous eternal life and ascending to hell. All the unrighteous are reading from First Corinthians discusses what he is doing. He talks about Jesus being raised from the dead, and the coming thing that he will do, let's take a look at it says, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. And again, then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power. We know that Jesus is now raining over all of creation, up on his throne in heaven. And he is raining now until he has put all things under his feet. What that means is on the last day, when Jesus returns Finally, he will destroy every enemy that seeks to harm us. Every rule, every authority, and every power. When He comes, He will destroy even death forever. Finally, we will be freed. In talking about this, Martin Luther likes to expand on the authorities and powers that are are part of this creation. He uses something he says it's sin, death and the power of the devil is what we have been redeemed from. He does this in his explanation to the second article of the Apostles Creed, when he says that our savior has redeemed us from all sins from death and the power of the devil not with gold or silver, but with His Holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. And so on the last day, that is what he will destroy sin, death and the power of the devil. So I'd like to focus on these authorities and powers that are at work in the world. And examine what it means for them to be gone. Because we are so used to them. They're such an ever present part of the oppression and difficulty of our lives. That I think we don't even think about them being gone. They're just always around us, we accept them. But the great promise of Jesus is that the problems that are every day that you don't even think about anymore, will be gone on the last day. Even the good things that we have that address those problems will be gone. Because you don't need them anymore. So let's take a look at the devil, sin death and the devil. I'm going to take them a little bit out of order. Paul says the last enemy to be destroyed his death. So I'm gonna move that to the end of the sermon sound good? Great. Let's start with the devil. When Luther talks about the devil in this context, he often points to the spiritual battle that is going on. I mean, the devil is at work in all sorts of things. But in the church especially, he is there to try to convince us of two things, things inside and things outside. And the outside is the one who is at work trying to undermine the truth of God. I'm going to start with a bit of a joke. There. St. Peter is taking someone on a tour of heaven. You He's walking through and he goes and he says, this is the this is the Calvinists room. Here's the Presbyterian room. And then he says, Okay, everybody quiet down, and they sneak past a room with a closed door. And somebody in the crowd asked, what's going on in there? He says, that's the Missouri Synod room. They think they're the only ones here. probably heard that joke before. Still funny every time. Right? That's not the case. We don't think we're the only ones in eternal life. But it's funny because we know that there are lots of divisions between us, all right. There are divisions behind different theological traditions. There are fights out there. And it's actually really hard, isn't it? Especially when your family is divided by these things. I know my family has been. Other families are too, especially when you come and you can't take communion together. Or you're discussing difficult theological things and you get in fights and stuff difficult. The pain of these debates and divides is a problem. And the misunderstanding of God's Word as we fight over what the truth is, that's because the devil is out there trying to confuse us. These horrible divisions have been caused by his work. When Jesus returns that will be gone. Can you imagine? There will be no Lutherans. On that day. There will be no Catholics. No Eastern Orthodox, no Presbyterians, no Episcopalians, we will all be one. Finally, whatever the can't even imagine it, can you when Jesus destroys that power, but the devils that work inside of us also is other names Satan, is the accuser. And rightly so. He's the one who whispers in your mind. God can save everybody else. But you? I don't think so. You're way worse than all the people around you. You know, baptism without that worked on the guy over there. But you know, you didn't do it right. You didn't confess your sin, right? If you don't trust enough, you don't work hard enough. It's just not it. He whispers in your minds, and he tells you, you're not good enough. And he's wrong, of course. Because you don't, it's not about being good enough. Jesus came to wipe away all those sins, so that even the worst of us all of us are saved by His grace. We have a him that deals with this. God's own child, I gladly say it and one of the verses is Satan here this proclamation. I am baptized into Christ, drop your ugly accusation. I'm not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I've traveled, all your mind has come unraveled. His accusations are nothing. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Because you've been baptized into Christ. But the thing that we need to worry about just as much is that he also wants you to think that when you sin, it's too bad to get help. And he loves to shame you into thinking, my pastor would never love me if I told him what I'm struggling with. Whether it's addiction, or mental illness or pornography or whatever. If somebody found out there is no way the ground would open up straight to hell. There's a way to deal with that, of course. Simply tell Satan, he's wrong. come and confess your sins. And you'll hear the exact same words no matter what it is. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And remember that his powers destroyed. Satan doesn't know what he's talking about. He is a liar. And on the last day, when Jesus returns he will never whisper in your ear again.

When Jesus comes, He will also destroy the power of sin over all of us. We're all too familiar with the sin in our own lives. It's very simple the frustration, of wanting to be the good person you have in your mind. Like we have this image of ourselves where we say, I'm a good person. And then we say, I want to live like that. And then we don't. And it's frustrating, isn't it? I know it is for me. It was for St. Paul, when he said that the good he wants to do he cannot do and the evil that he hates. That's what he does. And it's frustrating for you is it's frustrating for me. On the last day, that'll be gone. Can you imagine waking up in the morning, setting out your goals for the day and actually accomplishing them? All of them? I can't. What an amazing thing. How crazy would that actually being able to serve and love the way you want to? That's what it'll be like, when Jesus destroys the power of sin. On the day he returns to joy. He'll also destroy the power of sin that is out in society as well. We have lots of really good things that are designed to mitigate the forces of sin in our society and culture. One of them we call government. Yes, I called government good. It's okay. It's there to restrain sin, right? At least that's what it's supposed to be. Even though it seems like with politicians, it only enables it. But his job is to help restrain the sin as we interact with each other. One day that will be gone. When Jesus returns. What about jobs getting paid? Why do we have that we have a whole economic system that is designed to be accountable. Because if you don't have accountability in a system, sinners will stop working. On the last day, we will not need that anymore. You will not need to get paid to go to work. Crazy, right? Can you imagine that? You will wake up every day and think I am going to love and serve my neighbor with no thought of reward. Can you even imagine? When Jesus destroys the power of sin in the world, what a day. The final of the rules, authorities and powers that he will destroy his death. St. Paul says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. We don't have to identify the one at work, and death in the world. We see it all around us. We see it in our bodies as we decline and our friends and our neighbors. But I think the thing that we need to do is the temptation for us is actually to gloss over the sadness and the reality of death. To cover it up and not look away, or and look away from it. We have an aversion to thinking about death as sad. actually focusing on death as a bad thing. People who are forced to do it, who have a lost loved one. They actually go through it, but we try to cover it up. We try not to use the word like funeral. We have to make it a celebration. And I think it's because we Americans have this relentless positivity. And I say relentless because it's actually oppressive. Being positive all the time. Never being able to call a thing bad. never being able to call a thing sad and simply just live in the sadness of that moment. And if there is ever a time to do that, it's when someone dies. I'll say it. Death is bad. And we all know it and we should be able to say it Even when someone dies and goes to heaven, we know that that's not what God has designed us, for. God has designed us, for us to be soul and body living and walking on this earth. And Jesus will come and do that, again. The most popular place on the planet will be a cemetery. On the day Jesus returns, because that's the day the people will get up, walk around and hug each other as they're reunited with their loved ones. Because that's what it means for the last enemy to be destroyed. For death, to be gone, when we all will be together in Christ, and alive. That is why Jesus rose from the dead. And that's what he's coming to do. Our Savior is coming to create a world that we can't even imagine that is so different from what we live through now, that if we were to think about it, it boggles the mind. But it's still the hope that we have that he will destroy every rule, authority and power, even death itself when he comes and brings this judgment. Come, Lord Jesus, we wait for this day. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 25:31-46, The Gospel Reading for Sunday, November 22nd

Matthew 25:31-46

“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 one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, November 26, is first Corinthians chapter 15, verses 20 through 28. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ, then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted, who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him, who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Here ends the reading this passage first Corinthians chapter 1520, through 28, is part of a long passage all about the resurrection on the last day, the whole chapter, First Corinthians 15 is about it. It talks about the witnesses of Christ's resurrection, that our faith then is in vain if Christ has not been raised from the dead. And it describes the wonderful promise of the bodies that we have, that when Jesus returns in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. Here in this passage, it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the pattern for all who are in him. For everyone who is in Christ, he is the pattern for us, as it says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. The first fruits are the the fruits that come at the beginning of a harvest. So if you have like an apple tree, the first apple that you pick is the first fruit. And you don't say that's the final harvest, what you say is, I can't wait for all of these apples to become ripe. Well, that's what Jesus is like, Jesus is the beginning, the first Apple picked from the grave to rise up and become alive. So all in Christ will continue. And Paul makes a divide, he says, For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So the natural state is that we are all like Adam, in Adam, we all die. In Christ, we will all be made alive. And so the pattern of this world is the pattern of being with one with Adam, the pattern of the next world of the resurrection, is that all in Christ will be made alive. Jesus Christ showed us he paved the way by entering into death on the cross, by being buried in the tomb, and destroying the power of death forever over us. And now we wait for when he returns, to raise us from the dead. Now he continues, then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So the end is coming. When Jesus comes, he will put all authorities and powers under his feet, that means he will subject them he will win. And I think what that means is that every kind of authority, every kind of power that might try to compete with Christ, even though things that God has established for our good will be put underneath him under his power. And right now, there are so many things that are trying to compete with Christ for His authority over us. We have governments that want us to have our loyalty to them more than to Christ. Families treat their siblings or parents or anything like that, as more important than Jesus Himself. We have temptations and every sort of thing that is in our way. But the worst of them all. The worst of the enemies is death. Jesus will destroy death. Now this is an odd thing to say, for Christians who have often been taught that the goal of the Christian life is to die and go to heaven. We think, ah, once I have died, then I can be with Jesus forever. But even that is still not the full gift of salvation. Because death is an enemy. And when we are dead, our bodies on the ground our souls with Christ in heaven, we still are waiting for the glorious day of the return. And when Jesus finally returns, death will be destroyed forever. All things will be under Jesus under his control, and we will live for with him forever. This passage ends with a rather confusing set of ideas, or it's at talks about being things being put under Jesus's feet and then under God's feet. So the idea here is that all things are being put under Christ's feet as the king of all of creation. And then later, he delivers that kingdom to the Father. And St. Paul wants everybody to know that when all things are put under the sun's feet, that doesn't include the Father. And so even then, the father is over Christ, who is all in all. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, The Epistle Reading for Sunday, November 22nd

1 Corinthians 15:20-28

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, November 26, is first Corinthians chapter 15, verses 20 through 28. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ, then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted, who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him, who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Here ends the reading this passage first Corinthians chapter 1520, through 28, is part of a long passage all about the resurrection on the last day, the whole chapter, First Corinthians 15 is about it. It talks about the witnesses of Christ's resurrection, that our faith then is in vain if Christ has not been raised from the dead. And it describes the wonderful promise of the bodies that we have, that when Jesus returns in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we will be changed. Here in this passage, it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the pattern for all who are in him. For everyone who is in Christ, he is the pattern for us, as it says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. The first fruits are the the fruits that come at the beginning of a harvest. So if you have like an apple tree, the first apple that you pick is the first fruit. And you don't say that's the final harvest, what you say is, I can't wait for all of these apples to become ripe. Well, that's what Jesus is like, Jesus is the beginning, the first Apple picked from the grave to rise up and become alive. So all in Christ will continue. And Paul makes a divide, he says, For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So the natural state is that we are all like Adam, in Adam, we all die. In Christ, we will all be made alive. And so the pattern of this world is the pattern of being with one with Adam, the pattern of the next world of the resurrection, is that all in Christ will be made alive. Jesus Christ showed us he paved the way by entering into death on the cross, by being buried in the tomb, and destroying the power of death forever over us. And now we wait for when he returns, to raise us from the dead. Now he continues, then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So the end is coming. When Jesus comes, he will put all authorities and powers under his feet, that means he will subject them he will win. And I think what that means is that every kind of authority, every kind of power that might try to compete with Christ, even though things that God has established for our good will be put underneath him under his power. And right now, there are so many things that are trying to compete with Christ for His authority over us. We have governments that want us to have our loyalty to them more than to Christ. Families treat their siblings or parents or anything like that, as more important than Jesus Himself. We have temptations and every sort of thing that is in our way. But the worst of them all. The worst of the enemies is death. Jesus will destroy death. Now this is an odd thing to say, for Christians who have often been taught that the goal of the Christian life is to die and go to heaven. We think, ah, once I have died, then I can be with Jesus forever. But even that is still not the full gift of salvation. Because death is an enemy. And when we are dead, our bodies on the ground our souls with Christ in heaven, we still are waiting for the glorious day of the return. And when Jesus finally returns, death will be destroyed forever. All things will be under Jesus under his control, and we will live for with him forever. This passage ends with a rather confusing set of ideas, or it's at talks about being things being put under Jesus's feet and then under God's feet. So the idea here is that all things are being put under Christ's feet as the king of all of creation. And then later, he delivers that kingdom to the Father. And St. Paul wants everybody to know that when all things are put under the sun's feet, that doesn't include the Father. And so even then, the father is over Christ, who is all in all. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 95:1-7 The Psalm Reading for Sunday, November 22nd

Psalm 95:1-7

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, November 26, is Psalm 95, verses one through seven. Oh come let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and a great king. Above all God's in his hand are the depths of the earth, the height of the mountains or his also, the sea is his fur, he made it and his hand formed for dry land. Oh, come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of his hand. This psalm, Psalm 95 is sung in our mountains service. It's so it's always interesting for me when I get to read something that I know so well having sung it, it goes,

Oh come let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great call. And a great King above all God's love the places of the earth are in his hand, the strength of the hills is he is also thus he is his forte he made it and his hand form the dry land. Oh come let us worship and Bah, down. Let us kneel before the Lord or may occur. Foraging is our card. And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of his and Glory be to the Father and to the sun and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in Nabi gay and Ning is now and will be forever. Oh man.

It's one of my favorite ones to be able to sing when we sing those morning services. This passage is a passage of celebration, a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, come into his prisons with thanksgiving, songs of praise. We sing the psalm or have this psalm at the end of the church here on the final Sunday of the year, to tell us help us see that when God returns when Jesus Christ comes down from heaven, it will be a joyful time for us we will make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. When he comes to us and we are in His presence, it will be with thanksgiving, and songs of praise. Because our God is a great God. He is a King above all gods. Now you might say to yourself, Wait a second pastor, there are no other gods they don't exist. Well, yes, that is absolutely true. But in in the the way of saying it from from Psalms sound, he is greater than all gods. Of course, since they don't exist, that has to be true. But for them, he's just simply saying, This true God is greater than all the gods of the nation, all the things that we trust in and why? Because in his hand are the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains. Everything is in his power, even the sea, and the hand and the land. And so we say let us worship let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. And He has made us His people. Now there's an interesting switch here. He says we It says we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of his hand. Which is a little weird, right? Isn't shouldn't be the sheep of His pasture and the people of his hand. Kind of an interesting switch to say that the these two things refer to the same idea is that if we're the people of His pasture and the sheep of his hand, we are His. We are His people. We are His sheep. And it refers all to the same thing. Just kind of a funny way of saying, we can sing the song because God has sent his son Jesus Christ to gather us together. He is the rock of our salvation. He is the reason we can have Thanksgiving. And as we look at the end of the church here, this psalm reminds us to look up to heaven with joy, and wait for our coming Savior. For when he comes on that day we will be able to sing this wonderful song and praise Him for His salvation. That's all we have for Are today we'll see you on Sunday bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Ezekiel 34:1-11, 20-24 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, November 22nd

Ezekiel 34:1-11, 20-24

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice…
“Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, November 26, is from Ezekiel chapter 34, verses 11 through 16. And verses 20 through 24.

For thus says the Lord God, Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out, as a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and I will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country, I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall their grazing land, their they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture, they shall feed on the mountains of Israel, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. And I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD, I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong, I will destroy, I will feed them injustice.

Therefore thus says the Lord God to them, Behold, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the Lean sheep, because you push with side and shoulder and thrust at the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock, they shall no longer be a prey, and I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, My servant, David, and he shall feed them, he shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord will be their God. And my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord, I have spoken.

This passage is from Ezekiel, we have to remember when Ezekiel is around, this is after the people have been scattered into exile in Babylon. And so God is giving this message that he, he himself will go out and gather the scattered sheep of Israel. I think this is important to note, the the phrase I, I myself, is saying that God Himself is going to do it with heavy emphasis. This is not sending out someone to do it for them. But God is going to do it heavily emphasized on his own personal action, as a shepherd to the sheep.

For the people of Israel, this likely meant that God was going to use his own power to bring them from where they were scattered amongst all the nations back to the promised land after their time of exile had been over. And we see that happens when Cyrus the Great, sends a proclamation that the people can return and rebuild Jerusalem. But it's more than that. It is not just that he's going to give them bring them back out of exile, put them back in Jerusalem, and restore them to their own land. God is is talking about gathering all of the strays, and it becomes more than just a return of the fortunes of Israel. He goes, I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their great grazing land. There they shall lie down and good grazing land and enriched pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. And I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD, I will seek the loss, I will bring back the straight and I will bind up the injured, I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will feed them injustice.

God is showing a heart for the lost people, the people who've been scattered, and God gathers together of people now, not in a nation with borders, but into the church. He gathers by the power of the Holy Spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the shepherd Jesus who came down for us. This is God God Himself, who came to gather to gather people. And we see that in the heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who comes to be among us. So the second section of Ezekiel two

turns away from God's heart of gathering together the sheep and he turns against the fat sheep. He says, Behold, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the Lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder and thrust at the weak with your horns to you've scattered them abroad.

Now, earlier in Ezekiel, chapter 34, the Prophet goes out against the shepherds of the sheep, the ones who refuse to feed the sheep, and would feed themselves instead, and that God would take their jobs away, it seems a little bit more of the same here is that there are people from within the flock that are not the not the shepherds, but the people who are scattering from within, who push away the weak, who

don't refuse to help.

And God will judge them.

And we see that this is an image of God coming down, and saying to those who are not, who are greedy and violent and hurtful amongst the people of Israel and judging them. And God did that when he sent them into exile. And he continues to do that. But what he says then, is that he will set up over them one shepherd, My servant, David, and he shall feed them. So a way of rescuing the sheep from the violent and the cruel. And the oppressive, is not just to judge those, but to set up a good shepherd, who will not only protect the sheep from external threats, and gather them together in one flock, but I will also keep all of the sheep in line, all of us Christians focused on him.

And that we see in Jesus Christ, our true king, our true shepherd, the servant, David, who came down from heaven to gather all people from all nations into one family, into the holy Christian Church, the flock of Jesus Christ. That servant is our God, who came down himself to gather us together.

That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Be Ready? Ready for What? Sermon on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 for Sunday, November 19th, 2023

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As we close in on the end of the church here, we're focusing in on the subject of Christ's return, the end of time, and the day that he will appear in the clouds with power and might. Last week, we took a look at First Thessalonians chapter four. And we talked about the rapture, how First Thessalonians chapter four points not to a secret return of Jesus Christ, to whisk away all of Christians. But Jesus appearing on the clouds with power and might, with the voice of an angel, a cry of command and the trumpet of God, and every I will see Him He will then raise all the dead in Christ, to new life, and take us who are alive to be with him. This is the promise that we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ, resurrection from the dead on the day he returns, to give us life with Him forever. Our passage today moves, similar themes to that, pointing out the end to the Thessalonians. Something you should know about the Thessalonian church, the people of Thessalonica, is that they became Christians, when Paul and his fellow missionaries came to them along a missionary journey through that region. But their time there was cut very short, Paul was only there three sabots before a crowd arose and started persecuting them. And Paul and the fellows had to get out of dodge pretty quick. Not satisfied, the crowd went to the Thessalonian church, and captured a guy named Jason, and some others, persecuted them, find them. Things were pretty bad. Now, I want you to think about this. What would it be like, if you are a brand new Christian, you've gone to church, maybe one, maybe two, maybe three times and heard about Jesus. And then all of a sudden persecution come, and your pastor has to leave. And so what St. Paul is doing is he's both encouraging them, and teaching them about what to expect. Because these Thessalonians are just baby Christians, needing guidance and hope in the midst of this kind of persecution. And that's what we see here. He begins by reminding them about the end. Concerning the time and seasons, he says, Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. Or you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. So what he's saying is, you Thessalonians do not need to watch for the signs. There is no season upcoming that's appointed that you can figure out it will come like a thief in the night. Now you might say, wait a second pastor, didn't Jesus give us signs of the end? Absolutely, he did. Let's take a look at that. In Mark chapter 13. Jesus says, Watch out that no one deceives you many will come in My name claiming I am He and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed, Such things must happen. But the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom there will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of the birth payments. So Jesus does give us signs. But they all happened the same time that Jesus ascended into heaven. Everything he predicted was fulfilled in the first century. Since that day, when have there not been wars and rumors of wars? When have nations not risen against nation, earthquakes, famines and floods. What Jesus is saying is not we can give you the roadmap to the return. But when you see these things, know that I am coming. He also says this. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven. nor the Son, but only the Father, be on guard Be alert, you do not know when that time will come. That's exactly what St. Paul is saying. We do not know when Jesus will return. But we do know is that he is coming. He is coming with power and might, he is coming to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life and reunite all who have died in Christ with us to be with Him forever. St. Paul uses two metaphors here, the thief in the Knights. And a little bit later. He says, while people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman. And they will not escape. For me, I think a good one for here in California is the earthquake kit. I had to I had to figure out what an earthquake kit was when I came to California because I don't know if you know this, Chicago doesn't have earthquakes. We are not waiting for the big one to happen and have California slide into the Pacific Ocean. So I went online and checked out what California says about earthquake preparedness. They say you have to have a whole bunch of stuff. But the basic thing is they want everyone to have enough supplies for you to have at minimum three days of food and water. Ideally, as much as two weeks. A lot, right. But the reason is, because if the bigger earthquake does happen, we probably won't slide into the Pacific but the internet might go down. Electricity might be gone. The water to your house may turn poisonous. Food might be gone. And you may have to survive for a few days or even a few weeks before health comes. That's kind of scary, right? Of course, most of us if you're like me, I go Nah, I'll do that next week. Or Whoa, that's a lot of stuff to have centered around my house. A lot of storage space, or that's a lot of money, especially as we're heading into November and December. I don't want to add that to my credit card bill. Put it off. We don't have it. You know what's hard to do after the big earthquake comes. Go online to Amazon and have them ship you one in time to get it. So you can eat the next day, right? That's the thing. You always need to have the earthquake kit there before you use it. And I think that's what St. Paul is trying to tell us about the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. Right now our God is offering an open invitation of grace to all who turn to him in repentance. All who believe in Jesus Christ will be welcomed into the family will be raised from the dead sins forgiven given eternal life. But the door of grace will not always be open. There will come a day when we see him in the clouds with power and might and then that door will shut the offer will no longer be out there. Only those who are in Christ at that moment will be saved. Others may turn up and look at him and see see him coming. But it will not be a joyful moment will be a moment of fear and destruction. Now for us, we can be ready for that day. Look forward to that day even say Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Because we know who our Savior we know that He has given us His grace. Because we have been baptized. We have our sins forgiven. We eat and drink his body and his blood. But we know that there will be a time when that invitation ends. And we need to be ready for the Thessalonians that might have been a comfort for them. You know, they're sitting around baby Christians brand new to the faith and all of a sudden their friends and neighbors rise up against them, beat them, throw them in jail and extract money out of them. And they might think Yeah, God is gonna come and

make things right. But I bet that's not how you feel about it. When you think about your friends, and your neighbors, the end of the offer of grace actually might make you pretty sad. As it does me. We have to remember, they need to be ready to God's extending to them just as he does to you the offered of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. That causes us the desire to tell them because that offer will not be open forever. St. Paul then moves on to a different kind of metaphor. It begins with the thief in the night and labor pains you have to be ready, be watchful. And so he says, What does that mean, for now. But you are not in darkness brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day, we are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do. But let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, have been put on the breastplate of faith and love. And for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He calls them children of light. And the promise of this is that he does not say strive to be children of light, work hard to be children of light. He says, You are children of life. And it's a reminder that the same is true for you. God has made you children of light, by choosing you through Jesus Christ. We belong to Christ, which means we belong to the light. And St. Paul says, act like it live as children of blood. And it's the dark world with all of its things that are just trying to distract us from that. Just recently, I watched a clip from a great movie from my childhood Aladdin. You know that 119 92 What I love about streaming is that people still get my 30 year old movie references. It's pretty great, right? Even the kids. So in the beginning of Aladdin, Jafar is trying to find the Cave of Wonders. And he needs to find one guy who can get in there he finds Aladdin, and he sends him in. So the Cave of Wonders comes up. It's a giant Panther head, and it tells him touch only the lamp. So Aladdin goes in, it comes down and the cave opens up, and there is gold everywhere. piles and piles of coins and treasure chests and cups and goblets and all these amazing pieces of treasure. And Aladdin has to make sure his monkey doesn't grab any of it abou he listens to the Cave of Wonders. You know, I suppose if a giant Panther head comes up out of the sand and tells you to do something, you're gonna listen right? They finally waves his way through the gold till he gets to this tall pedestal where there's the lamp, he climbs up and he grabs the lamp, and meanwhile, his monkey a Boo is mesmerized by this gem, this Ruby. And when a boo finally gets to it, it all melts and turns into fire. And they have to escape the cave as fast as they can. Aladdin stayed focus on the one thing he needed. The one thing that wasn't a distraction. The one thing that truly had value, everything else looked really good. The gold, the gems, the treasure, but it led to destruction. And I think that's what it is like, as children of light in a dark world. That we have one thing to focus on our Savior Jesus Christ and His return. And the world wants to distract us with all sorts of things. It wants to distract us with the good things, holy things, wonderful things. But it wants us To put them first above him out of order. We have to remember that nothing is more important than the life in Christ, His salvation, the gifts he gives, as we gather together and hear His word and keep each other laser focused on the day he will return. Because we know it's coming and it will come like a thief in the night. All of a sudden we will be out doing whatever and then he will appear and then it will be too late. We must stay focused, stay ready, gathering around Christ in His Word and His sacraments to ensure that when that day comes, we can turn to Him and rejoice and be glad in the salvation he is bringing. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 25:14-30 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, November 18th

Matthew 25:14-30

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, November 19, comes from Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 34. It will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them his property. To one he gave five talents to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them. And he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground, and hid his masters money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents here, I have made five talents more, his master said to him, Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will sell set you over much Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had two talents came forward saying, Master, you deliver to me two talents here, I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much Enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid. And I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gathered where I scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the 10 talents for everyone who has will more be given. And he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here into the reading. This is the famous parable of the talents from Matthew chapter 25. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. And we have to distinguish this one from some of the others. The others that I think about, the person with the five talents ends up getting 10 cities at the end, right they're given more. Here we just have servants who go out and Enter into the joy of the master the two good and faithful servants. And then there's the one who does not get the joy of his master but gets cast out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the story goes, Jesus, who is the man calls his servants to Him, and He gives one five talents another to another one, each according to his ability. So the Masters assessed the abilities of His servants he knows one can be responsible with five another responsible with two and another responsible with one, the first two servants go immediately about their work. And they begin to make double what they earn. The final one, when he hears this command of his master, when he hears the command of the one buries it in the ground. What we see here is that the two servants who begin this, here are their masters instruction. They see their masters trust with these talents and they immediately go to work. Now, you'll probably ask yourself, what are these talents mean? We likely get our word talent from something like this and many people will point us to your abilities, your your things that you can do in the time talents and treasure thing that people often talk about. There really isn't a whole lot from the Bible that you can save specifically what this is. So we'll leave that up. So the first two servants they hear the Masters command. They know he trusts them with these things this man many talents that he has given them. And they immediately go out joyfully at work to do what their master says. The final servant hears the Masters command. And instead of doing what the first to do, instead of immediately going out and joyfully doing the work, he is terrified, and he buries it under the ground. When the master comes back, the first two servants present their earnings. And he says to them, well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much Enter into the joy of your master. Now I want you to hear what the final servant does, how he approaches the Master, what he says about the master, he says, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered, no seed, so I was afraid. And I went, I hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. In the kingdom parables that Jesus says the master is always God. It's always or Jesus, the one who goes away and returns is the Savior, who ascended into heaven and is coming back for us. Think about what this means for the servant though, he's turning to the master to Jesus and saying, You are a grasping, greedy, cruel and hard man. That's not just thinking about his business practices that's turning to God and saying, You're wicked, you're evil, I was so terrified of you that I did nothing. And that's the reason the servant is rejected here. Not because he didn't make enough with with his talents, not because he didn't have five and make it into 10 or two and make it into four. But because instead of listening to his loving Savior, and going out to work, he buries his talent onto the ground. The attitude of the servant towards his masters the real problem. So in response to that, he cast that servant out acts like he is no longer his servant, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think when we consider this, we can often look at this and say that this is a very law based idea about who we should be as servants of the master. We ask ourselves, am I serving hard enough? Did God give me five talents? Have I made my 10? Did God give me two talents? Have I made my four? But the real answer here is, what do we do? And how what is our attitude towards the master when he does give us what we need, and we serve with it? Is our attitude to joyfully go about the work knowing that our master has trusted us and empowered us to do it? Or is it to hide and be afraid and think about God as someone who only punish us? I think we should be like those two servants who saw God's trust, and said I will gladly and willfully serve. Because we have a master who's returning is not about judgment for us, but about mercy and grace. And so if we come before him, and we offer up what we've been given, and we say, hey, you know what, you gave me all these things. And I didn't always do it. We can say, He will say to us, yes, I know you're not as good as you could have been, but Enter into the joy of your master. We could say, You gave me all of these things. And I set out and I tried, and everything I did failed. Why am I so broken? And he will say, yep, you could have done better, but Enter into the joy of your master. I actually feel a little sad that Jesus didn't include a servant who went out and invested his money and went bankrupt, and got nothing back. Because I think he would then say, and turn to the joy of your master. Because what he did was he went out and served. The problem is that final servants simply said, I am too scared of my God, to go out and work through go out and do His will. I must hide it under the ground. And so we can rejoice that God has given us so much to do so many people to serve so much gospel to share. And we don't have to worry about the results of it just that we are joyfully serving. So we can always do more. But God will come. He'll raise us from the dead. And he'll say well done good and faithful servant. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, November 18th

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, November 19, is from First Thessalonians chapter five. Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying there is peace and security, then suddenly destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day, we are not of the night or of the darkness. So let us not sleep as others do. But let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation to our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. Here is the reading. So last week, we took a look at First Thessalonians chapter four where St. Paul reminds them not to grieve as others do, who have no hope. But that Jesus will return, raise the dead in Christ first, and then catch all of us up in our perfect bodies to be with Christ forever. Now, he goes on to talk about this again, about the coming of Christ. And he says that there is no need to write to them about the times or seasons of it. He says the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Now many people look at the Bible and they say there are all sorts of seasons and signs and all sorts of things that can tell us when Jesus is coming, like Jesus Himself gives us predictions the sun will darkness and wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and floods and all sorts of things like that, and the gospel preached to all nations. Now, we who read that part of the Bible know that all of those signs have been fulfilled since the beginning of the since the early years of the church, when the apostles went out, they preach to all nations, there have been wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and floods and all those things ever since the day Jesus ascended. And so we know he could come any moment. Perhaps before I finished recording this podcast would not be great, I certainly would love it, he would come at any moment, like a thief in the night says while people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. The idea is that there's something that's going to happen and nobody knows when. And when you don't know when something is going to happen, you know, you need to be prepared at all times. Here in California, the government tells us that we need to have an earthquake kit, because you never know when the big ones going to come. And the earthquake kit is supposed to have all sorts of things in it too. So you can survive for a few days or a week or so without any need for outside assistance. That's not something that you can get after the earthquake happens. It needs to be ready before and it might not seem like you need it. In fact, it can seem like a waste of time until the day the quake happens. And then all of a sudden you really, really need it. So it is when Jesus comes we it may seem silly to wait for something that may is so far in the future or may not you know who knows. But when He returns, you will either have faith or not. And there'll be no no more time to go back and get it when he's there in the sky. So he says, But you are not in darkness brothers for that day to surprise you like a thief. He uses the image of people who belong to the light and people who long belong to the darkness. The darkness are the ones who are sleeping and not ready for Jesus's return, who are drinking too much and so are no longer sober. who belong to the acts and evils of this world. And the ones who are in the light are the ones who stay awake, who are sober, who are dressed and ready for action, when the day that Jesus comes, we belong to the day, Christians who believe in Jesus Christ. And so we put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation. We know that God has not destined us for wrath, because we trust in Jesus Christ. And He comes to us to give us His grace and His mercy to fill us and make us ready through His Word and Sacraments. And so we we continue to gather together as a church to make ourselves ready for that day. And that's what St. Paul closes with. He says, Therefore, encourage one another, and build one another up just as you are doing. I think this is especially wonderful to to point to the Thessalonians, who experienced persecution So very quickly, so very early in their life as Christians, St. Paul was only there for three Sabbath's before the persecutors drove him out. And this very young, very early church experienced persecution immediately when they couldn't find Paul. They ended up going after Jason and others. And so this is especially important for them as they are early in their faith journey, facing persecution and saying, stay firm, be ready, be sober, God is coming. You can do it is the same for us. While we don't have that level of persecution, we do still need to remind ourselves to be ready. Jesus is coming. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 128 The Psalm for Sunday, November 18th

Psalm 128

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
    who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
    you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
    who fears the Lord.

The Lord bless you from Zion!
    May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life!
May you see your children's children!
    Peace be upon Israel!

WWelcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, November 19, is Psalm 128. A song of a sense, blesses everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruits of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children will be like all of shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life, may you see your children's children, peace be upon Israel, Here ends the reading. The song begins with the superscription a song of a sense, the songs of a sense are these songs that you would sing or repeat or say, as you're heading up to Jerusalem, the idea is that you are going up to the temple of the Lord, and you would reflect on his promises. Similarly is my eyes lift up to the hills from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. So you're looking up as you're ascending to go worship at the temple. And this one talks about the gifts that God promises His people. Bless it as everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways, you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. So God is promising blessing for us. Now for ancient Israel, the promises of God for those who followed him included material blessings. When Moses was preaching to the people in Deuteronomy, he laid out the blessings and the curses on the blessings of following God included all sorts of material goods and wealth and such. And the curses included material curses and poverty and death and sickness and all sorts of terrible things. And so, as they went up to the hills, they would say, yes, we know Moses promised us these good things like a wife as a fruitful vine, children like olive shoots around the table, and blessing from some someone who fears the Lord. And while often when you live a good and quiet life, in humble service, good things do happen to you. That's not always the case for Christians. What we look forward to, it's a blessing that comes from God that is, is perfect and eternal, that on the day of Jesus's resurrection, all things will be made new. And we will have all the labor of our hands being blessed, because everything will be perfect and wonderful. This is not always the thing that happens for Christians. In fact, we are promised as Christians that what we get is what Jesus got when he went up a hill to the top and was nailed to a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. That is our fate often in this world. As much as we would pray for the joy of having a fruitful vine in our house and children like olive shoots around a table, and all of those blessings. We know that sometimes that's not what happens for those of us who are in Christ. But we also know that we will see prosperity from Jerusalem in the light, it closes up with the Lord bless you from Zion, may you see prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children Peace be upon Israel. In this passage, we're seeing a blessing that does come to us from Jerusalem, a blessing that comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that happened on a hill just outside of Jerusalem, and a tomb near where he died on a cross. The prosperity of Jerusalem then points us to the new heavens and the new earth, where John in Revelation sees Jerusalem descending from heaven, like a bride dressed for the groom. And we look forward to when we see the new heavens and the new earth and the new city that God will create for us, where we will live forever and see our children's children and all the children of of Jesus Christ, the children of the Father gathered together in perfection. We're looking forward to that. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Zephaniah 1:7-16 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, November 18th

Zephaniah 1:7-16

Be silent before the Lord God!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
    and consecrated his guests.
And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king's sons
    and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
On that day I will punish
    everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master's house
    with violence and fraud.

“On that day,” declares the Lord,
    “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,
    a loud crash from the hills.
Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!
    For all the traders are no more;
    all who weigh out silver are cut off.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
    and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
    those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
    nor will he do ill.’
Their goods shall be plundered,
    and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
    they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
    they shall not drink wine from them.”

The great day of the Lord is near,
    near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
    the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
    a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
    a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
    and against the lofty battlements.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, November 19, is from Zephaniah chapter one, verses seven through 16. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, the Lord is prepared to sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of the Lord sacrifice, I will punish the officials and the king sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire. On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who feel their Masters House with violence and fraud. On that day, declares the Lord, a cry will be heard from the fish gate. A whale from the second quarter allowed crash from the hills, whale, oh inhabitants of the mortar, for all the traders are no more. All who weigh out silver are cut off. At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the men who are complacent. Those who say in their hearts. The Lord will not do good nor will He do ill. Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses they shall not inhabit them. Though they plant vineyards they shall not drink wine from them. The Great Day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day of Day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. Here ends the reading. This reading from Zephaniah continues the Old Testament theme we had last week with Amos, talking about the coming day of the Lord as a day of judgment. You remember, you may remember Amos saying that it's a day of darkness and not light. And that's repeated again at the end of this reading. The book of Zephaniah is difficult to date, we're not exactly sure. It's supposed to be during the time of Josiah the king who would reform but we don't know whether it happened before the book of the law was discovered. And King Josiah reinstituted temple worship, and got rid of all the false gods and all of that, or after that, and we don't know exactly who the destruction refers to. Now, there aren't any clear illusions, but we can interpret some general things. So let's begin with it. It goes be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord is prepared to sacrifice and consecrated his guests. So it's been silent before the Lord God is near his power and his might are coming. What's interesting here is that the Lord is preparing a sacrifice. This is not people are preparing a sacrifice for the Lord, He has prepared a sacrifice. So there's something that is going to get killed and then burned. And he's consecrated the guests who are coming with him to share in that feast. So on that day, I will punish the officials and the king sons, and all who arranged themselves in foreign attire. On that day, I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their Masters House with violence and fraud. So the sacrifice now seems like it's all of these people that it names, kings, officials, everyone who wears foreign attire, people who leap over the household, and commit violence and fraud. Now, these things might be a little confusing, array themselves in foreign attire, and can you not wear clothes from far away? Like my clothes? Or some of my clothes were made in China or Thailand? Is that the problem? Of course not. This is likely referring to some sort of false worship that's associated with the clothing of foreign gods. And so you're, you're trying to fit in with the gods of faraway places by wearing these clothings. And leaping over the threshold would have a similar idea is that it was a practice of some false god or something like that. And so the day of the Lord is coming and he's going to punish all those people who were supposed to be worshipping Him, but are instead worshiping all of the false gods. It continues on that day, declares the LORD will cry will be heard from the fish gate, a whale from the second quarter allowed crash from the hills, and then continues on like that. There is all sorts of wailing and sadness. I think we Christians and many people often think that about God's coming. If we think of it at all, we're not altogether too worried about it. But these passages that show the day of the Lord is judgment, and not just grace. And so there is there is a healthy fear of God's coming, that when He comes, He will judge the living and the dead. That judgment will be grace and eternal life for the people who believe in Him. But for those who are false Christians or non believers, there's a whale and a crying. This for Zephaniah's day was focused specifically on the people in in Jerusalem, where they are complacent or where they are worshipping false gods. I'd like to move into this. This piece though it says, At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the men who are complacent those who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will He do ill. So he's focusing in on this section on the people who think God just will do nothing. He doesn't have any power, he doesn't have any control. In fact, the foreign gods are likely the ones who had power and control in their mind. Back in the ancient world. The when people conquered, or when they had power in mind, it was often attributed to a God. And so every group of people had their own patron god. And when they went to war, it was the god with the most power that brought victory. And so what they're saying is, is that the Lord can't do good and he can't do ill, which means he has zero power, he's unable to do anything. And I think many people, especially those who don't understand the Bible, think similarly about God, that he's just some happy old man up in heaven, just kind of looking down and smiling like a, like an uncle who just sort of loves his children from afar. There's no judgment, there's no problem. He says, What will he do those guys? Zephaniah says their goods shall be plundered in their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit it, though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them. This is kind of the reverse of what Moses said when they would go into the Promised Land. He told the people of Israel that they would have houses that they did not build in vineyards that they did not plant. And they would know that God is the one who gave it to them. Now they are building houses and they're not dwelling in them. They're planting vineyards and they are not drinking wine from them, because God is going to send judgment. Finally, he ends up with more talk about the great day of the Lord. It says the day of wrath is that day a day of distress and anguish a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty embattlement. Here, it seems like Zephaniah is looking forward to the day when God brings judgment on Judah by bringing in the armies of Babylon, to bring Israel into exile. For us, we look forward and we see a day of judgment that is darkness and gloom as the day of judgment that God put out on Jesus Christ. The day of the Lord well are the sun turned dark and the moon turned to blood, and judgment came down on our Savior Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. We look forward to because that judgment was spent on Jesus. When the day of the Lord comes and he returns, He will raise us from the dead and give us life. There's a judgment that is coming as well. For all those who are outside the church, it will be a day of gloom and darkness and battle cry, and a day of judgment and sadness for them as they're cast into eternal torment. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Will Jesus' Return Be Like? Sermon for Sunday, November 12th, 2023

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. I talked a little bit in our opening about the themes and ideas that are coming up in our readings for the church here. We are heading towards the end of the Church year. And those readings always point us to the end of time, the return of Jesus Christ. And we saw them in the readings that we see today. The prophet Amos talks about the judgment coming on the day of the Lord, though on that day, he was pointing to the danger of the Assyrians coming into Israel, a judgment and not a gift from God. And Jesus points us also to the return of well of Jesus, when He comes like a groom to a wedding. Not at the time you expect. The question is, what's going to happen on that day? What will it be like, on the day that Jesus returned? And that's the question we're going to explore through the reading that I did from First Thessalonians. Now, this question is rather controversial, because there are two main theories about what will happen on that day. I'm gonna give you a big theological word today, maybe you've heard it, maybe you haven't. Actually, it's It's hard enough that I screwed it up in the first service. Hopefully, I'll get it right this time. It is free millennial dispensationalism. Say that, again, re millennial dispensationalism. Now you can go out knowing that you've got your theological education for the day. Now, this idea is idea about the end of the world and what will happen when Jesus returns. The other competing theory is much easier. It's a millennialism. Free dispensational millennialism teaches that God has worked throughout time in history in different dispensations, different ways of working through his promises. And it teaches that God's promises in the Old Testament to Israel are now still active on the nation of Israel, and the Jews today. This is the claim I dealt with back in August when he talked about how St. Paul says that all of the promises of God come through to Jesus, and that everyone who is in Christ is through Israel. And then everything that God promised to in the Old Testament comes through and today, we're going to deal with a passage that Freeman millennial dispensationalists use to refer to the Rapture. What that's what they say is, when the end times come, Jesus will secretly return and take all Christians, and all the dead, and they will all in Christ and they will disappear. Then, seven years of Tribulation will happen. After that, Jesus will return again and establish an earthly government for the millennium, 1000 years. Then at the end of the 1000 years, a rebellion will happen. It will be defeated. And eternity, we'll call a millennium teaches. We are currently in the tribulation. The 1000 years of Revelation are happening now. Where Jesus rules on earth through his church, and he will come back visibly on the last day and raise everyone from the dead and we will live eternally with him all who believed in Trump. The passage we looked at from First Thessalonians chapter four is the proof tax for the idea of the rapture. That is, the Jesus will appear secretly take all living Christians and all dead Christians and leave the rest of the earth for the seven years of the tribulation. to point that out, They look at what we read, they save. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive are left until the coming of the Lord, we will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, under the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. They focus on the idea that Christians will be caught up with price and be with him. You may have been a seen this, I sometimes do that when we're driving along, and you'll see a bumper sticker that says, in case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned. That's what they're talking about. The Jesus will secretly return and snap, people will be gone, airplanes will crash. Cars will swerve, everything will be missed. They also say that this tribulation begins. And the reason why Christians aren't here for that is because we are not part of this great tribulation, God is going to pull us away. There's another passage they point to this is Matthew chapter 24, where Jesus says this. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Whereas in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So it will be at the coming of the Son of men, then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one lap. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay away. For you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Here they focus on the idea that one person will be taken up to heaven and one lap. They also talk about this happening right before this great tribulation, sometimes at rest of Revelation talks about because they believe that Christians will be spared the wrath of God. One of the ways they do that is by pointing to First Thessalonians chapter five, as it says, For God is not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. In doing this, I also looked up some of the things that David Jeremiah says at Shadow Mountain. And he mentioned that Christians can't be a part of this great tribulation, because of what it says in Romans chapter eight. There is now no condemnation through Jesus Christ. And if Christians have no condemnation, it means that we can't be part of this wrath, or this tribulation. I've done my best to represent this as best as I can. But I think the rapture is mistaken. This is not what will happen on the day that Jesus returned. And we can do that by looking at exactly the passages that they use to support this verse. Let's take a look at Matthew chapter 24. It says, whereas in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. They were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So it will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill one will be taken and one last year the image is of Noah and the flood. And Noah was saying he was the one who was left the flood swept people away in judgment. So if Jesus is consistent using his this imagery, the people who remain are the one who are saved The people who are taken away are swept away in judgment,

like the flow, which means this image is actually opposite of what the people in the rafters said. You can also look at our passes for the day. First Thessalonians chapter four, where it says, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Now, this is pretty impressive, right? It says that Jesus will come from heaven, with the cry of an archangel, and the sound of the trumpet of God. That doesn't sound like a secret to me, does it? Of course not. That's a trumpet. That is the cry of command the voice of an archangel, it's going to be pretty clear what happens on that day. Jesus himself says that we will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with power and might. No one's going to miss. It's not going to be a secret. There is no wondering whether you will be ready for the wrath of God, Jesus will descend from heaven. On the last day, there will be no secrets, there will be it will not be hidden, it will be clear. And he gives us this promise, so that we can know he is coming. Coming to rescue is coming to save us to give us life that lasts forever by his own death and resurrection. And his voice will cry out and call us up from our graves and give us perfect bodies, and we will go to meet him in the air while his judgment comes down. And then we will live forever with Him. One thing I haven't dealt with is that tribulation. They say Christians cannot be a part of this great tribulation, because we do not receive this wrath. He say because there is no condemnation. That's misunderstanding what's going on. Jesus himself says that we are part of a tribulation. He says in John, In this world, you will have trouble will take heart, I have overcome the world. That's the same Greek word as the Great Tribulation. The John himself writes in Rebbi revelation. So we know now the tribulation has been going on. Since the day Jesus ascended into heaven. The church has always been suffering. The church has always been persecuted. St. Paul gives us these words, so that we can look forward to the day when he comes to power and might and clearly reveals Himself to us, and gives us eternal life. Up until now, this has been a pretty doctrinal sermon. I'm giving you Bible passages and analyzing them and you know, all of this stuff. And you may be asking yourself, well, so what Pastor? Why is this actually important for me now? I mean, we're all find out eventually, anyway, either he's gonna come and rapture us or he's just gonna come and show up and raise the dead. And it'll be just like you said, there's a good reason why we need to know this. First, and the people who teach about the Rapture end up focusing too much on the news of the day. They stress each other out about the signs and the seasons and everything that is going on, especially when we have things going on in Israel. Every time there's war or violence or battle, everybody in dispensationalism thinks knows the end, he gotta get worried. And they point us to think about things that are so far away that we can't do anything about and all we do is dress up. And that is not why St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians. He says, I want you not to grieve like those who have no hope. The point here is just to come I'm not to point us to this world and say, watch the news. Think about the signs come up with charts that show us exactly where in the rapture timeline we are. They do. There's even a website that has a rapture countdown clock, as if they can figure out when this might happen. What Jesus gives us is something very simple. He promises to return, and he'll raise you from the dead. That's easily appoints us comfort that points us piece that we're not stressing out, we're trusting in Him. The other thing that this teaching about the Rapture does is it points us away from our duties now. So think about those things that are far away. Because the Jesus really wants us to think about our neighbors, and our families, the people around us, the things that we can control. When he says Love your neighbor as yourself, he isn't thinking about or worrying about things that are half a world away. He wants us to simply do our job serving others. So the Rapture points us to thinking and worrying and feeling about things that we have no control. Over, that don't matter to us. What God really wants us to do, to serve the people who are nearer love the people who are in you. To be the people God created us to be around. And when we think about something that is that far away, and we're always worrying about what's happening in the news. It means we turn our attention away from the people God has sent us to law. This passage from First Thessalonians is there to guide us into a hopeful expectation of the day that Jesus returns and raises us from the dead. It's not here to make us worry about some secret rapture in a complicated system about the end. It's just there to give us hope. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 25:1-13 The Gospel Reading for November 12th, 2023

Matthew 25:1-13

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lampsand went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, November 12, is from Matthew chapter 25, verses one through 13.

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins, who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight, there was a cry here is the bridegroom come out to meet him.

Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, since there will not be enough for us and for you go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they were going to buy the Bridegroom King, and those who are ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shot. Afterward the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know, neither the day nor the hour.

This is part of Jesus's parables about the end of the world. He is predicting his return when he comes to raise the living and the dead into eternal life. And He does it through a series of parables in Matthew chapter 25. This parable is about 10 virgins. So the groom is coming to come to the wedding feast. And there are 10 virgins who are supposed to be waiting with lamps ready for him when he gets there. This is all part of the great celebration they're supposed to attend to him and, and join in in the great marriage feast. Jesus uses this image, frequently throughout the Gospels, the groom, is Jesus, the Savior. The wedding feast is the celebration at the end of time when Christ returns and raises us from the dead. And the attendants in this case would be Christians who are there, ready and waiting.

And so he says, some of the virgins some of the attendants will be ready with oil. And some will have no oil. I mean to kind of crazy to think that if you're a an attendant at a wedding, and your job is to have a lamp that is burning, you would show up with no oil. Of course, as a pastor, I had brides show up to the wedding with the dress over their shoulders an hour and a half after it was supposed to start. So who knows what people do at weddings, right? But in this case, being ready when the bridegroom comes is important. Because once you once he's there, you have to be ready. Now, the groom was delayed in this instance, until midnight.

So the wise virgins, they have oil for the lamps. They get them ready. They light it, and they're ready for the celebration. But the foolish virgins, they have no oil. Of course they can't get oil from the wise one because the wise ones need their oil.

And they say something really weird. Go and buy it yourself. Now, this is midnight. And I don't know about where you live. But where I live. There are not many stores open at midnight. And this is America when stores are open late all the time and on weekends and all that stuff. Not at midnight. Can you imagine what the foolish virgins would have to do to go out and find someone who would sell them oil at midnight? In ancient Israel? Yikes. So of course it takes a long time. And when they finally get back, the door is shut.

The groom says I do not know you

and Jesus finishes with Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Now much ink has been spilled about interpreting this this parable

for especially when you're talking about what is the oil for us, like people have talked about the oil being faith. They've talked about the oil that is good works for the poor. That's what John Chrysostom says,

honestly, for me, I really don't see a need to figure out what the oil means. This is simply be ready. And that's what Jesus says. He says, Watch therefore, for you know, neither, you know, neither the day nor the hour.

And that is what Christians are to do is we who have faith in Jesus need to always be watchful for the day that the bridegroom comes for the day that Jesus comes and begins the celebration at the end of the age, as he raises us from the dead and gives life. How are we ready? We're ready by the Word and the sacraments and the faith that that gives us. And so, Christians ought to always be focused on the chief aim of our lives, hearing God's word, receiving the sacraments and serving each other with love.

That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The Epistle Reading for November 12th, 2023

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, November 12, is First Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who have fallen asleep, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, and with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words urines the reading this passage from First Thessalonians is a teaching that St. Paul gives to the Thessalonians. Whenever you read Thessalonians, you should remember that St. Paul had a very short time with them before he was driven away. I think it was about one week. And so you can imagine it's very short time he goes in he preaches a whole bunch of people are converted by the miracles in the work that he does. And then the persecutors chase him out. Can you imagine being a brand new baby Christian, and you've only had a teacher for a week? What kinds of things might you believe and not know about? And so Thessalonians is all all about correcting some misunderstandings and encouraging them to remain faithful and their baby Christian state. And this one is all about informing them about what happens when Jesus returned. This was also the passage that I'm going to preach on. And this Sunday, I'll talk a little bit about the rapture and why this is not consistent with Lutheran theology. But we won't dive into that so much today. Instead, we're just going to take a look at what St. Paul says specifically, he says, We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope. St. Paul's using a fingering figure of speech, when he uses the word asleep. What he means is dead. But they're asleep in Christ, because Christ will come back and wake them up. Pretty great, right? So he says you don't grieve, like others do because they have no hope. We Christians, we still grieve, but not as people without hope. We have the hope knowing that Christ will come again and raise them from the dead. He continues, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him, those who have fallen asleep. So the pattern for resurrection is the same pattern that Jesus had. Because Jesus died and rose again, all who are in Christ will who die will rise again as well. Jesus will wake up the sleepers. Paul continues. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. So St. Paul is saying that when Jesus returns, the dead will rise first, as it continues, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So, St. Paul is giving us a clear image of what will happen on the day Jesus returns, He will descend from heaven with a cry of command, a voice of an archangel, and the sound of a trumpet. You're not going to miss that. Jesus coming down from heaven, his voice crying out calling up the dead, with a voice of an archangel in the sound of a trumpet, this is going to be a big deal. Then the dead rise first. Ball continues, then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So the dead will rise first. And then God will gather all who are alive who are with the Lord. up with him in the cloud. St. Paul also reminds us in First Corinthians chapter 15. What happens with us who are alive is that our bodies will change, that the perishable body will put on the imperishable, and the mortal body would put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up in victory. So the Thessalonians were worried about this and St. Paul gives them a clear teaching, that when Jesus returns, you're not going to miss it is not going to be a secret. He will raise the dead, we will all be caught up with him and be with Him forever. And he finished his out saying, Therefore encourage one another with these words. And that's what we've been doing the Christian church ever since then, we encourage one another with the promise of Christ that on the day he returns, we will be with Him forever. That's it for today. See you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 70 The Psalm for November 12th, 2023

Psalm 70

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion
    who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
Let them turn back because of their shame
    who say, “Aha, Aha!”

May all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
    say evermore, “God is great!”
But I am poor and needy;
    hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
    O Lord, do not delay!

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, November 12, is Psalm 70. Make haste, oh god to Deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let them turn back because of their shame who say, aha, aha. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say evermore, God is great. But I am poor and needy. Hasten to me, Oh, God, you are my help and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, do not delay. Here ends the reading. This psalm begins with a passage that is part of our evening and morning prayer services in in mountains, the the song at the beginning goes, make haste, oh, God to deliver me. And the congregation responds, make haste to help me Oh, lord. It's a part of the chanting responses for that. The idea is that we call on God to come to us and save us. And isn't that part of the church's cry all the time? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly make haste to save us. The Psalmist goes on, and says, Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt, let them turn back because of their shame, who say, aha, aha. David, the author of this is calling on God, to turn away the people who are his enemies. Back in the old testament, David as the anointed king of Israel, the Chosen One of God, his real life, human enemies were also the enemies of God because they were fighting against God's kingdom and God's King. We in the New Testament don't typically think about our enemies, as human beings, they are more like sin, death, and the devil. Even those human beings who fight against the church can be turned into friends, by the power of the Holy Spirit's, they hear the gospel and turn to faith in Jesus Christ. And so here, as we look at this, we say, maybe we're not supposed to put to shame people. But this is turning away the forces of sin, death and the devil. And Colossians talks about putting the sin and the demons to open mockery, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, destroying the power of death forever. And so we look at that. And we see we see that here. I think the passage where it says, let them turn back because of their shame, who say, aha, aha, it's a little confusing, like, what? What is a Ha ha, mean, right? This is kind of the mockery part again, a Ha ha, is we discover someone in their in their vulnerability, and we laugh. And that's what David is talking about. In this next piece, there's a transition. David goes from calling on God to defend him from the people who seek his life, to now turning towards the people who love God. May all who seek who rejoice and be glad, and you may those who love your salvation say evermore God is great. So it's a desire for all of God's people to turn to God and rejoice in Him in all circumstances. To say, God is great. And we know why God is great is because of his salvation. Because He sent Jesus Christ to die for us to give us life that lasts forever. Another transition happens where David says, have have everybody rejoice in you, oh, God, but me. I'm poor and needy. Come to me, Oh, God, hasten to me. You are my help and deliver, oh, Lord, do not delay. And isn't that the cry of the Christian? We who are poor and needy in our sin, who look at a world filled with brokenness and our hearts filled with disaster and guilt, and we say, Oh, God, please, come and save me. The burden of this world is so great in the pain that we face so difficult. And even when we have moments of joy and respite, we know all of that will pass away. A Tomorrow will be another difficult day and it will always come. This is why we pray for Jesus to come in return to descend from the heavens with power in mind, and to cleanse this world from all sin from death and the power of the devil. And give us joy forever. That's all we have today. See you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Amos 5:18-24 Old Testament Reading for November 12th, 2023

Amos 5:18-24

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
    Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
    as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?

“I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, November 12, is Amos, chapter five, verses 18 through 24. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord, why would you have the day of the Lord. It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or went into a house and leaned his hand against the wall. And a serpent bit him is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it. I hate I despise your feast, and I take no delight in your solemn assembly. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs to the melody of your hearts, I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Here ends the reading. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord says the prophet Amos. It is darkness and not light. To understand this, we have to look back and see this phrase, The Day of the Lord. The day of the Lord was the idea of God coming down to visit his people. And usually the idea was that it would save them. And so ancient Israel believed that God was their local God, the God of their people, a lot like the pagan gods around them is like every town had a god and every people had a God that would protect them. And they sort of fit God in with all the other pagan gods in the pantheon. Which is why often they would end up worshipping ball and Ashra and the true God, and sort of fit all of this together as if he was just one of the many. And so the day of the Lord was supposed to be a day when God would come and save his people and protect them. But when he is just one of the many gods that's not how God works. God, sometimes his visitation is judgment. Sometimes his visitation is destruction. And we would see that many, many years after Amos prophesize when the Babylonians would come in and tear down the walls of Jerusalem and destroy the temple. That's the day of the Lord coming with his judgment, that darkness and not light. And so Amos gives us this idea of the day of the Lord the day visiting his people, which for Israel would have been a day of destruction because they were being unfaithful. And that's the image that he says, it's as if you fled from a lion and ran into a bear, as if you get into the safety of your house and under the wall bytes a serpent. It is darkness, judgment. When God comes to a sinful people, he brings destruction. Later, he goes, I hate I despise your feasts. And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. It continues to go on and talk about the burnt offerings and grain offerings and peace offerings and all the sacrifices and the songs and the harps. Why Does God hate these things? He hates them not because those things are bad in particular, but because they do not come from people who are worshipping God correctly. In the Old Testament, throughout all this time, every time that the Bible would talk about bringing in false gods into the temple courts, or even into the holy place, and the Holy of Holies itself. It's not saying that the people left the true God to go worship false gods, saying they incorporated false worship into the worship of the true God. And so they were trying to act as if God was just like any one of the pagan gods. And in that system, the way you got a God to be on your side was that you offered sacrifices, the sacrifices were almost like bribes, that you would send up to God so that he would protect you. And this pagan system lasted not just through ancient Israel, but it was also the system for Rome, is that if you worship to God, that God would protect your city and your people. If you worship to God that God would provide fertility for the land and crops and such. And so it was an exchange. The idea was you bribe God to protect you, and take care of you. And that is not how the true God works. God had commanded these feasts, the feasts of the Old Testament and the solemn assemblies, he commanded burnt offerings and grain offerings, but he commanded them not as a thing that was designed to get him good things and make him happy. But the feasts, the sacrifices were for the people in their true worship of Him. And so what they were doing was they were simply worshiping God falsely, as if he were a, a, one of the many false pagan gods. It sort of was an exchange, like their works, their offerings, their all their things were given to God in exchange for his gifts. We often think about God that way. I think we think about our worship, our prayers, our devotion, sometimes is all about, if I do these things for God, he does good things for me. Sometimes it's not that explicit, sometimes it's just, well, I'm a good person, God must love me. All good people go to heaven when they die, right? If I know the name of Jesus, I may not receive His gifts in worship, I may not trust in Him. But you know, I've got these Inklings about Jesus, and I've got good feelings about him. All that's just showing our works before God, and saying to God, look how great I am. Perhaps God's judgment, the day he returns will be darkness and not light. For those because the day of Christ's return, is also a day of judgment, and not just resurrection and joy. For those who do not follow Jesus, who are not receiving His grace and filled with the Holy Spirit, it is a day of judgment and destruction. And Amos tells that same thing, not just for Jerusalem, but also for all of us Christians, many 1000 years later, that when the Lord comes, it is not just joy, there will also be destruction and judgment. And we need to be prepared for that. And we do this by worshiping the true God and serving him only and receiving his grace through His Word and Sacraments. And Amos points us to the the severity, and the seriousness of our need to receive these things in the divine service. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

When He Appears: Sermon on 1 John 3:1-3 for Sunday, November 5th

1 John 3:1-3

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're celebrating All Saints Day and our readings throughout throughout the day have pointed to all sorts of things that point to the the beauty of God's salvation, and the the eternity of what he has done for us. All Saints Day has a long history. It begins with the very first Christian martyrs. The when the church was gathering together and beginning to worship, very quickly, Christians were killed for the faith. And so what they started to do was they would celebrate and remember the anniversary of that debt day. So they would remember each saint in local places, in honor of their sacrifice of being called a murderer or a witness for the faith. Eventually, congregations started to exchange remembrance dates. And it wasn't very long before there were far more than 365 murders. You can imagine that having a new worship service every single day for every single murder would pile up very quickly. So the church decided that they were going to celebrate a calendar of martyrs and saints, and then pile up all the rest on a single day. Today, well, actually November 1, we're celebrating it today on Sunday. Now, this was just the saints, the murders, and those who were canonized in the church, they quickly moved to having another celebration for all the Christians who have gone on in the faith called All Souls Day, which is November 2. Now we in the Lutheran church, we don't really recognize a distinction between the saints that are on our calendar, and the saints that are not, since we are all holy and perfect in Christ, there is no extra special merit to those who we call, add that little title saint in the front of. And so today on No, well, November 5, as we remember, November 1, we remember all those Christians who have died in the faith, who've passed on into into Heaven, to be with their Savior, and await the day that he returns. And our readings point us to all of those things, point us to the reality of the promise of Christ, that those who have gone before us in the faith are with him, and the hope that we have as Christians while we to wait for that day. Today, I am looking at the Epistle reading from First John chapter three. And what it teaches is an important concept in the Christian Church, which theologians call the now. And the not yet. The now and the not yet. What we mean by that is that God has given us a gift in Jesus Christ, eternal life through our Savior. And we have it both now. And also not yet. Which is fun, right? How can you have something now and also not yet? Like if I have a book, I can read it now. And if I don't have it, I haven't not yet. But I can't do both. Right. Even if I order something on Amazon, and I technically own it, it still takes at least two days to get here. And so it's just not yet. But God has delivered us a promise that is both now. And not yet. We have the gift of God through our Savior, Jesus Christ of eternal life. He came he died for us. And he has given us His Holy Spirit, so that we can believe in him and receive that salvation by faith. And yet at the same time, it has not yet been fully fulfilled. We're still waiting for something. The promise is not yet as well. So we can say yes, we have eternal life now. And yet, also, not now. We are waiting for something more. And that's what I'd like to explore as we look at this passage from First John, chapter three. Let's dig in. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so We are. This is part of the now piece of the promise that we are called children of God, not just called children of God, we are actually children of God. And we know this because everyone who is baptized has been adopted by God, through Jesus Christ. It begins with the story of Jesus's baptism. When he goes into the Jordan River, the father looks down on him and says, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And then it goes to the words that St. Paul gives us about our baptism. When he says, Do you not know that all who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death. We were buried with them. Therefore, by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. What that means is that in our baptisms, we joined with Christ, to die with him and to rise with him. Only a few chapters later, St. Paul tells us that we have this spirit of adoption as sons where he says, But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him, in order that we may be glorified with Him. Similarily he says something like that in Galatians, chapter three, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, at put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. God has made you, his children, by baptism, by being adopted into the family through Jesus Christ. And this is the great love of God, that he came down to come to you. And that you don't have to wonder how Jesus's death and resurrection applies to you. It was put on you with water, and the word. You are children of God. And you have that right now. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the next passage that John writes, gives us a reasonable question. He says, The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. He anticipates the question we might have. And it's pretty clear that question is, wait a second, if I am a son of God, adopted into his family, and God is all powerful, almighty, creator of heaven and earth, if he can speak reality into existence, if his son can walk on water and calm waves and create bread out of nothing. Why does life sometimes bad? Shouldn't we be on top of the world? Shouldn't the children of the Almighty king of creation have everything we want? Well, this is what he says. The reason why the world does not know us, it is that it did not know Him. That is it did not know Jesus. It's very simple. By being adopted into the family of God, we are adopted to be like Christ. And we have to remember what that story is like. Jesus took up across. He carried it as far as he could until his broken body could no longer lifted anymore, and someone else had to do it. And he went to the top of the hill. He was nailed there. And then he died. That was the ultimate rejection of the Son of God, all powerful, almighty Jesus Christ. That's what we're adopted into. we're adopted into a life of following our Savior. And it looks just like Jesus's

We are fortunate that we are unlikely to face that kind of suffering and death. We're unlikely to face the whippings and the beatings and the nailing to a tree. But still, the world does not know us. That's actually something to rejoice in. It's something to rejoice in when we're counted worthy to be rejected by others, just like our Savior was because it means we're in good company, right? When the apostles in the beginning of Acts were first arrested and beaten and released, they rejoice for being counted worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus. And so we too, can rejoice in that. Because our suffering is not just random pain. But following in the footsteps of our Savior. John continues, Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be, has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Now, John gives us hope. And knowing that the story of Jesus didn't end on the cross, you know, he went to the cross, and he was nailed there, and he died. And then they took him down, and they put him in the tomb. And by his own almighty power, he came back from the dead. Death could not hold him. And he came up. And all of his glory was revealed. This Jesus who was once hungry, who once got tired, who, who was broken and beaten and dead could now do amazing things that he never did while he was alive. While he was in his humble part of his ministry, he would disappear and reappear in places. He would walk through doors and appear to His disciples. Jesus appeared in all his glory at that moment. And what John is reminding us is that he is coming to appear again. He says, We are God's children now, just like Jesus rejected by the world, fit in a world filled with suffering. And on the day that he appears, we will be like Him. John is helping us imagine that there are two realities stacked on top of each other. In this fallen world, we have the reality that we see. It's the reality of sin and death and sadness, a reality where there's sometimes suffering and sometimes joy. And then we have another reality, the resurrected reality, the promise that God has given us through the sun Jesus Christ, this is our true identity. This is who God has made us by the power of the Spirit in our baptism, and both of them are layered on top of each other, existing simultaneously in the same space. And what happens when Jesus appears, the old will just go away. And all that will remain is who God has made us in our baptism. We will appear as he appears, we will rejoice in his salvation and fully received the gift that is promised. We have this now. And yet, the old is still on top of it. When the not yet comes when Jesus returns that will be gone. And everything will be perfect. As it says in our reading from Revelation, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That is the vision of the hope that we have. That under the day Jesus returns. He will give us fully this promise. But what it also means is that we have that now. We are not waiting for eternal life. Eternal life is here with us just in a hidden way. On that day when he returns everything will be be revealed. Everything will be perfect. And even better. It will be revealed not just for the US who are here today, but also for all the Christians who have gone before us, all of the people who are up in heaven around the throne of the Lamb, waiting for the day of the return, they will rise from the dead, and they will appear as he is, and be like him just as we will. Whether it is tomorrow, or 1000 years from now, all Christians will return and rise from the dead, all Christians who are baptized into the sonship, to be children of God.

John continues, and everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself, as he is pure. So if we are children of God, if we have this eternal life and salvation Now, John says, well, let's live in it. Right? If you have been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, just as Christ was, if you are united with Christ in His death, and resurrection, and made pure as children of God, let's live it just as Jesus did. were empowered to do that through the Word and the sacraments. And yet, it's difficult under the weight of this fallen world. That's why we're here to encourage one another to live in the purity that God has made us to live in the good works that God has created for us. As we leave this place, and go out into the world, to love and serve, and care, and the purity and perfection that God has given us, until we pass into the church that waits in heaven for Christ's return. This is the doctrine that we have heard the now and the not yet that we are God's children now and yet, the fullness of that promise has not yet been revealed. And our challenge is to live as God's children now, while we wait for the not yet when the perfection will come. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Guest Podcast: Christian Combatives with Paladin Actual and Pater Veritas

Pastor Huenink was a guest on Christian Combatives with two other LCMS pastors who go by Paladin Actual and Pater Veritas. They talk about Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast from Matthew 22. Check out the Christian Combatives podcast on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 4:1-12, the Gospel for All Saints Day

Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for All Saints Day which we are celebrating on November 5, comes from Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12. It reads, seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Bless there are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bless it, are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil falsely against you on my account? Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Here ends the reading. This passage is sometimes called the Beatitudes, because in Latin blessed it is beatitude. And so it's all about the blessings that God is giving. The funny thing about Jesus's blessings that he's saying here is that blessings are all about being in a place that is not always seemed so bless it. Alright, he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. And we go, wow, the people who are lonely and crushed who who don't have that, like spiritual joy and exuberance. He's saying the people who are crushed in their spirit are blessed. Same for those who mourn. We don't usually think about being blessed. When we mourn, or the meek. Now Meek is often seemed as someone who's like humble, but humble and attitude. This really isn't humble in attitude. It's a condition of being lowly. And so bless it or the lowliest of society. And bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know, it's kind of good to hunger and thirst for righteousness. But if you hunger and thirst for something that means you are not filled with it. Right? Bless it are those who are lacking righteousness? We don't usually think of those as a blessing estate. We also often those who are high and mighty, those who are rich and powerful, aren't always the ones who are merciful or pure in heart or peacemakers. There's often don't seem like blessing estates. But it's especially true for those who are persecuted. Right? Bless it, are you those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. And then finally, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, on my account? Rejoice and be glad Jesus says. The interesting thing about Matthew chapter five and these Beatitudes is that he gives a blessing state, for people who are lowly in this life. Because when Christ comes when he returns, in the future state, we will be raised up. There's a turning of God's people, to say that the blessing of God is not found in the way the world sees power, and joy, enriches and happiness and love and all of these things. Blessing is found in Christ. And so in Christ, those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn those who are meek, we will have the great joy on the day he returns. And what I love about placing Matthew chapter five, in with Revelation Chapter Seven, in our readings for All Saints Day, is they give us the both sides of this image is on earth. The Christian Church is lowly. We're sinners in a broken world, and we're meek, we mourn or poor in spirit. In Heaven, or on the day when Christ returns, we will be gathered around Jesus Christ. The revelation gives us the image around the lamb on the throne. We are robes we be washed in the blood of the Lamb and we will rejoice with him. Math gives us the hope for now. Revelation gives us the image of the future, the joy in Christ. And so pairing these two together you get to see the burden that we carry now, and the hope that we have for the future. The pain of life now, that we can rejoice and in even rejoice when when people revile us and are angry at us, because of Christ. We can rejoice because what we have is an eternity with Christ. Wash our robes washed in the blood of the lamb to live forever with Him. That's it for our readings today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 John 3:1-3, the Epistle for All Saints Day

1 John 3:1-3

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for All Saints Day which we are celebrating on Sunday, November 5, is from First John chapter three, verses one through three. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are, the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself as he is pure. Here hence the reading. This passage from First John chapter three is really dense in wonderful theology. So we're going to take a look at it verse by verse, let's begin with the first one. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. This passage tells us about the great love that we have through our, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we have been adopted as children of God in our baptisms, that when God shows us he does said the same words that he said to his son, Jesus Christ, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased. And John reminds us that this, this choosing that God has done making us children of God is not something that happens in the future in eternal life in heaven or anything like that. It happens now, God has already given us this love in Jesus, the next verse, the reason why the world does not know us, is that it did not know Him. So John makes a transition here, he says, We are God's children. Why are we treated so poorly? Sometimes? Why are God's people not on top in everything? Why don't we always have great lives full of riches and happiness and wealth? It's very simple. The world does not know us. And he said, Well, wait a second, the world doesn't know us. How could it not know us? We are children of the God of all creation. Well, the world did not know Jesus. Right? The world rejected Jesus. He came preaching God's word, healing the people casting out demons doing everything right. And yet, the world rejected him and sent him to a cross to die there. The world doesn't know us, because it didn't know Jesus. John continues, Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be, has not yet appeared. So while we are God's children now, we also have a promise that we are something more than what we see in our flesh and blood. What we will be, has not yet appeared. This gives us the idea of well, sometimes what theologians call the now and the not yet. We are God's children now. And yet it's in a hidden way. Underneath the sinful flesh and blood that we have right now. There is a child of God in all its perfection, and yet it has not been fully manifest. It has not fully made known. We are waiting for the not yet of God's promises. And so he continues, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. So the not yet is when he that is Jesus when Jesus appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. St. Paul calls Jesus's resurrection, the first fruits of those who come from the dead. And what that means is, is that Jesus is the beginning of the resurrection, so that he can be one of many brothers. So when Jesus returns we'll see him coming on the clouds with power and glory. We know that we who are God's people, will change and be like Him. Jesus will call the people out of their graves and their their lowly bodies that have have died and decayed will be transformed to be like his perfect body. And those of us who are alive our our living bodies that are lowly in a different way not decayed, but you know, injured and hurt and it will be transformed to be like his perfect body. On that day, the not yet will be now. And we hope in that promise, we hope that when we see Jesus, He will change us like that. And that is our sure and certain hope. And yet we live now, in the not yet God's promises is given to us. We have this this, we're children of God in a hidden way. And we hold on to the the gift that Jesus gives us. And so Jesus says, and everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself as he is pure. So all of us who have this hope, who look forward to the day of the resurrection, the day when Jesus returns, and reveals us as the perfect and pure children of God, we are purified, as He is pure. And God has given us certain and true means to do this through his means of grace. And he gives us baptism, Holy Communion, the proclamation of the Word, and confession and absolution. And I think John, In First John, he talks a lot about sending and receiving forgiveness. We say these words in church every Sunday, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then we do the confession and absolution. And that is how God purifies us through his means of grace. When we say when the pastor says, I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This is how we maintain our hope, through the means of grace that God has given us. Well, that's it for this passage. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai