A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD for THE DAY OF PENTECOST

 A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD
THE DAY OF PENTECOST
THE LARGE CATECHISM: THE APOSTLES’ CREED
ARTICLE III.34-42: SANCTIFICATION

34] I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

35] I cannot connect this article (as I have said) I to anything better than Sanctification. Through this article the Holy Spirit, with His office, is declared and shown: He makes people holy (1 Corinthians 6:11). Therefore, we must take our stand upon the term Holy Spirit, because it is so precise and complete that we cannot find another. …

37] “But how is such sanctifying done?”
Answer, “The Son receives dominion, by which He wins us, through His birth, death, resurrection, and so on. In a similar way, the Holy Spirit causes our sanctification by the following: the communion of saints or the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. That means He leads us first into His holy congregation and places us in the bosom of the Church. Through the Church He preaches to us and brings us to Christ.

38] Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe on Him, and have Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 4:6). …

40] Learn, then, to understand this article most clearly. You may be asked, “What do you mean by the words I believe in the Holy Spirit?”
You can then answer, I believe that the Holy Spirit makes me holy, as His name implies.

41] “But how does He accomplish this, or what are His method and means to this end?”
Answer: “By the Christian Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. 42] For, in the first place, the Spirit has His own congregation in the world, which is the mother that conceives and bears every Christian through God’s Word (Galatians 4:26). Through the Word He reveals and preaches, He illumines and enkindles hearts, so that they understand, accept, cling to, and persevere in the Word” (1 Corinthians 2:12).

Condensed quotations from the Lutheran Confessions from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, copyright 2005, 2006 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

I Will Cleanse You

Dear Baptized, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,” said, “I will cleanse you.”

And He “made us alive together with Christ,” fulfilling in Baptism what He ...promised hundreds of years earlier in Babylon through the lips of His anointed prophet, Ezekiel. 25I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.

What beautiful baptismal language and imagery we get from Ezekiel. It is language and imagery by which the Israelites could get a foretaste of what would be fulfilled in Christ, and spread to every corner of the world through His disciples and priesthood of all believers.

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for Exaudi Sunday, "I Will Cleanse You," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3789

The Holy Spirit, the Helper

 

The Holy Spirit is the Helper sent by Christ so that the distinction between the Law and Gospel of God’s Word is properly proclaimed by the called ministers of His Church. In this proclamation sinners are called to repent and receive the forgiveness of sins to believe and be saved.
 

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD
EXAUDI: EASTER 7
FORMULA OF CONCORD: SOLID DECLARATION
V. THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL

3 . . . the term Gospel is not always used and understood in one and the same sense. It is used in two ways in the Holy Scriptures and also by ancient and modern Church teachers. 4 Sometimes it is used to mean the entire doctrine of Christ, our Lord, which He proclaimed in His ministry on earth and commanded to be proclaimed in the New Testament. Therefore, this includes the explanation of the Law and the proclamation of the favor and grace of God His heavenly Father. For it is written, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). And shortly afterward the chief points are stated: Repentance and forgiveness of sins. So when Christ after His resurrection commanded the apostles to “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15), He compressed the sum of this doctrine into a few words. He also said, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46–47). Paul, too, calls his entire doctrine the Gospel (Acts 20:21). He summarizes this doctrine under two points: Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 In this sense the general definition of the word Gospel, when used in a wide sense and without the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel, is correctly said to be a preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. 6 For John, Christ, and the apostles began their preaching with repentance and explained and taught not only the gracious promise of the forgiveness of sins, but also God’s Law. Furthermore, the term Gospel is used in another way. In its proper sense, Gospel does not mean the preaching of repentance, but only the preaching of God’s grace. This follows directly after the preaching of repentance, as Christ says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Condensed quotations from the Lutheran Confessions from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, copyright 2005, 2006 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Lord grant you faith in His grace alone
for your salvation unto eternal life. Amen

Ask in My Name

[Jesus said:] "In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. John 16:23
 

 

Today is a very special day for the people of the United States of America. ...You see, Memorial Day is the day we honor our dead—particularly the dead who served to protect us in the armed services of our nation so that we at home might enjoy the freedom to assemble as we do right here, right now, today. Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord!

... But more importantly—yes, even more important than Memorial Day for all of us, whether believer or unbeliever; today is a sabbath day of rest, a day designated by God for us to "come to the knowledge of the truth…and be saved.” This day is not designated by God because it falls on a particular day of the week or as specific date on the calendar, like Memorial Day. No, as Jesus has said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for Rogate Sunday, "Ask in My Name," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3784

The Spirit of Truth

John 16:13, 8a "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, … And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin ..."

 

Do you know what the number one sexually transmitted disease in the state of Utah is?...

It is the same one as in each of the other United States America. In fact, it is the same disease that is spreading uncontrolled throughout the world, and has been since shortly after the world began.

Sin.

Since even before there was ever an adulterous act of any kind--straight, gay, or otherwise—sin has been a sexually transmitted disease.

It is not that sex is the original sin. The original sin is that referenced by Jesus in our text: “they do not believe in me.”

So why, then, are sexual sins such a big deal?

Because, since both man and woman sinned in the beginning, they became the host bodies of death. In the day they ate of that which God commanded them not to eat, they became infected with the disease of sin, and thus carriers of the most communicable and deadly disease of all.

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for Cantate Sunday, "The Spirit of Truth," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3779

Sorrow WIll Turn into Joy

... for us today, the birth pain analogy of our Gospel text breaks down a bit. Thanks be to God, through modern medicine we have been able to significantly decrease the pain and anguish and mortality rate in child birth. But this has not come without cost—financially and spiritually.
Because of the high financial cost, we spend much of our lives working to secure the benefits of health care--and most of the rest of it finding ways to enjoy ourselves while we are able. After all, what is good health worth if you don’t have time to enjoy it?

This elimination of pain and seeking of pleasure is very costly spiritually. Sadly, so much of what happens within popular Christianity reflects and mimics the world. We will do just about anything to avoid suffering. And we have come to believe that all God wants is for us to be happy.

As with all sin and lies, there is a grain of truth to this....

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for Jubilate Sunday, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3776

Jesus: from Sacrificial Lamb to Good Shepherd

[Jesus said:] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 [ESV]

 

And so He has.

This is not only the definition of what it takes to be a good Shepherd, it is the definition of what it means to ...be good, period.

...The One Who is the Good Shepherd, first became the best of sheep—the Lamb of sacrifice. He went where no man had gone before. He went where no man could or can go and return.

Celebrating His return on Easter morning, the One who was the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb is now the Good Shepherd—leading us so we can follow where He has gone and come back out on the other side.

To hear and or/read the entire sermon preached for Misericordias Domini Sunday, "Jesus: from Sacrificial Lamb to Good Shepherd," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3770