"This Man Receives Sinners"

According to our Gospel of St. Luke for this Third Sunday after Trinity, "the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'” [15:1-2]

Does this mean that Jesus tolerates your sin, even joins you in your sin? Certainly not!

But this is how the Pharisees and scribes saw it, and why they grumbled,...

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus "the Christ, the Son of the Living God," calls sinners to repentance, strips each sinner of his own self-righteousness and brings them in repentance to dine with Him at His Table alongside other repentant, sinners at a most heavenly feast of His body and blood for forgiveness, life and salvation.

So there’s no need to grumble! There is always room at the table for one more sinner. God the Father is always ready to welcome one more stubborn Pharisee who has finally admitted to being among the lost....

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Third Sunday after Trinity, "This Man Receives Sinners," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3825

The Rock and the Hard Place

The real life stories of the apostles, Peter and Paul, are real life stories of being chosen out of the world and being hated by it—about being taken out of the hard place of the world and being placed in and built on the Rock of Jesus.

......we remember St. Peter and St. Paul today--because they are us. God takes us flat-nosed Simons and our privileged Saulish attitudes out of the world and makes us Peters and Pauls.

Peter the harsh and lowly in us becomes the rock of the church in the confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Paul the high and mighty in us becomes the small one who ceases to be great and, knowing himself to be “chief of sinners” is used by God to bring many to faith.

They show us the love of God that we might believe and have life in His name.

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles, "The Rock and the Hard Place," this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3814

A Lutheran Book of Concord Reading for St. Peter & St. Paul, Apostles Sunday

The One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church is built on nothing but the person and work of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, delivered by the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins in the pure proclamation of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments.

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD
FEAST OF ST. PETER & ST. PAUL, APOSTLES

APOLOGY OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION...
ARTICLES VII & VIII: THE CHURCH

5] But the Church is not only the fellowship of outward objects and rites, as other governments, but at its core it is a fellowship of faith and of the Holy Spirit in hearts. Yet this fellowship has outward marks so that it can be recognized. These marks are the pure doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the Gospel of Christ. This Church alone is called Christ’s body of Christ, which Christ renews, sanctifies, and governs by His Spirit. Paul testifies about this when he says, “And gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). 6] Those in whom Christ does not act [through His Spirit] are not the members of Christ. The adversaries admit this too. The wicked are “dead” members of the Church. We wonder why the adversaries have found fault with our description that speaks of living members. 7] Neither have we said anything new. Paul has defined the Church precisely in the same way, that it should be cleansed in order to be holy. He adds the outward marks, the Word and Sacraments. For he says:
Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

In the Confession we have presented this sentence almost word for word. The Church is defined by the Third Article of the Creed, which teaches us to believe that there is a holy Catholic Church. 8] The wicked indeed are not a holy Church. The words that follow, namely, “the communion of saints,” seems to be added in order to explain what the Church signifies: the congregation of saints, who have with each other the fellowship of the same Gospel or doctrine and the same Holy Spirit, who renews, sanctifies, and governs their hearts.

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

I Am Lazarus

[Jesus said:] “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side." Luke 16:19-22

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the Word Who became flesh to dwell among us [John 1:14]. In this flesh He did not become like the rich man, but he became like Lazarus. And when He, a lowly Lazarus bearing the sin of the world died and was raised from the grave, He Himself was and remains to this day The Angel of God who bears every Lazarus, every baptized believer, in His flesh to the bosom of God, the Father in heaven.

To hear and/or the entire sermon preached for the First Sunday after Trinity, "I Am Lazarus," click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3806

Believing Is Seeing

...We like to say, “Seeing is believing.” That may well be true as far as the things of this world. But as for the kingdom of heaven is a different matter altogether. In the kingdom of God, believing is seeing.

...It is a blessed coincidence for us that Father’s Day falls on this Feast Day of the LORD our God. For, as we hear and learn from the holy Gospel for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, everything that is good—including the unveiling of our eyes to life and salvation--begins with the Father and His love that has always been begetting His beloved Son and sending forth His Holy Spirit with you in mind....

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3801

A Lutheran Book of Concord Reading for Holy Trinity Sunday

It is not coincidental that Isaiah records the seraphim singing one to another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” The Old Testament is full of such threefold, Trinitarian language in praise of the Lord, which is fleshed out in the pages of the New Testament and the life of Christ and His Church.

 

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD
THE HOLY TRINITY
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION & ITS APOLOGY

ARTICLE I: GOD

[See attachment for bulletin formatted Word doc ]

 

¹ Our churches teach with common consent that the decree of the Council of Nicaea about the unity of the divine essence and the three persons is true. ² It is to be believed without any doubt. God is one divine essence who is eternal, without a body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. He is the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible (Nehemiah 9:6). ³ Yet there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). These three persons are of the same essence and power. ⁴ Our churches use the term person as the Fathers have used it. We use it to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself. Our churches condemn all heresies (Titus 3:10-11) that arose against this article,... [THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION]
 
¹ Our adversaries [the Roman Catholic Church] approve Article I of our Confession, in which we declare that we believe and teach that there is one divine, undivided essence. Yet, there are three distinct persons, of the same divine essence, and coeternal: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ² We have always taught and defended this article. We believe that it has sure and firm testimonies in Holy Scripture that cannot be overthrown. We constantly affirm that those thinking otherwise are outside of Christ’s Church, are idolaters, and insult God. [THE APOLOGY OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION]      
 
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

The LORD Dispersed Them

Together, man and woman were to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion”—as they walked with God, living by every Word that proceeded from His mouth and breathed the life of the Holy Spirit into them. That is, God dispersed them to live according to His “will ... on earth as it is in heaven.” [The Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer]

But this heaven on earth they were given wasn’t good enough for Adam and Eve. They only wanted the heaven. They were not content to be in the image of God, they aspired to become their own God, to rise above the earth out of which they were created, and which was to be the place where they were to live with God and received everything they needed to have life and have it abundantly.

Ever since this fall, man has been trying to raise himself back up into the heavenly places again. We see it in our OT lesson today. “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:3-4

Did you catch that last part? ”Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

This is in direct rebellion and disobedience to God’s good Word in the beginning. Man was created and meant to ”be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

To hear and/or read the entire sermon preached for the Feast of Pentecost, “The LORD Dispersed Them,” click on this link. http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=3795