Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 16:1-8 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Mark 16:1-8

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

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, March 31. Easter Sunday is from Mark chapter 16, verses one through eight. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early, on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb. And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, Do not be alarmed, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him. But go tell his disciples and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. He rents the reading. This is the great gospel reading for our Easter Sunday celebration, the resurrection news about Jesus who was dead, and is now alive. So let's dig in. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices. So we see to Mary's other gospel readings have other people, but we know here today, it's Mary Magdalene. This is the woman that Jesus cast out demons out of and marry the mother of James and Salome. They have spices to go and anoint Jesus. Now, this means that they are going to the tomb to expect to find a dead body. They found the spices that are traditionally part of the burial preparations. They obviously don't know that Joseph of Aaron mithya did all of that the night before oil two nights before, before the preparation for the Passover. And so you can imagine lots of confusion, everything happens suddenly. And then you have to rest for a day for the Passover. And now they got to make sure it's okay. So they're going expecting to find a dead Jesus. Otherwise, they wouldn't have brought spices. Otherwise, they would have been skipping and laughing and jumping and being going to the tomb being like Wednesday coming out. But no, they did not. So very early, on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. So this is on the first day of the week. We know it's Sunday morning, as the sun had risen, they're now at the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb. So they have a logistical question. They want to get there. They want to anoint Jesus's body. And so someone's going to have to take the stone away. And it's not going to be them. Part of the challenge, of course, with the chaos and the planning, and all the terrible stuff that had been happened is that they didn't really have a way of putting together a definite logistical plan for anointing Jesus's body. And they're like, Oh, we might get to the tomb and not be able to do anything. But when they get there, something strange happens. And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, and it was very large. So there's here's begins a mystery. And entering the tomb. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. So they go, the stone has rolled away mystery number one, and they enter into a tomb and they see a young man sitting there. mystery number two, because that's kind of weird. I don't know about you, but I don't hang out in tombs, sitting on a place where bodies usually lay. So they go in. They see the young man He's dressed in a white robe. And this is code talk Bible speak for probably an angel. And they were alarmed. That's what people do when they see angels and heavenly messengers, they are afraid, they are alarmed. And they go, Oh, I mean, it's also kind of weird that they go into this tomb, expecting to find a dead Jesus. Instead, they find no Jesus, and a young man sitting where his body is supposed to be. What's going on? The young man tries to calm them, he says, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him. So he says, Don't be alarmed. Calm down, it's okay. I know why you're here, you seek Jesus who was crucified. So Jesus who was truly dead, who was laid here, he was crucified, He has risen, he is not here. I mean, obviously, he's not there, you can't see his body. But it's not because somebody dragged him away. It's because he is now alive, of a man who had been crucified and tortured to death is now alive. And he points to the place where they laid him see, look where they placed him. And so the great news that Jesus has destroyed, the power of death is delivered by this angel to the women. Look, this is an amazing thing. Next, the angel says, but go tell his disciples and Peter, that he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him just as he told you. Now, here's a little sad piece of this, it's Go and tell his disciples, and Peter, this could be a reference to Peter's denial of Jesus. And that when Peter went to the trial, and they accused him of knowing Jesus, and he said, I don't three times Peter stepped out of the disciples group, and needed to be reinstated. And we see that story, the reinstatement of Peter in the Gospel of John, but it's this is a little bit of a painful moment in the gospels, like, Hey, Peter, remember, but they say, is Peter and his disciples to go to Galilee, and they'll see them they're there, you will see him just as he told you. Next, the says, And they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Now, that's a weird way to end the gospel of Mark, isn't it? And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. Like, Hallelujah, Christ is risen, right? Oh, yeah. This is the great story. Not so much. Where is the appearance to Mary Magdalene? What about the guys on the road to a mass or the locked room or any of that stuff? Where's Jesus? We don't even get to see Jesus in this story. I think that's the actually the point. Where is Jesus, the angel says, There you will see him just as he told you. And I think the point here is that it's not about actually seeing Jesus in this gospel, but believing His Word. God sends an angel to proclaim the good news that Jesus is alive, the tomb is empty. And the people just need to believe, believe and go to Galilee. And you'll see him there. And the women respond with fear. They go, we don't know what's going on. This is kind of crazy, and they run off and hide. And it's kind of a challenge to the Christian church, because they're a little bit more like the women in this particular story is that Jesus does not appear to all of us, he doesn't come and show up and say, Hey, I'm alive, believe in me. And so we have to depend on the word of others, the witnesses who were there, the people who saw the angel, the apostles who wrote down their stories, the people who lived and walked with Jesus. Are we going to be like the women who hear the news of the resurrection and then say nothing to no one and be afraid? Or are we going to take heart? The proclamation that Christ is risen, that death is destroyed, and believe and speak.

I think I know which one I want to be And I bet you want to be that way to not like people who are cowering in fear, but bold, knowing that Christ is alive. He has risen. Hope to see you on Sunday when we celebrate that amazing resurrection. Our worship services are 830 and 11. It we a joy to have you there. Talk to you then. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

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 March 31. Easter Sunday comes from First Corinthians chapter 15, verses one through 11. Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I delivered to you as a first important what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to surface, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they, so we preach. And so you believed, Here ends the reading. First Corinthians chapter 15, I think is one of the most important passages in Scripture for the Christian church right now. And I think so because it gives us a good correction, for the way that we talk about eternal life. And we'll talk about it in a little bit, and I'll go through it. But what Paul is trying to do right here is correct an error that the Corinthians had the Corinthians were saying, that there is no resurrection from the dead. Not that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, but that human beings don't rise from the dead. That is, salvation is not your body comes out of the grave, and returns to life. Instead, salvation is when your soul goes to heaven. Now Paul, is trying to tell them, This is not how it works. And he begins with the gospel of Jesus Christ and reminding them what happened with Jesus. So let's dive in. Now, I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So this opening paragraph is to remind them that what he's about to tell them is nothing new. They already heard this, Paul preached it to them, probably over and over and over again, Paul told them, yes, Jesus died. And then he rose physically, bodily from the grave, and appeared to all these people. And so he's saying, this is the gospel that made you a Christian. You heard it from me, and then you received it, then in which you stand, you believed it. And then by which you are being saved, it now saves you this message of Christ's resurrection. That is, as long as you hold fast to what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So what he's reminding them is, this is nothing new. You You don't need to hear this again. But I guess I have to remind you of it anyway. Because you guys are denying that there's a resurrection from the dead. And if there's no no resurrection from the dead for everybody, then why was Jesus raised? He continues, For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. Now this is important, he says, as of first importance, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of first importance in the Christian church. It lays the pattern for salvation. It is the heart and center of the gospel, without a bodily death and a bodily resurrection, there is no salvation. He continues, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And then he appeared to surface, then to the 12. Now, if you've been a Christian for a while, you probably have heard the stories, right? If you go to the Holy Thursday, Monday, Thursday services, and then the Good Friday services and the Easter Vigil services and all those things, you've heard the stories of Christ went to Jerusalem, he, he initiated Holy Communion, he was tempted in the garden because 70 arrested on Good Friday will remember his death, his torture, his mock fake trials, and, and then he is, dies on the cross is laid in the tomb. And he rises to new life on Sunday. And then on Sunday, we begin all the readings about Jesus's appearances, he appears to the women outside the tomb, he appears to Thomas and then to Peter and the 12. And these are all the stories that are written down in the gospels that St. Paul is referring to. He says, This is what I was told. And it is also what I told you the most important thing, he died, and he was buried, and He rose. Now, he lists a number of people that Jesus appeared to first itch to surface that is Peter. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Okay, so why is St. Paul running through a list of the people that Jesus appeared to? Well, if you're saying there's no resurrection of the dead, which means then that Jesus wasn't raised from the dead? If you're saying that, how would you be corrected? Well, you could actually go and talk to the people who are there, right? Now, I want you to imagine the craziness that is so foreign to us, of being able to go and actually talk to a person who saw Jesus die, and then saw him alive again. And that's sort of the weird thing about the Christian church during that era, is that you the authority of the gospel wasn't based on a book. It was based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles, like you could go to Peter and say, Hey, dude, you're saying some pretty crazy stuff. Did this really happen? Were you actually there? And he'd be like, oh, yeah, I know. It's not right. This is, can you even believe it? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe it. And there are 500 people that you can do this to. And the interesting thing is that this also happened for a good period of time afterward, you get people, historical figures, who would say, Yeah, I was a disciple of John Polycarp, he would say, I was a disciple of John, I learned at his feet, I spent time with him. I know this is the truth, cuz I talked to someone who was there. And what this says, is that the Christian church doesn't base our faith without evidence. People were there. They saw Jesus die. They saw him rise from the dead. We have proof. It's eyewitness testimony. And then they wrote it down for us so that we can have it preserved for 2000 years. We can look at the testimony of the men and women who were there and say, they saw this, they wrote it, we have it. Evidence of Christ's resurrection. So then St. Paul continues, last of all is one untimely born, he appeared also to me. St. Paul was talking about his appearance as Jesus appeared to him in on the road to Damascus, and he was called to become an apostle and follow Christ and preach to the Gentiles.

This is an amazing vision and appearance of Christ to St. Paul. And what I think is also amazing is that Christ It has not stopped appearing to people. One of the cool things about the Muslim world these days is that Jesus is appearing to hundreds and 1000s of Muslims, to tell them to follow him. It's happening everywhere. And it's it's so joyful, that Christ still goes out to people who would otherwise be his enemies and appears to them and calls them to salvation. Paul continues, for I'm the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. What an amazing joy, that the grace of God extends to the people who fought God's Church, the people who would have destroyed it, who would turn Christians in who would kill them, the grace of God goes out to them, and we can go from enemy to brother in Christ in just a moment. Paul continues, on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is within me. And so he says, The converts zeal comes out here, right. For people who grew up in the faith, often it becomes banal, almost boring part of the background. But for someone who discovers it, and the beauty of the gospel, and has a before and an after, they can be so on fire and excited. And so there's joy in that. And St. Paul says, I worked harder than any, but he gives the glory to God instead. And then finally, he returns to the main point, whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So it goes back to the main point. The gospel here is that Jesus died physically and Rose, physically, His death and resurrection is the center of the gospel. Whether it's the apostles that preach it, or Paul or the 500 eyewitnesses. That is the heart of the gospel. And that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. You should come and check it out. 8:30am and 11am on Sunday, at first Lutheran Church, we'll see you there. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 16 The Psalm for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Psalm 16

A Miktam of David.

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

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 psalm for March 31. Easter Sunday is Psalm 16. It reads, and MC Tom of David, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all mine delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup, you will hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shale. Or let your holding one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life and your presence, there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Here ends the reading. Psalm 16 begins with a phrase a Mick Tom of David. Now you might go with the MC Tom. And then you would have good company because nobody really knows. It is a heading or a title for a number of different songs. But like the word see law, or some of the other musical notation terms of the Psalms, we don't really know what it means. Now let's dig into the psalm itself. Preserve me, oh God, for you knew I take refuge, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. So this begins with a prayer to God preserve me. For a new I take refuge, there is a sort of a sense in this section, that there is a danger out there. And whether it's David actually imagining, like looking at a real danger Saul coming to get him or one of his enemies going out to fight him. We don't know for sure. But it's certainly a thing that human beings all have in common with David. I mean, we don't have like us all, who wants to throw a spear through us while we're playing a harp. But we do have danger in a world filled with disaster. And there's always something you never know when the end could be. What danger will come at us. And so we say, preserve me, oh god for a new I take refuge, God is our only safety. And again he repeats this, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. David is recognizing that even even he a king, who is having all sorts of stuff, he's gotten good things. In reality, nothing good is outside of God. I said that wrong. In reality, the only good that lasts forever is God. And so what that means is that day that even with the palace and a kingdom and servants and all of that stuff, he knows that the only sure thing, the only thing that lasts is God Himself. And so then he turns from God, to the fellow believers. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. King David delights in His fellow believers, as Christians should delight in our congregations and our communities, that God loves us. And we see that love in others. Then he turns to the unbelievers, the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood, I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. So he turns and he looks at those who chase after other gods false gods. This was a common problem for ancient Israel. They they didn't seem to get the monotheism thing. And so they wanted to worship the true God but they also wanted everybody else to because I mean, if you get one God on your side, why not? Why not get six or seven? That's so much better than just one. And David is saying no, that's right. Only not how it works with with the true God, He demands full and faithful worship, no one else. And so he turns from those who chase after other gods whose sorrows multiply, and only after the true God, and he says, again, the Lord is my choice chosen portion and my cup, you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. So he turns again, and says that the good he seeks is focused chiefly on the Lord on God. It's his chosen portion and his cup, he holds the lot. And also talks about in inherit tense. This this is a language in the Bible that would often refer to things like the in the land that was passed down in Israel for people. But we also see this language through Christ for as Christians is that Jesus is the firstborn Son of God who receives the inheritance of the kingdom of the world. And then we, as sons of God, through our baptism into Christ also received a beautiful inheritance, maybe not the same one that Christ Himself received. But by being one with Christ, we receive an eternal Kingdom with our Savior. The next section, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart instructs me, I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. And so he praises God here, who gives him instruction. And so it's the word of God here that the heart and the mind of David are focused on, because these things give us guidance and counsel, and help us see the world in the right way. And because of that, we can set the Lord before us by by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not be shaken. Like when when things happen in the world that are terrible, a Christian doesn't need to worry about them. We don't need to have anxiety or fear because God is here for us. Nothing can stop his salvation. There is no earthly thing that can bother us, which is why he says, Therefore my heart is glad. And my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. He has confidence. And that is even more for you will not abandon my soul to shale, or let your Holy One see corruption. Now, this word che old sometimes is confusing. We don't really have a concept for it in in American English anymore. Sometimes people talk about shale, as if it's the punishments of hell. And it's not quite the same, though. There are places in the Bible where the word shale oil has some idea, like it's those punishments, it could connect it in that in some way. But very often, in fact, more often in the Bible, shale oil simply refers to the land of the dead, it might be something like for you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or to death. And so it sort of corresponds to the there's like an ancient world conception where there are places where people live. So heaven is the sky, and that's where the gods live. The Earth is where humans live, and under the earth is where the dead live. It's the grave. And that's kind of what che ol is. And we know this because in Psalm 139, the Psalmist cries out if I send to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and che Oh, you are there. Now, if that tell of course, it can't mean that God God's not in Hell. He's that's a place of, of abandonment. And so, if God is there, in che old, it means that che ol is part of it is like the land of the dead, and not this place of punishment in hell. We continue, you make known to me the path of life, in your presence, there is fullness of joy, as your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And so it culminates with the idea that God makes known the way of life, and we follow the path of life after Christ, our Savior, through death, and the grave, into the resurrection. And so while we are in this presence of God, we can have joy in all circumstances. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Easter Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 25:6-9 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
    He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
    “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

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, March 31. Easter Sunday comes from Isaiah chapter 25, verses six through nine. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts who will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow of aged wine, well refined, and He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations, He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Here ends the reading. This is one of my favorite passages from Isaiah. And one of the passages that I frequently choose when I'm preaching on it in a funeral, because of the beautiful message, the Easter message that it gives. Let's dig in. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine of rich food full of marrow of aged wine well refined. I think the first question that it will that we ask is Which mountain? On what mountain is he talking about. And while the immediate context of Isaiah 25 doesn't really talk about a particular mountain, I think it often is referring to the mountain of Jerusalem. This is a mountain, Mount Zion, that is a part of God's promises. We see throughout the Old Testament ideas about Mount Zion, becoming the tallest of them all mountains are the greatest of all mountains. And now it is the site of this feast that God is going to make for all people. And so this feast is held by the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Armies, and so God with all his might, and power is going to hold a feast and for who, for all peoples. Now, this is an interesting thing. The word peoples in the Bible is often confusing. I once had a group of fourth graders that I told ya, people can also be plural peoples and they got no there's no way people is already blurry. You've got one person, two people, right? And I got no people can also refer to an identity group, like a nation. And so there's the American people and the English people. And when you have the when you're talking about bringing together the American people in English people, you are suddenly having a meeting of two different peoples. And so what God is saying here, Isaiah is telling us that there will be a feast for all peoples, every group, every nation, every people under the sun will be gathered together on Mount Sinai for this rich food. Well, aged wine, rich food full of marrow of aged wine, well refined. Now, I don't know if you've ever had marrow like bone marrow that's well prepared. It is amazing. Just outstanding, buttery, rich, yummy. God is giving an image of a celebration, good wine, good food. And what are we celebrating? This is what it is. He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. So it's funny that at the feast, God is going to swallow not the rich food, not the food full of marrow or aged one Ain't well refined, the feasts that God is throwing is where he will swallow up death forever. And what Isaiah describes it is, is a wheat a covering of Dale that sits on the shoulders of everyone. It's the covering that is weighing down and oppressing and cast and holding down all the peoples, the veil that that is over our eyes and covers us up and makes it so that we can't do anything without seeing it. It's death. At this feast, God is going to take away the one thing that unites every human being that has ever lived. The one thing that weighs down every human being that has ever come into existence, he is going to swallow up death forever. As well as they are is predicting. And when we look at Easter, we see a mountain where God did just that. He swallowed up death on Mount Zion, the city of Jerusalem, by sending His Son Jesus Christ to the place of the skull, a hill outside of Jerusalem, where he died, and was placed in a tomb and then rose from the dead. Death is swallowed up. That is the power of Easter. Easter isn't about taking a new look at life or the renewal of spring or the anything that is is sort of like day to day. Easter is about destroying the only true problem that every human being faces, death itself. And then Isaiah has us look past the cross and the resurrection to the day of Christ's return. He says, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. So now he's looking forward not to the day of the resurrection when death was swallowed up forever. But the day of Christ's return, when he returns to wipe away every tear from every eye. The apostle John borrows some of this language from Revelation. And he says something very similar towards the end, that God will make all things new, He will wipe away every tear from every eye, and the reproach, the bad reputation, the sadness, the pain, the hurt, that death causes us all. It will be taken away. And the key here is for the Lord has spoken. He's given us His promise, a promise through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that He will come. Isaiah continues, it will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. One of the great, faithful responses to the problems in the world, especially in the Psalms, but in many places throughout the Old Testament is this phrase, wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage wait for the Lord is in Assam, my soul waits for you, oh God, as it is somewhere else. And the idea here is that the faithful, the faithful people of Israel and the faithful Christian, we know that the enemy is truly bigger than us. The enemy death is bigger than anything we could ever face. No human being can take it down. And so what we do is we wait for God to save us. That's our only hope. We can't fight it. We can't destroy it. We can't push at it. We can't do anything. All we can do is wait. And then finally, on the day of Christ's return. When he calls us up from our graves and we see Him face to face we will turn to him and say, Behold, this is our God we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And that's what we're all waiting for. The gift that Christ one for us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead when he swallowed up death by dying himself and breaking free from the grave.

The promise he gave us there is the gift we're waiting for when Jesus returns to make us alive, and wipe away every tear from every eye, and make all things new. That's all we have for this Resurrection Sunday. Join us on Easter Sunday. It's going to be wonderful 830 and 11. Join us for worship at first Lutheran church and hear a sermon on this topic. That's it. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

A King Without An Army: Sermon for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Zechariah 9:9-12

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Happy Palm Sunday. Today we are journeying through the final week of Lent. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Jesus's Passion Week as he enters into Jerusalem, the humble King, riding on a donkey with a crowd following him. They are waving their palm ranches. They are throwing their cloaks ahead of them, they shout, bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord? Pretty fun day, right? I imagine looking back at the crowd and being amazed at what's going on. Right? Can you see I mean, you can see in your head, right 1000s of people waiting for Jesus cheering. They had just heard that he had called Lazarus out of the grave. They're following they're throwing things. The Pharisees are looking out and going, Oh, no, what's going on? We look back at that. And we think What an impressive spectacle. What a joyful day. But it's actually kind of in contrast to what people expect it. We read in our opening that they were shouting blesseds is the is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And you think, Wait a second. Is that how kings come to a city they're about to conquer? With donkeys? On branches? No, of course not. The crowd that follow Jesus. If he were a conquering king, the king of Israel, they would have had armor and spears, shields, swords. They would have dragging behind them siege engines to bombard the walls and take them down so that they could storm Jerusalem and go after punches Pilate out the Romans and live under a new king. That would have been much more impressive, right? Jesus himself would not have been in his lowly clothes on a donkey. He would have been on a horse with a crown armor, gleaming white flashing eyes would have been very impressive. Very different from the humble King that we see. His crowd was not dangerous. They were in need of being saved. His horse was not mighty. It was a donkey. And it makes us see that Jesus is a different kind of king. A king who does not have an army that does not have warriors. But a king who operates differently and are reading today when we were standing outside pointed us to Zachariah chapter nine or Old Testament reading that looks forward to Jesus coming in on this donkey into Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fall of a donkey. Zachariah gives us a little bit about what Jesus's kingdom will be like. It says, I will cut off the chariot from Efrem and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Wait a second. How does the king rule without a chariot? A war horse or a battle bow. That's not how it works. Even God's people, when they went out to meet the nations, what did they do? They brought their weapons with them because that's how you ruled King David. He was a warrior, a leader of men he fought battles when he was going to be crowned king before that while Saul was was getting jealous of him. You know what the people chanted, Saul has killed his 1000s. David his 10s of 1000s. That's how the Kingdom of Israel enabled its rule defended its borders and protected its people. It's the same way with every other nation and Empire. If you think about the Babylonians, that's what they did when they conquered the city of Jerusalem. The Mongols, they develop the largest empire in history, by battle, by fighting the Romans to who controlled Jerusalem, they had this amazing Pax Romana, which was this whole area of the empire, you could be safe and travel and be free. And how did they enforce it? Not with gentle words, with a poke of a spear every nation ever since. And every nation that has ever existed, has enforced its rules and its boundaries with violence and threats of violence. Napoleon, Hill, Germany, China, even the United States, every one defends itself, and governs its people with violence. When they go out to the nations, they use threats, to keep the peace. What about Jesus, it will cut off the chariot, the war horse and the battle bow, there will be no guns or missiles or weapons or just peace. And his rule shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. That's how Jesus enters his city. A conqueror, a king, with no army. How does Christ rule over this kingdom? How does he deliver His salvation, enforce his boundaries and change his people govern his church. It's not with violence. It's very simple. It's by the power of the Word of God. That is how God governs his kingdom, we call the church. Now you might go wait a second. That's not all that big a deal. This is just words, after all, but we have to remember the power that is behind the humble and lowly Word of God. It is the word of God that said, Let there be lights and light came into existence. Everything that you see everything all around you was spoken into existence, by the voice of God. Out of nothing. The Word of God went out and did other things too. When Christ was out with his disciples on the water, we in the boat and the waves were washing up and everyone was scared they were gonna drown. Jesus said, Peace be still and the waves listened. We can't even get our kids to listen. And the disciples, they looked at him and said, Who is this the wind and the waves obey him was the Word of God that gathered the crowd of people to Jesus. The word that he spoke just before that when he went to a tomb, and he said, Lazarus come out. And the dead man got up and walked out of the grave that's the word of God at work. Spear can't do that. And now they're gonna missile Reagan. The same power is at work when God gave His word people. God gave his word to Moses. In the book of Exodus. He went and he spoke to Pharaoh and the plagues came. He turned the Nile to blood he brought gnats and flies and hail and disease and even blotted out the sun. All by the power of God's Word. God gave His words to Elijah when he went to Ahaz And he said it will not rain or dew until I say so.

And it didn't rain for three years. God's word, power. And the word came to the disciples which they spoke in the book of acts on the day of Pentecost, and 3000, new Christians joined the church that day. The Holy Spirit is there at work in the power of the word. Paul reminds us of this, when he says, the word is near you, in your heart, and in your mouth. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. As Isaiah puts it, where is the rain in the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, the water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent. The Word of God is the power of Christ, our King, that he uses to deliver salvation to you and govern us, his people and guide us in His Church. And it's the word of God that empowers our sacraments. Matthew 28 tells us of baptism, where Jesus says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God empowers Holy Communion. Luther tells us that as these words given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, that empowers the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, to deliver these things to give us life and salvation. The Word of God that gives strength to the absolution that I spoke before, where Jesus said to His disciples received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them, if you withhold forgiveness from any of it is withheld. The Word of God, it empowers the entirety of what the church does. It is how God changes your hearts. It's how he molds our minds. It's how he guides what we do. And it's how he gathers more people into our flock, and preserves us from the evil. It's all in the word, read and spoken and proclaimed the Word of God. As we consider the humble King, riding on a donkey, with a small crowd around him, that's not the crowd you'd expect. no weapons, no power. Would you consider that it is not a surprise then that the word of God does not appear impressive? Right? Nothing near so impressive as all of the human things that we think are pretty cool. And so often, even we who understand the word and its power, can lose confidence in it. We can say to ourselves, any number of things regarding this, but one of the things that we might say is, well, that works for people back in those days, pastor, but nobody's listening to it. Now. Kids these days need something more than they need something else to gather them to really get out there and do it. This is something the church has been saying for centuries. And it didn't work. Back when the first Lutheran colonists came over to the United States in the 1700s. That's what some of them said. They said, Ah, these Americans, they will never listen to the Word of God like we grew up with. We need a new American version that will get the young people into church didn't work. Those groups that fell off the map, were left behind. And then every couple of generations, a new group would pop up and say, Ah, this word of God, it just isn't strong enough anymore. You know what we really need, we need to do tent meetings out in the wilderness, and get those snazzy songs and get the people all riled up. Because if we do that, then then the kids will come to church. Which is why there are tent meetings in every city, every place or across the country right now. Not so much, right? Because that movement fell away to the same thing happened over and over and over again. They thought is they had to hide the Word of God behind something else, to trick people into hearing it. And instead, what they did was they focused on that whatever that thing is, they didn't get Christians. It would be kind of like a basketball league that decided that people weren't interested in basketball. So what they would do is they would have singing, and dancing. And you know what you get when you do that? Basketball players in jerseys who like to sing and dance, right? Not play basketball. When we think that we have to add something to the Word of God, what we end up doing is covering up God's power and presenting human things. Similar thing happens when we think we need to be protected from the world by something more than God's power. You see, the word of God is what defends us. The Word of God is what preserves us. And it does it through the sacraments and the word that we hear every single day. But sometimes Christians think, well, the world is just far more dangerous and terrible than it used to be. We need people who will protect and save us. And then we make alliances with people who like to use guns, and missiles to protect us, law and power. Which ends up making us no longer the church again. Because what we do is we trust the people that we vote into office, the people who make the laws. We trust them to protect and preserve us, acting as if the same power that overthrew the Roman Empire. Through the preachings of the apostles could not protect us here today in America. The same power that went out and took over the entire world, without a politician on its side. Couldn't keep us safe, until the return of Jesus Christ. You don't want to make alliances with bad people, just because we're scared. We want to trust the Savior. To gives us His word, the same word that spoke light into darkness that quieted the waves that forgives sins and saves us from the devil is here protecting us today and now. Christ gives us peace and safety. He rules over all the nations not with violence, but by the power of His Word. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. And it will be that way until the day he returns. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 118:19-29 The Psalm for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Psalm 118:19-29

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Save us, we pray, O Lord!
    O Lord, we pray, give us success!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
    up to the horns of the altar!

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

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 psalm for March 24, comes from Psalm 118, verses 19 through 29. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us we pray, Oh Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. Bless. It is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and He has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the facile festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you, you are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Here ends the reading. This Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving. Generally, Luther loved this psalm in the introduction to Psalm 118. From Luthers. Reading the Psalms, he writes, The 1/18 Psalm is a Psalm of thanks and my dearest most beloved conflict in meany which is the Latin title for the Psalm. It gives thanks and also prophesies of the Christian and of the Christ, the rejected cornerstone. The Psalm is a general statement of thanksgiving for all the kindnesses God daily and unceasingly showers and all men, both good and evil. The psalm praises God, especially for the greatest benefit, his He bestowed on the world, namely, for Christ and His Kingdom of grace, first promised, and now revealed. What a joy to have for this poem, Sunday reading as we talk about entering into the city of Jerusalem. And that's where it starts, open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them, and give thanks to the Lord. You know, as we see Jesus entering into Jerusalem, that's kind of what they say, Right? He's we're opening the gates of righteousness, to give thanks to the Lord Jesus is coming in for the Passover sacrifice, except he's not going to participate in offering a sacrifice, he is going to be the sacrifice. Well, he offers himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover Lamb, who finally takes away the sin of the world forever. And he enters in through this gate to give thanks. It continues, this is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. Now, of course, no one is truly righteous, except for Christ alone. So it only he could be the one who would actually enter through the gate of righteousness. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. This is a cry of the Christian and of the ancient Jew to say, God has become our salvation, we thank him. And of course, in Christ, it is the righteous one who enters through the gate, who offers Himself as a sacrifice that becomes our salvation. And then we get this classic passage, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. We see the builders as the authorities and the chief priests, the scribes and the elders of Jerusalem who rejected Jesus, who then becomes the cornerstone for the foundation of a new church of a new building Christ's Church, the new Israel built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the cornerstone 23 This is the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. Now, I'm sure it wasn't marvelous for the disciples to look upon the death of Christ on the cross, or to see him buried in the tomb but for us, after his resurrection, celebrating the story, as we do every year, looking at the Christ as he enters into Jerusalem knowing he is about to be crowned with thorns and put on the throne of a cross in his glory. It is is marvelous in our eyes. And we can see that it's truly God's doing to make what would seem so terrible, the joy and salvation for all of humanity. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. How Good Friday is coming up. And it's hard sometimes I think, to think of joy, as we consider the death of Jesus Christ. And sometimes, that Good Friday service is seen almost like a funeral for Jesus. Like we're all supposed to get together and mourn and be sad. And that's actually the opposite of it. We call it Good Friday. Because even though Jesus Christ death was so terrible, it is also his glory and our joy. It continues, save us we pray, Oh, Lord, oh Lord, we pray, give us success. How can you add to that? Bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the thing that they said, as Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the crowds Hosanna in the highest, bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna to the Son of David, we bless you from the house of the Lord, it continues. 27 The Lord is God. And he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. So it says The Lord has made us he shines his light. And in response, God's people take the festival Festival, the festival sacrifice and they bring it to the altar, they tie it up, bring it up the horns were actually the the corners of the altar with had literal horns. And so he would kill it, sacrifice it. And that's what it is. And the psalm ends you are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever. Now this reading begins with verse 19. Psalm 118 begins with repeating, give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. And they say let Israel say his steadfast love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say his steadfast love endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord say his steadfast love endures forever. And then it finally ends the Psalm the same way. It says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord for His good for his steadfast love endures forever. What a way to end the psalm. That's where we're going to stop today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Zechariah 9:9-12 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 24th, 2024

Zechariah 9:9-12

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

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, March 24. Palm Sunday is from Zechariah chapter nine, verses nine through 12. Rejoice greatly, Oh daughter of Zion, shout aloud, Oh daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fall of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Efrem and the war horse from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore to you double. Here ends the reading. This is a famous reading that has to do a lot with Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, which is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. It's the prediction of the King coming on a donkey, which we see as Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem to shouts of Hosannas riding on a donkey. Right? So starts Rejoice greatly oh daughter, Zion, shout aloud, oh, daughter of Jerusalem, Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he. So, Zion, that is Jerusalem, the city of God and Jerusalem, they are both told to shout and sing for joy, right? Rejoice greatly because the king is coming. And this would be a great idea for rejoicing, especially after the Babylonian captivity is the king would come to protect his people again, because that was the Kings job in ancient Israel, to come and bring justice and righteousness, justice being making sure everybody's rights are protected under the law of God, and righteousness, being that he promotes the worship of God and only in the temple. So the king is coming, and everyone should shout for joy, especially those people who lost their king when the exile happened. And then it goes righteous and having salvation is he so he's not like the kings of the Old Testament, who are constantly turning away to false gods trusting after the bad guys, and seeking to make alliances with the wrong people. He is the right and good king. But here's the weird part. It says, humble and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Now, what kind of king is that? I mean, nobody really wants a king who rides around on a donkey. Nobody wants a king who is humble, and lowly. What we want is a king that can protect us. I mean, that's what Israel asked for when they went to when they when they went to Samuel and said, We need a king. We need someone strong, who will write out in front of us and protect us against our enemies. And here, you've got this guy on a donkey, humble, lowly. The king was supposed to be the kind of guy who would inspire fear in the enemy. One who would fight the bad guys keep everyone under control. But this is a different kind of king. And that's what God says next, he says, I will cut off the chariot from Ephrem and the war horse from Jerusalem, the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations. His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. So not only is this a lowly King, it's a king who does not rule with force, the chariot, the war horse or the bow. He doesn't fight to rule. Instead he brings peace to the nations and He rules from seed See, without conquering and attacking. You know lots of people have tried to take over the world. We see empires growing throughout all of history from the Mongols and the Chinese and the Romans and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and the Egyptians. And you know, just about everybody who ever had a great civilization wanted to take over the world. And they always did it with swords, or spears, or guns, or whatever. And now, Zachariah is predicting someone who's going to conquer the world without firing a shot. But bringing peace. So the real question is, then how does Jesus conquer the world without firing a shot without using the battle bow or the war horse of the chariot? He does it by his word. He rules from C to C by the power of the word, and especially amongst his church, which is why the church doesn't use force in making our decisions. We don't focus on bylaws, though we have them, we don't focus on who's in charge or who's in control. Because at the heart of it, Christ rules over his church, not with guns, spears, or bows, but with the word, and it's the word that God uses to change our hearts and cause us to follow him. So verse 11, and as for you also, because of my blood covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. So now he's turning to Israel, he sang I will set you free from the dungeons waterless Pit and the people of Israel will get to return to their strongholds and be restored double. But even better than that, actually, because in Christ, God's people, the people of Israel, who are now in Jesus Christ, we don't get the ancient strongholds and double the land of Israel. What a tiny piece of Earth. What we get is a rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth by the power of the word, and especially on the day of the resurrection. What a joy to have this. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Old and New Covenants. Sermon for Sunday, March 17th 2024

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are moving along in the season of Lent, as we follow Jesus on his journey to the cross. Ever since he climbed up to the top of the mountain and was transfigured there, he, we have been seeing the stories of him traveling every day, every week, on to Jerusalem, where we will finally get the story of his death, and then his resurrection. It's leading up to the moment that we remember and celebrate as Christ's sacrifice for our forgiveness, to establish a new covenant with all of God's people. That was different from the old one, a new covenant that we actually get to read about, in our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah. Jeremiah talks about the two covenants, the two great covenants of the old, and the New Testaments, the one that would come after him, and the one that was established many years before him. And what he says is that God is going to make a new covenant. Here are the words to behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. It's not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. What we see here is a reference to God's covenant with Israel, during the time of Moses, Jeremiah gives us a hint of the story we all know, where Moses brought the people out of the land of Egypt, and then to the mountain of Sinai, where Moses received the 10 commandments, and all of the rules and the laws and the benefits and the blessings and the curses that were part of the Old Covenant, Moses's covenant. And it included a whole lot of stuff, more than just the commandments that we know. This covenant was established then at Mount Sinai for God's people. And it was a covenant that Israel broke. Jeremiah is also referencing a New Covenant, a covenant that he did not see very clearly yet, because it would have to wait until the days of Jesus. This covenant was established at a table with bread and wine. When Jesus said, this is the blood of the new covenant, shed for you for the forgiveness of sin. You may recognize that because we say it every Sunday, as we remember this meal, and eat and drink of it ourselves, to bring this new covenant to us, a covenant in Jesus's Body and Blood, which was initiated by His sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, to deliver all of the blessings of the New Covenant to you. The question question we have for ourselves today is, what is the difference between this Old Covenant and a new covenant? What is Jeremiah trying to tell us about this great new covenant that God is giving his people? Fortunately, Jeremiah tells us, isn't that nice? And he gives us three things that are about the new covenant that God will make, and we have received through Jesus Christ. Here they are. The first one is I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. Number two, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Number three, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. What I'd like to do today is take a look at each of these and compare it with what the old covenant was like to help us understand how amazing God's gift is for us. Let's take a look at the first one, we'll add this one, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Now, as we look at this, we see, first there is a word in there that might be confusing for us Lutherans, we're used to the word law, referring to God's law, which are His commands, the demands that God puts on all of us. But that's because there is a frequent mis translation of this the word that was originally written, it is probably better as teachings, or instruction, or perhaps the Word of God. More generally, it's the same word that we use for the first five books of Moses, the Torah. And so it's the whole thing, the whole counsel of God, everything that God has ever spoken, all of his word. So it's not I will put that my law on their hearts, as in, I will demand everything and write that on their hearts. It is, I will put my word on their hearts, I will write it within them. This is different from the old covenant. Because under the Old Covenant, we didn't get the Holy Spirit working on all of the people for whom the covenant applies. That's because the old covenant wasn't just a covenant with believers. It was a covenant with unbelievers, too. It was a covenant with a nation, a nation with borders, and armies, people who believed and didn't. Israel was filled with a whole big group of people. And not everyone was filled with the Spirit, and believed in God. And we see this because over and over and over again, from the moment they leave Mount Sinai. And those unbelievers just kept turning away. They grumbled against God and against Moses, they built a golden calf, they got to the promised land and said, No, thank you. Once they got in the Promised Land, they turned to all the different gods and they did all sorts of things. And it was a covenant with a group of people that included believers and unbelievers alike. I want you to think about what it might be like to think whether the God's promises would come true for you. If it included everybody in America, where God said, I will keep my promise to you if everyone in America is faithful. Ah, spirit shoo in right? Perhaps not. Because there wasn't a covenant with individuals. It was a covenant with the whole nation. Which meant that it was a covenant that depended on the entire nation, following God's law, which was a problem for them because this covenant contained this warning from Exodus chapter 20. I, the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to 1000s of those who love Me and keep My commandments. And so many in Israel turned away, did not keep his commandments, and hated God, which meant their iniquity was on the whole nation. Isn't it wonderful? God's promises don't depend on an entire nation following him. But today in the New Covenant, it is not a covenant between God and every person, in a geographical area are genetically related to Abraham, but with all who believe in Him,

God gathers the new Israel, out of every nation on earth, every identity every people, and he gives the Holy Spirit by the word of Jesus Christ, which means He writes this word on your hearts, by the power of the Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, he writes this teaching this gospel, this grace on you. So you can know the Lord and hear him and understand Him and believe and understanding God's Word and His will. The the instruction of God is only available to those who have this Spirit. Without faith in Christ, it just doesn't make sense the way it does, when you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and know where you are going. Because if you believe that you're just going to die, and be worm food, why would you give up the things that Christians give up so that we can rise from the dead and live forever? Why would you waste a couple of hours on Sunday morning, when you could be out living it up, because tomorrow you die. But we know that's not true. We know that Christ is coming. And this simple idea written on our hearts by the power of the Spirit changes everything. Sometimes, when we Christians go out into the world, and we try to share the gospel with people, we forget that the message has to be written on the hearts of people before they realize that they have to change. Right? It doesn't make sense if you go out and say, discipline yourself, and they don't have Jesus right? It doesn't make sense. If you say live like us, I don't know why. The change, the beginning of holiness must come by the power of the Spirit, first, through faith in Christ. Only then will it actually make sense. The second piece of this new covenant that Jeremiah predicts is this, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. He explains this when he says, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. I will be their God, and they will be my people. The old covenant is a little different. So here are the words that Moses says in Exodus 19. Report reporting God to the people. He says, Now therefore, if you will, indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. There's some nice promises in there a kingdom of priests to treasured possession a holy nation, but it is preceded by the most important words in the Bible. If it's a big word, right, if if you do this, then you get this. If you don't do this, then you don't get this. And that's the heart of the Old Covenant right? Now. Therefore, if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you get the promise. Worked out great. If God asks us to do something that we can do, it's not so much if it's something we can't. And Israel never did it. And Jeremiah says that he would make a new covenant that was not like the Covenant, the covenant that they broke and they broke it a lot. The Bible is filled with stories of God's people saying no thank you, God, we would pray refer other gods. Baal Ashra Moloch, the gods of Assyria and Babylon, every god under the sun except for the one true God. And the prophets their whole story is calling people back, saying, no the Lord turns to him return to the covenant. And what's fun when you when you look at the prophets, sometimes they play a really interesting trick. When they speak the word of God, to people that's been failing the covenant. What they do is they report God saying, instead of my people, they say, this, people it's a very subtle change, when you read the prophets, but look for it. Because God doesn't say, My People. Instead, he says, Those people, this people, anyone but my people, in fact. We get that, from Isaiah, where he says, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me from their lips, while their hearts are far from me. And their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. When they break the covenant and turn away, God calls them this people, not my people, because they didn't get the promises when they broke it. That's not how the New Covenant works. Because Jesus fulfilled the old, he is the one who does the if, if you indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession, that is Christ. And all who are in in him to receive this amazing blessing, which is why the New Covenant does not have an if it says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And then for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. That is because all who are in Christ receive this covenant. It is not a covenant with believers and unbelievers, it is just those who are called out of the world, brought into Christ and gathered around his his body and his blood and his word. All who are in Christ become God's people. There is no ifs. There is no if you obey my voice, there are no commandments. It is just you are my people. Because of Christ's perfect obedience, and fulfilling this covenant, you get these promises. And that leads to the final point where I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This is not the promise that was given to Old Testament Israel. Remember, they had an IF covenant, not, I will covenant. God didn't give them away to have their sins forgiven when they committed them. It was to be faithful to him and offer the right sacrifices and believe in Him and do all the things they were supposed to do, but they didn't do. And that is why they were eventually sent into exile, after being punished over and over and over again. But because of Christ, this is not you. God does not make that kind of covenant with His Church and his believers. A covenant that says if you do it right, you will be forgiven. God simply says, I will forgive their sins, I will remember their sin no more.

Which means that for all who turned to Jesus Christ looking for mercy, it is always there. There is no sin that will cast you out. There is no doubt that will push you away. There is nothing that you can do that will make Christ turn away from you. His grace is always there. Which is why a pastor can stand up in front of all of you and say, very casually. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and actually mean it. And not look out and say it well. Except for you. Everybody, when you write, which is sometimes what we think, in our hearts, we think oh, yeah, that's your doesn't know what I did. And I'm the worst. And we're maybe even more perniciously pastor doesn't know what he did. He's the worst, right? That's not how it works. All who turned to Christ. All who come to Him, knowing they need grace. All who asked for it, who confessed their sins, receive forgiveness. And we do this because God has written His instruction on your hearts, and he has made you his people which causes us to turn to Him for relief when we have that guilt, because we are brought into this new covenant through Jesus Christ. What a great gift he has given us. In Jesus name, Amen.

Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 10:32-45 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, March 17th, 2024

Mark 10:32-45

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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, March 17, comes from Mark chapter 10, verses 32 through 45. And they were going on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed. And those who followed were afraid. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn Him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us, whatever we ask of you. And He said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand, or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. And when the 10 hurted, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called to them them to him and said, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, lord it over them, and they're great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, For even the Son of Man came not to serve, to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Here ends the reading. Wow, there is a whole lot going on. So this begins with a a statement of place, it says, And they were going on the road going up to Jerusalem. So Jesus is on his final trip heading towards Jerusalem where He will be crucified. And so the people who are amazed, they're like, Oh, why would Jesus would you go into this place where the authorities hate you. So he tells them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn Him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. I have to say, sometimes we give the disciples some crap about not understanding Jesus. I read this and I go, I imagined myself in that situation. And I think to myself, would I have gotten anything out of this? Would I really have understood it? As Jesus is saying, Hey, we're going to Jerusalem, and they're gonna beat me up and kill me. Isn't that great? And you know what? Now, that's gotta be a metaphor. Maybe he's telling us a parable. Maybe it'll be close to death or something like that. I can totally understand why the apostles wouldn't, wouldn't get it. Or maybe, maybe rise from the dead is a figment of speech, I don't know. But what they didn't get. And what is hard, even now for Christians to get is that Jesus is laying out a pattern of glory. For the church. The glory does not come from power and might, but sacrifice and service. And that's why it's right next to the story that comes next. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee came up to him and said to him, Teacher We want you to do for us, whatever we asked of you. And He said to them, what do you want me to do for you? Now, every once in a while, someone will walk up to me and say, Hey, will you do me a favor? And I always respond With what favor do you want with a little apprehension in my voice? Because as soon as you say yes to a request that you don't know the answer to, then you're committed, right? So that's kind of what's going on here. We want you to do whatever we ask. And almost sounds as if they know that their their request is not the coolest, not the best. So Jesus asked for clarification. And they say, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. I'm imagining that they are excited about being the two guys on the thrones next to the king on his Mighty Throne. They want to be the heads of all the feasts and leading the armies and being in front and all the best stuff. Jesus said to them, you do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? And they said to him, we are able. Now they didn't know what was coming. But I'm willing to bet that they did know that there was going to be some hard days ahead. Jesus says the cup I am to drink are the baptism with which I am baptized. Now, if you're following Jesus, and you expect him to kind of be like a hero, a king who would get rid of the Romans, you'd expect there to be some battles and some difficulties and some trouble. That happened to David, the people who follow David, they were in caves. They were on the run. I mean, it was it was really bad. And so I'm imagining that they're thinking, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be hard, but we can do it, Jesus. They're not thinking it's death. Right? They're not thinking, we're gonna watch our Savior die. That just didn't get it. And so Jesus is saying, are you able to do this, and they're not imagining that what's actually going to happen. That's why he says, You don't know what you're asking. They say we are able, even though they don't know what they're asking for. And he says, You will do it. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. What that refers to is that, James, that the apostles are going to be persecuted just like Jesus, that they will end up facing a lifetime of persecution at the hands of their enemies, who will try to kill them and hurt them. Now, John doesn't die at the hands of the enemies, he ends up as, according to tradition, dying of old age, but it's not for lack of trying, and he's persecuted and he's sent into exile. It's all sorts of terrible stuff. But James certainly, and all the rest of the apostles died a martyr's death. So he says, but to set in my right hand, or at my left is not mine to grant. But it is for those for whom it has been prepared. So Jesus is saying, you don't get to choose for those who have been prepared. Now much of my life, I had imagined that this would be when Jesus returns in his glory, that somebody from all the Christians, and usually the person that you'd the least think of like the, the mom, who just day in and day out, served and loved and didn't get all the glory, they would be the ones to sit at Jesus's left and his right when he comes into his kingdom. But I want you to read something. Here's something from Mark chapter 15. And the script inscription of the charge against him read the King of the Jews. And with him, they crucified two robbers, one on his right, and one on his left. So they didn't get the baptism that Jesus would be baptized with. They didn't understand the cup that he was going to drink because they did not understand what it meant when the Christ would come into his glory. It's not on the last day when the angels come and everything is beautiful and powerful, and we'll see all of us rise from the dead and live forever with Christ. The glory of Christ is the cross. When Jesus comes into his glory, and he has crowned king, with the charge above his head and a throne made out of wood and nails, who sits at his right and his left,

two robbers. And so the people the James and John, they didn't understand what they were asking for, because they didn't know Jesus would die. The glory of Christ is his death on the cross and the power of that sacrifice for us. The reading continues, and when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant, and James and John, and Jesus called to him and said, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. He mentioned the Gentiles, the rulers of the Gentiles, and they have authority. That is exactly how the the world runs their authorities. Violence is how you convince people to do stuff. There's the threat of law, there's taxation, there's laws, there's all these things. And that's how you get people to obey. That is not how it works in the church. God's word is how we rule in the church, by the proclamation of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, the servants and speakers of God's word, offer it up freely as a gift in Christ. And they serve, like pastors are there to serve and deliver the message and they want nothing more than for people to hear, listen and respond. And it's done this way, because even Jesus came to serve and not be served. And he gave his life as a ransom for many. And it's the pattern of Christ that all Christians not just pastors, all Christians follow. We come to serve, and not to be served we come to not to exercise authority, but offer offer servanthood and work for the good of others, following our Savior. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Hebrews 5:1-10 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, March 17th, 2024

Ephesians 2:1-10

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,

“You are my Son,

today I have begotten you”;

as he says also in another place,

“You are a priest forever,

after the order of Melchizedek.”

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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 March 17, comes from Hebrews chapter five verses one through 10. For every high priest chosen from among men, is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says, also, in another place, you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save from death. And he was heard because of his reference, although he was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Here ends the reading. Hebrews focuses a whole lot on the ancient practices of the temple and the tabernacle, the priests in the sacrificial system. So we're looking at something about that. Now, let's dive in. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. So this is an important piece of the priesthood in ancient Israel, is you couldn't sign up to become a priest, you were always appointed by birth. And so it was the Levites, who were the priest. And so it's not just high priests. But all priests were born into that if you were a Levite, then you were a part of this priesthood. Now, that meant that by ancient Israel's times, when Jesus was around, there were a whole bunch of them. And so they had to take turns, only a few were full time and permanent. But the high priest, he was also appointed, you didn't get to sign up or choose, he was chosen by descent through the the line, the family line of Aaron. And that's why it says every high priest is chosen from among men, and is appointed to act on behalf of men to offer these gifts and sacrifices. pretty similarly, we, within the Lutheran church believe that pastors don't get to stand up and say, I want to be a pastor, we have to be called by God through His church, it's a regular call is what we call it. And so when someone decides to enter the seminary, that doesn't make them a pastor, when they graduate from the seminary doesn't make them a pastor, what makes them a pastor, when they are called by a congregation ordained and installed and then they are, they're appointed. It's a little bit of an aside, but an important thing for us to understand. So the reading continues, he can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those that the people. Now this was one of the problems with the high priests of the ancient days is that they were sinners. And so they couldn't offer up perfect sacrifices without also offering up a sacrifice for themselves. So in ceremonies like the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer up a sacrifice for himself and for his family, and then offer up a sacrifice for the people. He had to purify himself before he could present himself to the mercy seat to go into the tabernacle, and and see the Ark of the Covenant and then offer the sacrifices for the rest of the people. And so, this points out that the high priests of before Jesus, were all saying enters. And on one hand, they could Gee deal gently, because they understood, I'm a sinner, you're a sinner, we're not going to, we're not going to get all high and mighty. But it also meant that they couldn't offer a perfection the way Jesus would. And so it goes continues to talk about being appointed. It says that no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him, who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says, also, in another place, you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus did not stand up and say, I'm a high priest. And this is important to recognize, somewhere in the background, the author of Hebrews is likely thinking, well, if Jesus is a high priest, how is that even possible? He wasn't a son of Aaron, he wasn't even of the tribe of Levi, come on, guys. He can't be a priest. I mean, he's the savior and all but he's still there's no way you can, you can connect him to these high priestly rituals. So the author of Hebrews has to say, well, priests are appointed. And if you're appointed by God, you don't have to run through the family line of Aaron. And so Jesus didn't stand up and say, Now I'm a priest. What he was is from the Psalms, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And then later, another soul. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now the order of Melchizedek is interesting. You have to go back to Genesis chapter 14, where Abraham ends up winning a battle, and there are spoils. And there comes this king of Salem Melchizedek, who's also a priest of God Most High, the Abraham gives the priest a 10th, of everything he has, and the Melchizedek blesses him from God most high to weird story in the Bible, because this is like a random priest out of the middle of nowhere. And you say, this is a positive depiction of a priest in Canaan, must been the God Most High is the true God. And that Melchizedek is a priest of God Most High, outside of Aaron's line. And that's the key here, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek is a priest, Jesus, who is not because he is descended from Aaron, are the Levites. But because he is appointed by God in a special way outside the normal order, because he is the Son of God. So then, it moves on to Jesus's duties as high priest. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him, who is able to save him from death. So the high priest is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God. And Jesus offered up prayers and supplications. And when he went to death, he cried out to him who was able to save him from his death. And it says, And he was heard because of his reverence. Jesus Christ was the perfect high priest, who cried out in trust and hope when he died on a cross, knowing that his father would raise him from the debt. It continues, although he was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. No, Jesus didn't need to learn to obey God, he did it all on his own. What this is showing us is this perfect perfection of Christ, who enters into our space becomes weak, like us, and then is is perfect. He follows God's law perfectly, offers Himself as a sacrifice so that we can have eternal life. And it says, And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God, a High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek. And so Jesus becomes the source of our eternal salvation to all who follow him. He uses the word obey, not in a rules, like you got to follow all the rules or else you're out, but those who follow Christ, hear His word and respond with faith. That's what it means to obey. And so Christ then becomes the source of eternal salvation as the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 119:9-16 The Psalm for Sunday, March 17th, 2024

Psalm 119:9-16

How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
    teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare
    all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight
    as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
    and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
    I will not forget your word.

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 psalm for Sunday March 17, is from Psalm 119, verses nine through 16.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word? with my whole heart, I seek you let me not wander from your commandment, I have stored up your word in my heart, that I may not sin against You. Bless it, are you Oh, Lord, teach me Your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth in the way of your testimonies. I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Here ends the reading. Psalm 119 is a lengthy Psalm all about God's word. Psalm 119 is also the one where it says Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It's divided into sections. Each section is based on the letter from the Hebrew alphabet. So we call it an acrostic. This section is the second one or bathe. Let's dive in. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. There is great wisdom in being able to learn from the wisdom of others. Lots of people have the kind of wisdom that you gather from a lifetime of making errors, and then learning from your mistakes. Anybody can do that. If you step on a rake and it smacks you in the face you learn maybe don't step on a rake. But when someone says, Don't step on that rake, it's even better to learn from that person by not stepping on the rake. And that's sort of the question going on here. When a young man without wisdom wants to follow God, to keep his way pure, to walk the right path. What do you do? The answer is by guarding it according to your word. The word of God is there to make foolish people wise to make the simple, wise and the people who need to know more understand. God's word is there for us to give us that a young man who has no wisdom of his own through experience, can learn the wisdom of God through the Word. And can't we all benefit from that. And so this almost responds with my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandment. The desire of a Christian who seeks after God is to follow God's commandments. And we may not always do well at it, we may not always like wanting to do it. In fact, sometimes our sinful nature pulls us away. But in the end, we all want to serve God. And I think that is part of the heart of a Christian is that the new heart that God gives us in Christ prays out to him, let me not wander from your commandments. The next one continues. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Now, hearing God's word and having inside us especially I think memorizing God's word and understanding his doctrines and teachings is a great way to be reminded every day of our duty and our desire to follow God's commandments. But it is also a way to lead us to pray. Lead me away from temptation, oh, Lord. And that's what this is asking. This is not so much like look at what I've done. This is God use your word to guide me away from the sins that my body and my mind and my sinful flesh want me to do? It continues, Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me are statutes. There's a reason blessing for God also comes tied to the statutes. The rules of God is that God the psalmist knows that blessing comes from being with God and following his ways. It continues with my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth in the way of your testimonies. I delight as much as in all riches. So the psalmist here is saying I speak Your word with my mouth says all the rules here. This is one of the things that Christians and all the way back into the Old Testament have done is that we are constantly speaking God's word. Our divine service Sunday worship is filled with the Word of God, we speak it back and forth, we pray the Psalm we, we hear it read, the pastor preaches on the word. And then we respond with the Creed, the summary of what God's Word says, there is always God's word going all throughout the service. And we're constantly speaking it as a liturgy as a repetition of what God has done for us. And it teaches us to delight in God's testimonies as much as No, no, even more than all the riches of the world. The psalm continues, I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes, on your ways, I will delight in your statutes, I will not forget your word. This is truly the response of a Christian who loves God and loves his word, right? I will think about your teaching, I will fix my eyes on what you would have me do, I will have joy in your rules. And always remember your word. Now, this is sometimes aspirational for us, right? You know, the sinful flesh hangs on and sometimes we groan and struggle, but the delight, while we do have that delight in our inner being, as St. Paul says, even when the sinful flesh tries to pull us away, there is something within us given to us by the Holy Spirit that delights and enjoys God's wisdom that loves to serve Him and wants to do everything that he calls on us to do. And that's the hope and prayer of every Christian right to meditate on God's word and delight in what He has for us to do. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Jeremiah 31:31-34 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 17th, 2024

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

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, March 17, comes from Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the greatest of them to the least declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. He runs the reading. Jeremiah is giving this oracle of God, as the people are considering the terrible destruction of the Babylonian captivity. God has seen fit to take God's people, Israel out of the promised land. And the best and brightest of them are going off into Babylon to become whatever it is that they're doing. Jeremiah has, in earlier chapters sent a letter out to the survivors who are in Babylon, and he is comforting people. And now he's looking forward to after this exile is over. And God is establishing something new. So he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day, I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So God is saying he's going to do a new covenant that is different from the covenant that he did with ancient Israel coming out of Egypt. And so this covenant, the old whole Old Testament is pointing back to that first covenant. Well, partially that and through that covenant to Abraham, of course. And so it looks back to as almost the founding of Israel as being the Exodus story coming out of the Promised Land, going to Mount Sinai, receiving the 10 commandments. God says, I will be your God, you will be my people. Follow my voice, you'll be a special possession, all of that stuff. And this covenant is a covenant that the Israel promised to do, and it had blessings and curses, blessings, if you followed it curses, if you did not. God says he's going to make a new covenant that is different. Now we'll take a look at what that new covenant means. But the next phrase is my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. So the covenant had blessings and curses. And one of the curses was that they would be thrown out of the land, the land would spit them out. And that's what happened, right? They turned away from God. They turned away from the covenant and the promises that he had given them. And the threats became, what the curses became what God delivered. And so that's what happened. And he says it, though I was their husband. This is a common way of speaking about the relationship between God and His people. Throughout the Old Testament, He says, He was caring for them like a husband cares for a life he was protecting them, keeping them safe watching over them, and they chased after other gods they had mistresses of their own, or I guess maybe misters of their own, not mistresses that they will go after instead of worshipping Him. So now what is this new covenant? There's an old covenant that is follow me and you get blessings. And don't follow me and you get curses. Here's a new covenant. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. So that first part of this is he says, I will put By law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Now when we see the word law in Hebrew, sometimes we have to say that it is not the same as the word law that we think of when we hear the word law. Law is often rules, maybe even the just the 10 commandments. But we often translate the the law, a word for instruction, which would include God's law, but also his promises. And so when you use that word law, when it's I think it's referring to is not just God is giving the rules to his people. What it is, is it's his whole testimony, like the law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, they are not all about rules. It's the promises to write. And so God is writing his his instruction on the hearts of his people. And we see that in Christ, when He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit changes our hearts to be like Christ. And so this New Covenant is amazing in that is not just that God has written down on tablets of stone, the commandments for his people, but now he writes his instruction on our hearts. And the next thing it says, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Now, this is a, something that God said with the previous covenant to, but the previous covenant had conditions, if you obey my voice, this covenant doesn't have a condition, it just says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Period. There is no obedience, there was no condition, there was just God loved the world, and sent his son, and his son gathers people, gives them the gift of faith, and makes them his, it continues, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. So this is an interesting way of talking about it. And honestly, when I first read it, I was like, I don't I don't even know what that means. So I'm giving you a little bit of an off the cuff answer here where it's, it says, I think what it is, is that all of God's people have the Holy Spirit in them, which means that they don't need to, to go to the covenant to the testimony to know God, because God is within them, He dwells in them. And to be part of this new Israel, is to be to know God by faith. And so we've already have the Holy Spirit, which means we all know God, we don't have to talk to each other and say, Do you know Jesus, because we all know Jesus. And that's what it means to be in the faith. I don't think it means that, that we don't have to talk to people about Jesus. Because to be part of this covenant means to be in Christ. So non Christians, they need to be gathered in. But for us, when you have the Holy Spirit in you, you know God. And then it continues, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Now, there was a great deal of forgiveness in the Old Covenant. But in the end, when the sin of Israel built up, and they turned away as a nation, it meant that God punished them as a nation. And that included the faithful ones, the people who kept his covenant who did not turn and bend the knee to Baal or Ashura, or the gods of Babylon or wherever. But here, he says, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And we see, the central point of that is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His sacrifice, repaid the penalty for all sin, a sacrifice that that is the culmination of all the Old Testament sacrifices, so there would need to be no more. Now there is forgiveness for all all who turned to Christ. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Bronze Serpent: Sermon for Sunday, March 10th, 2024

Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

From the great white north of snow and wilderness to California was the rattlesnakes. We don't have those up there. Just in case you are wondering where winter is there's no rattling no snakes, the worst we got our the garter snakes, they're like about that long, you've probably got them here, that long, maybe that big around. Almost cute. So when we came here, I was a little worried. In fact, I was kinda like, are they hiding under every log? Gonna jump out of every great in the street, a little worried. Two and a half years later, I haven't seen a one, which is kind of nice. But today, we are talking about serpents like that. Fiery, or what we would call venomous serpents that go and bite God's people as part of their punishment. And so let's take a look at this story. Before we dive into what's actually happening, we should know what's happened in the past, for God's people. We're in the book of Numbers and Numbers begins at the base of Mount Sinai. God has already pulled them out of slavery in Egypt, they have gathered around the base, they've received the covenant from God, Moses and all that stuff. Moses has then received a whole mess of laws that are part of this covenant, that deal with things like worship, and, and food and just about everything that you can think of. In Numbers, we get some of those laws in addition, and then they finally leave the base of Mount Sinai and start heading towards the promised land. And they start to complain. They have no food. So God gives them manna for their breakfast appears right outside their front door, every single day. And then, after a little bit of time they go, we're sick of this man, oh, we need meat. So God gives them quail. It just lands in the camp. They don't have to worry about it. No hunting, no shooting, just to meet. Okay. So then they get to the promised land. They look inside, and they say, oh, no, the people there are super scary. God could never defeat them. Almost forgetting what he did with Pharaoh and Egypt, the mightiest army of the time. And so God turns them away, and tells them that they will be wandering in the wilderness until that generation dies off 40 years. And then after that, we get to this story. They complain again. And here's what happens. They are in the wilderness. And they say, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Now, first of all, that sentence does not make a lot of sense, right? There is no food and no water, but the food is terrible. Right? They're not saying there's no food, no water, they're saying, We're bored to God. The food that you've been giving us every single day is now boring. And we were better off as slaves in Egypt and not your people. That's a pattern that they had to talk about over and over again, in their complaining. Why did you bring us out here? And now all we have to eat is this food that you give us for free every single day. I think one thing that this can highlight is human nature is a bit like that. We get used to good things. When something really good happens in our life. We get to a point where it makes us happy for a little bit and then it just sort of fades into the background. It becomes a part of what we expect. So you can almost see God's people being like, oh, yeah, I mean, God gives us food every day. But what else is new? It helps us to see that this is part of human nature, both for you and for me, right? We get used to the amazing things that God gives us. Sometimes even bored with the amazing blessings that we have, whether it's blessings of body or blessings of soul, we get tired of our congregation grumble about losing an hour of sleep and having to get to church on time. We get tired of the shelters we live in the families we have, and we go, Ah, it's just so much work. That's because human beings aren't like that. We forget about the good things, and we focus on the bad. We find ourselves not being thankful for everything that we get out. And focus only on the places where life is not living up to our expectations. And this is why we have to continually remind ourselves of the blessings God has given us. When we read in the Lord's Prayer, about giving thanks for the daily bread that we have, give us this day, our daily bread. This is a reminder, as much as anything else, that God is the source of all the good things that we have, that he gives it to us out of His fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me. The prayer is there to say, God gives this because he wants us to and we know that we know we should be grateful. And We gather here for the same reason. To remind ourselves that the gift of Jesus Christ is amazing. It is not a background thing that fades into our lives. But we need to talk about it all the time to remember how powerful Christ is to remember how joyous His sacrifice for us is. That we shouldn't take it for granted. But rejoice in it every single day, every single week, all our lives. Because if we don't, it might just fade into the background. Or we might just lose the joy that we need to have. Because it is the gift of life. What an amazing thing. Now God's people, ancient Israel, they have a problem they are complaining. And so what does God do? punishes them. It says, The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel die. We would call fiery serpents, venomous serpents, snakes, like the Rattlesnakes I worried about what's going on here is God had given Israel a covenant. What he told them was, if you follow my covenant, things will be great. You will be safe, you will win all your battles, your enemies will stay away, your vineyards will grow, your fields will prosper. And you'll have everything you could ever want. And if you do not, if you turn away, the opposite will happen. Your vineyards will not grow, your fields will not prosper, enemies will attack you, and you will be punished. And so that's what's happening. God sends the serpents amongst the people and they bite them. And then it goes. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He will take away the serpents from us.

So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone He would look at the bronze serpent, and live. There's an interesting detail in this, the people say, take away the snakes. But God doesn't. He doesn't remove the suffering for their sin, instead instructs Moses to snake on a pole. And then everyone who is bitten, poisoned by these snakes could turn and then be healed. This is a very different thing than take away the snakes. The snakes kept on biting. And the people of God kept getting sick, which meant they had to continually turn to this bronze serpent that Moses had set up and receive healing every time it happened. This is a way God reminded them that they constantly needed him that in their daily life, they would have to turn and look for healing. Because if he just took the snakes away, well, they'd go back to forgetting about him. But every time they got bit, one more time, they would turn to Him and look for healing. Now, this story has a number of lessons for us regarding our life in Christ. But it's important to point out the differences as well. The covenant that we have, is a covenant that is different from ancient Israel. For them, it was a community and national covenant, when the whole community sinned, the whole community was punished. When God's people turned away from God, God sent a direct punishment because of that. And that is what those fiery serpents were all about. We do not have a promise like that. The covenant is not, if you sin, God will punish you directly for that sin. You see, for us, Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of Moses, the law that the ancient people broke. And so that kind of promise is lifted from our shoulders and placed on his, which means that there is no covenant that says, if you sin, you will be punished. But very simply, in Christ, there is no punishment. In Christ, we are all saved. Which means that we cannot turn to the bad things of this world, and say, we know why they happened. And in Israel had Moses who could go out to the people and say, Hey, guys, God told me that you're getting these snakes because you did this. We don't have anyone like that. Despite what you might see, on the television, every time a hurricane comes, or a major earthquake happens, some guy will stand up and say, I know why this is happening. It's because my favorite political thing happened. Or my favorite spiritual hobbyhorse was broken. And they have no idea. There is no Moses or prophet who can come down and say that they act like they have some kind of spiritual insight that the rest of us do not have, and they are wrong. And sometimes we do that for ourselves. We say when something bad happens, I bet God is punishing me for whatever it is that I did. We don't know that either. We don't know why. Bad things happen or the suffering is brought into our life, other than the very simple fact that the world is filled with sin. We are broken, and all of us will one day die. That's it. That's the message. We have suffering. But what we have is a gift from Christ that gives us healing in the midst of it. And that I think is where we can understand the pattern from the book of Numbers is that when we cry out to God, forgive us for our sins. He does not take away death from the world. What he does, is he lifts up his son Jesus Christ on a cross to give us healing With a promise of resurrection. This is what Jesus tells us. In John chapter three. He says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Jesus Christ is the escape from death and sin and suffering in our world. He is the one who gives us healing, so that everyone who turns to him and believes on this crucified man will be saved. Doesn't take away the pain of the things we face, the challenges of this life or the hurt that we run into. But he does give us a promise that He will be with us even into death, and raise us on the last day. What this does, is it actually turns our suffering into something that can drive us to Jesus Christ. Because every time something really bad happens, you can say to yourself, I have healing. I have an escape. Someone went to a cross and died for me and experienced death so that I can follow him through the grave into everlasting life. It doesn't have to turn into a moment for despair, or a time to wonder what God is doing and why he is sending this to me. It can be a way to point us to our Savior. That's what the snakes were for. After the bronze serpent was lifted up the snakes brought people back to God, turn and be healed. And our Savior Jesus Christ does the same. When we face the inevitable results of a sinful world, when we get sick or hurt, or whatever happens to us, these things ought to turn us to our Savior. Because everyone who believes on Him has life. Everyone who turns to him is saved. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 3:14-21 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, March 10th, 2024

John 3:14-21

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

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, March 10, comes from John chapter three, verses 14 through 21. Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through Him, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world. And people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true, comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. He rents the reading. This passage begins with a reference to our Old Testament reading for the week from Numbers chapter 21. With the bronze serpent, Jesus says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. We read this on Tuesday. And so what we see is that in that story, the people grumble against God and God said serpents, poison, venomous serpents to bite the people. When they pray for relief, Moses takes a bronze serpent, and instead of taking the venomous snakes away, the serpent becomes a way to escape death. So when they're bitten, they look on the serpent, believe and live. And so Jesus Christ becomes something similar. He says, that he will be lifted up, the Son of Man will be lifted up, the whatever looks on him and believes will have eternal life. So he's like that bronze serpent, except it's not just the venom of snakes that he is freeing us from, but death itself, that we have eternal life. Then we get the classic passage that everybody knows, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. This is sometimes called the gospel in the nutshell, a God sent His only Son, so that all who believe in Him can have eternal life. Now it continues, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So this shows the heart of God, God is not here to do not send Jesus as a judge, to condemn, but with the aim of salvation, that whoever believes in Him is not condemned. That is, he wants the whole world to be saved. But that doesn't mean there is no condemnation out there. It says, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And so, what we see here is that there is a division in the world, between those who believe and those who do not. When God sends a rescuer, out to rescue people from danger, the people who cling to the rescuer are going to be saved and the people who avoid the rescuer are not going to be saved, they will simply perish under the danger that they're facing. So if you've got somebody out there who's in a in a sea, thrashing around getting hypothermia about to go under, and you throw my life raft, and you say, Come on in, I'll save you and they say, No, no, no, I can swim. That's what's going on, when they don't cling to Jesus Christ, that they're already lost, already condemned with the world. So continues, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. And so That's what life is like, right? So many people, they see the light of Christ. And they say, You know what, I kind of like evil. Now, nobody actually, like in their head says, Yeah, you know, evil evils for me, I want to be a bad guy. But we've got all of these things that we say, well, I shouldn't have to give up this favorite sin that I love. Or I shouldn't have to give up this thing that I like to be a Christian, I should be able to do whatever I want. And God should just love me because I'm awesome. And you know, that's not how it works. People love evil, and they love sin. And it's true. And many times, we'll just cling to that. He says, For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. And that's one of those things that makes it hard to be a Christian, is that we have to admit that we are sinners, and not just sinners but evil. Right. We have rebelled against God, and we love our sin, we actually want to be we we love the things that we're we're clinging to from our old self, and that sinful flesh inside us just says, oh, isn't that nice to be able to do whatever we want. And when we become a Christian, we are our hearts are exposed. And we have to present that before God and say, Yeah, I'm a broken person who can't do anything right without you, God, I need you know, that says, but whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. And so those who have faith, we come to the light, we're not afraid of having this our sin being exposed, and we live in the light. Now, what's really interesting about this passage is that we often just quote for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. And then forget about the rest. And often the what that HYAH does is it leads us leaves a sense to have the idea that this believing in Him is almost notional, right? What I mean by notional is that believing in Jesus simply means knowing his name and having positive feelings about him. But when Jesus goes on to explain what that means is there's much more complicated, there's some faithfulness in there. Right? Our we have to be willing to let our sin be exposed and live in the light, confess our sins, hear the word, receive forgiveness, and do the works that he has sent us for. And so it's not just like this idea. Like I know Jesus's name, and it makes me smile that doesn't save. Faith is something more than that, that causes a gift of the Holy Spirit that causes us to cling to God's Word and His promises, to confess our sins, to receive forgiveness and desire to do the work that God has sent us to do. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Ephesians 2:1-10 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, March 10th, 2024

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

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, March 10, comes from Ephesians chapter two, verses one through 10. And you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace, in kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Here ends the reading, oh, what a classic verse. This is a classic reading Ephesians chapter two, so much good stuff in here. I hope I can get it without doing a 20 minute podcast. Okay, let's dig in. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, fall in the course of this world, following the prints of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Okay, so this begins by addressing the Ephesians. Remember, Paul is talking to Christians. And he's saying, You were you used to be at one time, you were dead in your sins. And so he says, they were dead in the sins, they followed the course of this world, they followed the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Now, there's a lot there. So first, the metaphor is, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and then you followed the course of the world. So you're doing the same thing as the rest of the world. And then you err on the side of the prints of the power of the air, or Satan, the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience. So there's, there's a lot to say about what it is like to be without Christ, even for Christians before they heard this. They were dead. They were following the course of the world, on the side of Satan. And he continues after that, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Yikes. Paul, don't you know that this is going to scare people away? So we lived in the passions of our flesh, we consider it up the desires of our body and mind and we were by nature, children of wrath. Yikes. Paul is not painting, a beautiful picture of our capacity apart from Christ, he saying we are dead on the side of Satan, by nature, children of wrath. Whoa. Now this is one of the passages that I use when I talk about the non Christians capacity to love and serve God. That there is no way for us to decide to follow God to reach out to Him and serve Him because we are dead. We are by nature, children of wrath, and there is nothing good in us. And then Paul says, what God does in response to that, he writes, but God being rich and mercy because of the great love with which He loved us Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. God's amazing mercy is that he reaches out to people who are dead, dead bodies and makes them alive. Now you have to ask, what kind of capacity? Does a body a dead one have to do? To do good works? Can a dead thing get up? Can it cry out to God? Can a dead thing, love and serve? Nope, it's dead. God must first reach out to us by the power of the Holy Spirit to make us alive in Christ by His grace. This requires God's action on us. And the only way to be saved is for God to work on us first to choose us to call us to gather us. And this is why when we explained the work of the Holy Spirit, in the third article, the Apostles Creed, Lutherans repeat what Martin Luther wrote when he said, I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, and lightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. Only God can reach out and make dead things alive. Only God can take a sinner and make him a saint in Christ. And that's what it means when he gets to this, this next phrase, by grace, you have been saved. And if it's grace, it's not a work. It's not a choice. It's not a decision. It's not a thing that I do to please God, it is simply God does it. And if there is anything that I can do, that are a part of me, reaching out to God, then it is no longer grace. And it continues and raised us up with Him and seeded us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace, in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So what's amazing about us being made alive together with Christ is that our life, who we are everything that we have is placed in Christ. And so we're raised with Him, we ascended into Heaven with Him. And we are now seated at the right hand of the Father waiting for Christ to return, to show off the power and glory that Christ already has, by giving us new life by taking our bodies, which at that time might be dead, and giving them a new life, making them alive again, so that we can walk on this earth, and have physical bodies one more time, what a great grace that our God has for us. And then St. Paul says, For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So God, he repeats again, Grace, you have been saved through faith. Now, what we have to be careful about is when we look at this, sometimes people want to turn faith into a work. And so the idea is, there's nothing that you can do to be saved, except to drum up some belief in your heart. And if you believe and trust hard enough, then God saves you. Which is then again, not grace. Even faith is a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit, who calls us and grants us faith so that we can trust in God. And if it's not the Holy Spirit's work, you can't say this phrase, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. So even the faith that trusts in God is a gift from the spirit. It's Grace is not a result of works. So no one can boast when they say, I have decided to follow Jesus. No, you didn't. The Holy Spirit came to you and gave you that gift even that even our faith in Christ is a gift, so that we can't say look at how much faith I have, we can only boast in the Lord. Then it continues, For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. And St. Paul often, he comes up with the answer to the question that Lutherans often gift when we get when we emphasize grace so much. We emphasize everything thing as a free gift, there's nothing you can do. You don't have to, to work to be saved, and you don't have to work to stay saved. And then people say, well, people are just going to respond to that by taking advantage going out, they'll sin and do whatever and then come back and say, Oh, I'm sorry. And we'll have to forgive them. And that'll be fine.

But St. Paul says, No, that's not how it works. If you are made alive in Christ, then you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And so if you're made alive in Christ, you have a new heart or a new creation, and then you want to do good works. And this is one of the things that has changed in my preaching, is that I realized that God's people don't need to be cajoled or threatened or like have their pastors fingers shaken at them, to tell them to do good works. They already want to love and serve their church. They already want to love and serve their neighbor. The Holy Spirit does that. We just need to know which direction to go and be excited and motivated to do it. God has made us new God makes us want to do these things. And we are His workmanship. Wow, so much to say about this passage, but we got to keep it short. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 107:1-9 The Psalm for Sunday, March 10th, 2024

Psalm 107:1-9

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
    whom he has redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
    from the east and from the west,
    from the north and from the south.

Some wandered in desert wastes,
    finding no way to a city to dwell in;
hungry and thirsty,
    their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
    till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
    for his wondrous works to the children of man!
For he satisfies the longing soul,
    and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

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 psalm for Sunday, March 10, comes from Psalm 107, verses one through nine. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands from the east and from the west, from the north, and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble. And he delivered them from their distress, he led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul, he fills with good things. Here ends the reading Psalm 107, verses one through nine as part of a much longer Psalm. The song goes on for some way after this, and it actually helps us understand what's going on here. But let's take a look at this first section. Oh, give thanks to Lord for He is good for his steadfast love endures forever. This is a passage that my family would pray. When we did our meal prayers, we would say what is sometimes called the Lutheran common table prayer. Come, Lord Jesus be our guest. And then we would finish it up with, Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. And this is perhaps one of the great confessions of faith from the Old Testament, that his steadfast love endures forever, right. And so the psalm leads God's people in reflecting on this, it says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom He has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. So the redeemed of the Lord, redeemed is economic language, bought out of the hand of someone else. In fact, you would use that language, if you bought someone from slavery and then freed them, they would be redeemed from slavery. And here, it's redeemed from trouble. They were in the hands of trouble, and God bought them and pulled them out. And that would apply to all of the people of God from all sorts of areas right the in Egypt, God redeemed them from Pharaoh when he spent the blood of the lamb in other places He has redeemed as well gathered people together from all over into Israel to find place. Now the next thing that we see is an example of one of those that has gathered in this is part of a series of different groups that Psalm 107 talks about. So the first is it says some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Now there are a number of different groups that the Psalm talks about, not just this one in the reading. The next set of groups was some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the Council of the Most High. The next one is, some were fools through their sinful ways and because of their iniquity, suffered affliction, they lowered any kind of food, and they drew near the gates of death. The next group is some went down to the sea and ships doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord his wondrous work in the deep, for he commanded and raised a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. And then finally moves on to describing the great power of God. And so what's interesting about this psalm is that it goes through a number of different scenarios where people are in need, and God rescues them. Now, this one, the first one, some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. This is one that people are trapped in through no fault of their own. They cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. Now, this one I think is chosen because of the reading from numbers, where you have a number of people who are, they are in the wilderness wandering, and God leads them after 40 years wandering in the wilderness back to Israel to give them a city and a place to dwell in. And so you've got wandering in desert wastes is that parallel to what you have in the reading from numbers, but they were only wandering because of the other things that have been going on. So it was they are more likely the one that goes, some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. They loathe any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death, that sounds a whole lot more like the numbers reading, where they're complaining about God taking them out of Egypt and giving them worthless food, the manner that he had promised them. So we returned to the reading, though, their soul fainted within them. And then it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. So they were lost, they were in the desert, they had no way to find a place and God delivers them. And we're thinking here, probably not like an individual person, but like a tribe, a group, God's people, perhaps, he led them by a straightway till they reached a city to dwell in. So once they call out for God's direction, He guides them and leads them into the land of Israel, where he can provide for them and have a city to live in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul, he fills with good things. So the Psalm was talking about the person who wanders, finding direction, into a place where God can provide for them. Now, we shouldn't take this as as a metaphor for the Christian life. Like where it's not, it's not about like people who have no direction in life, and are just looking for God to show them the way to go. Though, you know, God's guidance and wisdom does do this. This is talking about people who are literally in the desert, and God provides them a land, this would be easily a reference to the wanderings of Israel, and God providing them a place to stay. Now, for Christians, we are we, before Christ, before were brought into the church, are wandering in a waste of a spiritual waste. And it's Christ who brings us together into the land of His Church where he can feed us and fill us with his body and blood to provide for us. Now, this is this group is the one that is of no fault of their own. The other some of the other groups are God rescuing them from their own foolishness. The one goes somewhere fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction. And then it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distress. What, oh, great gift, our God gives us that when we are fools, and we suffer because of our sin. God sent His Son Jesus Christ. Another one is some sat in darkness in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction, for they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the Council of the Most High, so we bowed their hearts down with hard labor. These are people who are rebels against God, imprisoned, justly forced into hard labor. And it says, Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Can you believe God delivers us the prisoners, great criminals, horrible people who do in violence on the world, God hears them. And if he hears them, he can hear you. And then the last one is someone down to the sea in ships, and they saw the works of the Lord how he called a stormy wind. And so here again, this is not people who are are sinners, and they're getting the consequences of their action. They're just fishermen out in the water, and God calls up a storm and they cry out to heaven. And he delivered them from their distress. This is what God does.

He is a God who saves he saves us when we are facing in things that are not of our own making, when we face the consequences of actions that are not ours, whether we're lost, we're on the sea or just human beings in search of a savior. But even more importantly, he saves us when we sin. When we are actually facing the consequences of our actions, and we need a Savior from ourselves. He sends us His Son, Jesus Christ. And we all we can do is rejoice in the goodness of God, how he redeems us from trouble. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Numbers 21:4-9 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, March 10th, 2024

Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

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, March 10, comes from Numbers chapter 21, verses four through nine. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people be became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we load this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you. Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent, and live events, the reading this story from Numbers comes in the middle of Israel's wilderness wandering. Now you remember the story goes, God's people came out of Egypt, they went to Mount Sinai, and then from Mount Sinai, they came to the promised land, they get to the promised land, and they say, Nah, it's a little too scary. So what does God do? God says that He will put them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. So that generation dies off. Now, while they're wandering through this wilderness, God is feeding them every single day with mana, it appears outside their tents, and they, they get food all the time. So the people get impatient. They go from Mount Hor, they go on the way to the Red Sea, around the land of Edom, and they're upset. So they say, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we load this worthless food. Now, you may have noticed, there's a bit of a contradiction there. They say there's no food and no water and we load this worthless food wait. If there's no food, how can you loathe it? What they're saying, actually, is that there's no food that they can gather, that is different from the manna God is giving them. And so they're like a manna. Again, I can go out my tent in the morning every day and just find food on the ground, this socks so they grumble. And you know, people who eat the same thing every day, and they get bored, and that's what's going on. The Lord responds by sending fiery serpents, we would say, probably venomous serpents and they bite the people and many die. When God's people sinned, God responded with physical punishments for them. And this is the history of Israel is that when they they turn against him, he sends serpents or an army or earthquakes or whatever, to come and afflict the people. So they realize they did something wrong and they say, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So here we get repentance. They go, we know we did something wrong. We were grumbling about the the good things that God has given us. We wanted something else, but we weren't thankful. Ask God to take them away. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. Now this is a key moment. The people asked, take the serpents away. God responds, put a serpent on a pole, and everyone who sees it will live. God doesn't take the serpents away. What God does is He offers a healing moment. So that if they are bitten by the serpent, they can look on the pole, and they will live. He doesn't take the punishment away, he doesn't take the pain or the suffering away. He just offers a way of escape. And so I think a lot of the Christian life is like this. We Christians can sometimes feel like the things of God are lowly, maybe not important enough. But what God provides us with just isn't exciting or interesting. Or we might consider in our congregations and mourn that some of them are shrinking. And that the, the word of God, even though it proclaimed to the faithful is still just, maybe God isn't gathering together the people like he did back in the 60s, or the 80s, or the 2000s, or whatever it was the heyday of your congregation, and was just like, Ah, this just doesn't seem to be working. And then we can feel ungrateful, or maybe God's provision just isn't enough for us. Whatever it is, when we ask God to take away the suffering and death that comes into our lives as a result of sin, he doesn't write. He doesn't take away the pain and the suffering that all human beings experience. What he does, is he gives us a way to live through it through Jesus Christ. And the provision that God provides is not a bronze snake that was lifted up on a pole but a Savior, who was lifted up on a cross that all who follow Him, even though we die, we will live. And so we get something very similar to what Moses put up on the pole is that God doesn't take away the serpents from Israel, just as God does not take away the suffering from us. What he does is he provides an escape through Jesus Christ, so we can have resurrection. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Ten Commandments: Sermon for Sunday, March 3rd, 2024

Exodus 20:1-17

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're taking a look at the 10 commandments. And you gotta wonder sometimes, when you're a pastor, what do you say? When you get to something like this? The 10 commandments? were reading the whole thing all 10 of them. Do you choose one? Or do you talk about them all, to talk about Israel and the ancient people and what God was doing here? mean, in our Small Catechism, Martin Luther spends a whole lot of time talking about the 10 commandments. And in the Large Catechism, it's page after page after page after page of explanation for each individual one. Good thing I have all day, right? Well, the 10 commandments actually give us a chance to ask a fundamental question. A fundamental question about Moses, his writing in the Old Testament, and what it has to do with us Christians, because we take a look at this, this whole set of the 10 commandments, and if you've memorized them from the Small Catechism, like many of us had to do when we were young, you'll notice there's a lot more text in there than what you memorized, right? So there's a lot going on. There stuff like carved images. And there's stuff about male servants and female servants not working on the Sabbath. You go, what are these doing here? I didn't have to memorize that. Why not? This gives us a chance to ask a fundamental question about the 10 commandments. What do they have to do with us, us Christians? What do the 10 commandments actually have to do with people on the other side of the cross? Instead of people who are there at the base of Mount Sinai? I have an answer for you. It's very simple. The 10 commandments do not apply to Christians. Now you're gonna say, wait a second pastor? Did you just join the ELCA? are you preaching against God's word? No. And I want you to hold on with me and see where I'm going with this. Before you walk out. Let me explain. The original context of the 10 commandments is a covenant between a nation brought out of Egypt, in slavery, freed and to go into the wilderness and God says to them, you follow my covenant, and you will live long in the land that I give you. Your nation and borders will do well, you will be defended from enemies, and you will be prosperous in this land. That's not the promise that God gives Christians isn't. That's not what we receive through Jesus Christ. The promise of these 10 commandments in its original context, was just for the Jews and their descendants. As long as the covenant the Old Covenant was active. And we know this on a fundamental level, because there is one commandment that we totally ignore, actively and willingly and you accept it without without knowing it. It's a very simple commandment. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy? Now you might think to yourself, Pastor, we're here on Sunday morning, we're in worship, we're keeping the Sabbath. Nope. Let's listen to what God says. Six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God on it, you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. What that means is that God commanded his people from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday night. Not to do any work. Zero. No yard work. No driving the kids to sports games. No volunteering for anything else. Friday to Saturday 24 hours, you could do no work. And when was the last time you tried that. Or you heard a sermon from your pastor saying you must rest on Friday nights. No starting fires, no driving your car, no taking walks, no going for a run. None of it. You have to read. We don't do that do we do. That's because deep down inside, we know the 10 commandments are not for us. They are for Israel, a covenant between God and a singular nation of people. That was fulfilled when Jesus Christ King. I'm not the only one who says this. Martin Luther himself said it. He writes, quote, the law of Moses, which henceforth is not binding on us, concerns the Jews, for the law is given only to the people of Israel. And Israel has accepted it for itself. And its descendants. We will not any longer have Moses for a rule and law giver. God Himself will not have it. Moses was a mediator and a law giver of the Jewish people only. To them he gave the Law. If I accept Moses, in one commandment, I must accept the entire Moses. From this would follow. If I were to accept Moses as a master and law giver, I would have to be circumcised to wash clothes, according to the Jewish custom to eat, drink and dress like them, and to observe all those customs which the law commanded them to observe. So if the 10 commandments in their original context are for us, then you got to do it all, every single one of the 613 commandments of the Old Testament, including the bacon you may have eaten this morning. Right. But Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Old Covenant. He obeyed it all perfectly. He did every ritual and every law and everything that God commanded, including loving God with his whole heart and loving his neighbor as himself and went to the cross, to take our sin and fulfill the covenant Israel could not sacrificed himself there to end the law. And its weight on our shoulders, to end the rule of Moses, and the guilt it assigns to us so that we could be free in Christ. Now, you may have heard it explained this way. But Pastor in the Old Testament laws, they're divided into three parts, right? There's the the Civil Code, the ceremonial code, and the moral code. Have you heard that before? Go through the Old Testament and point out which one is which? Moses doesn't mark civil, moral and religious. which pieces are which? And how do you know? There's no underlining or highlighting. We all come up with our own list and know the whole thing has been fulfilled. The whole thing has been taken care of. Jesus has done it all. Which means we are free from the law.

Just as St. Paul tells us, throughout the book of Romans and throughout the book of Galatians. And this is a joyous freedom that Christians have that we don't have to go and find every single commandment written in Have Old Testament law and check off the box when we walk out every morning. We don't have to be terrified that God might look down on us and say, Do you remember on page 372? I wrote this rule, and we are free in Christ. Okay, now you're gonna say But wait a second pastor Martin Luther wrote the 10 commandments for us to memorize. You spend weeks with our confirmation students telling them what every single commandment means, how it applies to your life? Why are you teaching a thing that doesn't apply? I'm so glad you asked What a great question. It's very simple. We use the 10 commandments as reinterpreted by Martin Luther King, because they reflect God's moral law. In the world. We call it natural law. You actually don't need a 10 commandments to say, don't kill, right? Or don't steal. These things are clear. Honor your father and mother is something we get from nature, as much as from Holy Scripture. And so since the early days, the Christian church has used these 10 commandments, because they reflect the natural law of the world, God's moral law, founded in creation. And they're a good guide for us. As Christians. They reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ in places like the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, where he took these laws and expanded them into full love. loving your neighbor as yourself. And these 10 commandments then have two important functions in the life of Christians. First, we use them to cut the old sinful flesh in us. Because no matter how many times we come and gather and hear Christ's word and receive forgiveness, there's still that little sinner inside you that tries to act up and take over. And he wants to tell you that you're just fine all on your own and that God loves you just the way you are. And isn't it great that you get to do the things that you love. And then we look at the 10 commandments, as explained by Luther and we realize this little center is wrong. That little voice in my heart, and in my head, is trying to lead me away from God, and it slices that guy up to our enemy inside us. And when we realize that we're still a sinner, the 10 commandments point us to Christ and His sacrifice again. Where we can cry out to Him, I have nothing good in me, only you are good savior, Jesus Christ. Forgive me, give me life. Because without you, I am nothing. And Luthers commandments, as he explains them, they point out that none of us can keep a single one of these commandments for a moment of our day. All we can do is look for forgiveness. The other thing they do is they help to guide us because salvation is not just being forgiven, but it's also being given new hearts. When we're baptized into Christ, we are made one with him. We're a new creation. And every single one of you I know you, do, you want to do what is right, and follow God's will. And the question is always, well, then what do I do? And the 10 Commandments can help us there. Help us to see what it means to love your neighbor as yourself and to put them first in your life to serve the people around you. So when Christ gives us this new heart that He has given you by the power of the Holy Spirit, these give us practical methods to say, what can I do to serve my neighbor and through my neighbor, serve God? Because we still need to be told the Holy Spirit does wasn't beamed into our hearts all of God's will. We still need to look at it and say, What should I do? And the 10 commandments are there to be handy dandy easily memorizable guide to go out and serve the people around you. So they're not there to be a list of rules that we have to follow and be burdened by. They're not there as a as a way to make God happy or a covenant that we must cling to. And they're there to drive us to the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and guide us as we serve Him. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 9:2-9 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, February 11th (Copy)

John 2:13-25

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

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, March 3, comes from John chapter two, verses 13 through 25. The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who are selling oxen, and sheep, and pigeons, and the money changers sitting there, and making a whip of cords he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away, do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered what was written, zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews said to him, What sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken us 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days. But he was speaking about the Temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. And they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name, when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part, did not interest himself to them. Because he knew all people, and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man, Here ends the reading. So Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover, as a faithful member of the people of God, Jesus followed all the rules and obligations that he was supposed to. So he goes to the city, and he goes into the temple. Now, we don't know exactly which part of the temple the oxen and sheep and pigeons and money changers would have been there. It doesn't say what particular courtyard or where it was. But what it does say is that there were oxen, sheep, pigeons, and money changers sitting there. Now, I'm willing to bet that they were not sitting there quietly. I would expect that the oxen and the sheep were making some noise move, man, the pigeons weren't exactly quiet. And you know, people who are selling stuff, they don't wait for clients to come to them. They just don't, they don't sit there quietly. And I just hope someone arrives. They reach out, they say, Hey, come over here, I've got the best oxygen. I want, you would imagine all of that happening in your church. Someone shouting, hey, my oxen are perfect for the sacrifice. Come on over by my pigeons over here. You can see why Jesus might be upset. He makes a whip of cards, and he drives them out of the temple. Now many people see Jesus doing this as an example of righteous anger. And we'll then point to it and say, well, we can also have righteous anger. But there's a big difference between Jesus's righteous anger and ours. Jesus is righteous, anger is righteous and ours is filled with sin. Right? Jesus can be angry and righteous, human beings, cannot. We, we always have sin. And so whenever we get angry, we cannot do it with the purity and the perfection that Jesus does. Our sin takes over and we do things that we're not, not supposed to when we hurt people in ways we shouldn't. And well, sometimes we love that anger too. So let's not not take that as the example. Perhaps we should take the example of offering up the space of worship as just for worship, and not for selling things. Of course, the Jews are not very happy about this. You know, maybe they got sponsorships for the best spots. Like the cattle guy. The oxen guy says, Can you put me right next to the door? I've got the booth right over there. That is a number one I'll pay you extra. Who knows? But what we do now is they got mad. What sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple. and in three days, I will raise it up. Now they think he's talking about the building. He's not. He is talking about his body. And it says, When therefore he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scriptures and the words that Jesus had spoken. Jesus tells them destroy my body, which the Pharisees and leaders will do. And I will raise it up in three days. And that's what we see happen. Jesus dies on a cross and rises after three days. And he provides for us that sign that shows that salvation belongs to our God. This final passage is interesting, it says, Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. So Jesus did not entrust himself to their care, did not open up what was going on, he did not give himself over to them, because he knows that people are filled with sin. He didn't need to have anybody say what's in other people's hearts, because, well, he's got and he knows all things. And God and man, he also knows what's in the heart of man. And so, this shows that Jesus is not like normal people who had when they develop a great big following, they get caught up in it, and then sometimes they let the crowds lead them in the direction that they want to go. No. Jesus followed the mission of his father. He did not entrust himself to anyone. He just kept on the straight and narrow course that God had sent him on. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, March 3rd, 2024

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

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, March 3, is from First Corinthians chapter one, verses 18 through 31. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us we're being saved. It is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I Will Forte whereas the one who is wise, Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age, is not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleases God through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. So that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord, he runs the reading. This passage is one of the more famous passages from First Corinthians about the way the world looks at at everything, and the way that God and Christians do. It talks about the word of the cross being folly, it is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. So he goes on to talk about how Greeks like the Corinthians, they were all about wisdom. You know, they had these wide sages, and they had philosophers and in the past, there are the 100 schools of philosophy. And they had all sorts of people who said all sorts of really interesting things. In the book of Acts, it talks about Paul going to Athens and he goes to the place, and he speaks. And it's says that there were people who sat around doing nothing but listening to something new. And so this idea of wisdom and debate and knowledge and understanding was really important for those people. And up against that the cross looks dumb, doesn't it? Like there's no powerful insight. There's no amazing anything. That's just a dead man, bleeding and broken and hanging on a cross. Like Plato doesn't write a dialogue about that. Socrates did not question anyone about that. Aristotle did not put together any treatises on a dead man hanging from across. But because of Christ, it is the power of God, the salvation for all it is everything, Christ's death, and resurrection, because hidden beneath the brokenness, of that poor man, hidden beneath his death, is the power of salvation for all. And all we need to do is be able to see it. And that's what this is, this passage is talking about, Has Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world. It says, And it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greek seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is stronger is wiser than men, and the weakness of God Art is stronger than men. As we consider these words, I think it's wise to think about what are the things that our culture seeks after the Greeks wanted wisdom, Jews demanded signs. What do you think we hold high up? Is it achievement could be that it could be the you know, having, having a family that looks good, that achieves high that that accomplishes things. I certainly know a number of people who approach their family life like looking for preschools with an eye towards how does how will this preschool, get my kid into Harvard? That's a achievement oriented. And when you bump achievement up against the cross, you go, Whoa, that is not an achievement, a dead man on a cross. But again, it's the power of God, the salvation of God. Many of us see money. I think money is a thing that has been a part of every culture in every era. There is certainly no riches, no wealth, in a dead man on a cross with the crown of thorns jammed on his head. But it is treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in or steal. There are a number of places we do have a kind of wisdom there sort of a tech guru, influencer kind of wisdom that we hold high up right now that's all about finding the right foods or blazing the right path. Or if you've ever watched a TED Talk and thought, Oh, this is just amazing. I need to see more of this. That's kind of the where we are with wisdom. And even that just when you bump the cross up against it, the cross looks like nothing. And yet it's the power of God. St. Paul ends this passage when he said talks about the people there. He says, For consider your calling brothers. Not many of you were wise. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. Now, he doesn't say none. He says not many. So some of them were wise. Some of them were powerful. Some did have noble birth. And yet none of that matters in the church, not power, not wealth, not nobility. It's just the cross of Christ, as it says, But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not pet is even things that don't exist. He chose those things, to bring to nothing the things that do exist, so that none of us no human being might boast in the presence of God. And that's the key is that the cross shows us exactly what we have to boast on. Nothing. Because on the cross is where our sin was paid for on the cross was where our punishment was doled out to Christ. And it reminds us of only one thing. We are nothing without the cross and the resurrection. And that is why we boast in Christ. Why this weak and broken thing is really what we celebrate. We don't celebrate the wealth and the power and the wisdom and the might in the the like tech guru guidance that so many people do. We just celebrate the cross of Jesus Christ because it's the salvation that God gives us. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai