Death is Dead For You

With the preaching of angels you learn to know God perfectly.  And those words are:  “He is not here.  He has risen.” 

Indeed.  The women saw the empty tomb.  So did Peter.  Salvifically perplexing.  Salvifically marvelous.   FOR YOU, that is!  In the crucified and risen Jesus you know God perfectly.  That He is God FOR YOU.  What He did on Good Friday and Easter Sunday is FOR YOUR salvation.  As pure gift from Him!  Truly He justifies the ungodly as St. Paul preaches.        

He is risen.  This is no idle tale.  It is the truth.  Just as Jesus promised.  Delivered into the hands of sinful men.  Crucified.  But on the third day raised from the grave never to die again.  Remember His promise?  Jesus preached it over and over again.  Good thing Jesus had what many would call a death and resurrection mania!  A death and resurrection on the brain!     

This is the gospel!  What is primary! What is ultimate! I preach it to you today.  Why do you look for the LIVING in a grave at the cemetery?  I said, why do you look for the LIVING?  The LIVING!  That’s the key word!  LIVING!  He is risen!  Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.  He was buried and RAISED on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. 

“He is not here.  He has risen.”  Consequently, Good Friday is not emptied of its power!  His atoning death really does count for you!  His IT IS FINISHED work of salvation is absolutely reliable.  You are forgiven.  All your sin answered for.

All your life has meaning now!  Everything is different.  Salvifically different!  Because Jesus died for our sins.  Because Jesus rose on the third day.  Here is the fact:  “Christ has been raised from the dead.” 

The resurrection of Jesus is the all-controlling fact of the world’s history – as well as your history!  What do I mean?  The text says it.  Listen.  The resurrected Jesus is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”    

Your bodily resurrection is guaranteed because Jesus is the firstfruits.  In other words, Jesus’ bodily resurrection is FOR YOU!  It counts for you.  Notice how Paul preaches this.  In Adam all die.  “For as in Adam all die.”  But in Jesus, the head of a new humanity, “all will be made alive.”  With you Firstfruits Jesus shares His resurrection reign.  He shares His triumph over death and grave with you.  Yes, Jesus is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  Jesus is the beginning and the guarantee of the full harvest of the resurrection of the body that will take place on the Last Day.  “For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [Jesus].”   Believers receive eternal life in the body.  Unbelievers, who insisted upon it, are given eternal damnation in the body.   “But each in his own turn:  Christ the firstfruits; then, when he comes [on the Last Day], those who belong to him.”   

Death is not your friend.  Death is not to be welcomed.  I know.  I know.  One of your favorite rock songs from the 1970s is Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”  I’ve had that requested for funerals believe it or not. Buck Dharma, lead singer of Blue Oyster Cult, wrote those lyrics while he pictured an early death for himself that he could embrace as something neutral.  Death, however, is your enemy. 

However, the goods news is that your enemy death is defeated.  Death is put to death in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  He rose.  And so will you on the Last Day.  Until then, you live in what God has promised you in your Baptism.  There at the font you were baptized “into Christ’s death.”  Consequently, since “you have been united with him like this in his death, you will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection,” (Rom 6).  What you have now by faith, on the Last Day you will see with your eyes.  It is this:  “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” when Jesus raises your bodies from your graves to give you a resurrected body like His never to die again.

Your bodily resurrection to eternal life is for sure.  It is certain.  Jesus will do it.  He promises.  He is the firstfruits of those that sleep because, “He is not here.  He has risen.”    

Happy Easter! 

In the Name of Jesus.

Rejoice! He is risen, alleluia.

The service audio, sermon audio, and printed sermon are posted here for you to listen at your convenience.  Pastor Pautz

O foolish and faithless disciples! He is not dead but arisen! The Word made flesh, the Lord of life, cannot be held in a stony tomb. Did you really think that death could keep him down? Did you really mourn for Him and whisper sad stories about poor old Jesus as you gathered the spices and walked to the tomb? Did you really sit in a locked room and feel sorry for yourselves and Jesus too? Did you really forget that he said so clearly that he would rise?  Is this why you were afraid?

          Or is your fear something more sinister? Are you afraid that it is true? Are you afraid that Jesus is up from the dead and that he is coming to pay back your Thursday cowardice, your Friday faithlessness, and your Saturday despair?

          And you, beloved, you are afraid too, aren't you? You have cause to be. The experience of the Mary's and Salome and the disciples is not so far from your own. Their sins are yours too. As they forgot and ignored the Lord's Words so have you. As they feared men more than God, so have you. How else can you explain the times you have broken your conscience and done or said what you knew to be wrong just so that your friends would not make fun of you? How else can you explain the ease with which you tell a lie to make yourself look better? How else can you explain your skill is forgiving yourself and in holding grudges against others?

          Repent. You have much to be afraid of – but turn away from those fears and the sins which cause them. For behold: all fears, all sins, even death itself is left in the grave and Jesus is arisen! He is arisen not for judgment but for life. He put your fears and sins to death in himself, in his body, on the cross. He gave himself over to death and hell as payment for your sins – and death and hell got more than they bargained for. For they took his bloodied body but found God was there. Jesus has killed death by dying. He has defeated Hell by giving in to it and enduring it. He has satisfied the wrath of God with the blood of God.

          All is now new, all is remade. So repent beloved and do not be afraid: “[M]ake [your]self with holy mourning black, / And red with blushing, as [you are] with sin; [And] wash [now] in Christ's blood, which [has] this might / That being red, it dyes red souls to white.”

          Yes, beloved, do not be afraid, for his red blood can dye any soul white as light itself.   So this day let all souls rejoice. The holier-than-thou hypocrite and the Sunday-sleeper-in whohasn't darkened a church door for years: come together to your Risen Lord and receive Life. You who have toiled since the first hour and you have been called at the eleventh: line up to receive your equal reward from the nailed pierced hand which bought it for you. You strong in the faith and you doubtful who hold on by a thread: Be strengthened by the Body which bore your iniquities.

          All is forgiven. For how could it not be? Jesus himself said it was finished. He, the sacrificial Lamb, has been slain and there is no sin that is not covered by his blood. So rejoice beloved! And cling to your Lord: for just as there is no more death in him since he is risen from the dead; so also there is no life outside of him, since he is the only one who has arisen from the dead to glory. It is Jesus and Life or anything else and death. So let nothing separate you from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Do not cut yourself off from his gifts – but receive what he gives you in his holy church and nowhere else. And behold what gifts he gives you! For he gives you himself! It was not enough for him to suffer on the cross once for all for all your sins – his love is so great that he sees to it that his saving death and resurrection are applied to you again and again.

          For in Holy Baptism you have been buried and raised with Christ. Jesus himself has washed you clean and made you reborn. To you, personally, Christ, in Holy Baptism has said, “You are mine.”

          But this was not enough for Jesus! Still he wishes to converse with you and strengthen you in your baptismal life. Still he wishes to restore you when you stumble and fall. So he invites you to hear his voice in Holy Absolution as he says to you, “You are loved.”

          And still this was not enough for Jesus – he goes on promising! For he wants the fruits of his cross and the empty tomb to be yours as well. He wants his sacrifice to cover you individually and personally. He is the great Bridegroom of his Bride the Church, and so, like any husband, he gives to you all he has, even his own Body. For in the Holy Supper he says to you, “I am yours.”

          So who will not rejoice? The Lord Jesus is raised from the dead and death is defeated. And this Great Victor gives the victory to the likes of us, and even bestows on us himself. He promises that his resurrection will be our resurrection. He promises that filled with his Life, we can never truly die. Beloved, this is the Great Day which the Lord has made: Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

His Is Risen!

God bless you all this Easter!  Pastor Pautz

5 Things Learned From 10 Years of Depression - Rev. Pepperkorn

Rev. Pepperkorn is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his suicide attempt this Good Friday.  He wrote a post on his blog about 5 things he learned about living with Clinical Depression since that day.  Living with any mental illness is not easy but it is possible - Pastor Pautz.  

Here is his post:

http://www.darkmyroad.org/2016/03/five-things-i-have-learned-after-living-with-depression-for-ten-years/

Ten years ago, on Good Friday in 2006, my life took a profound turn for the worse and for the better. I was on partial disability for clinical depression, and I was barely hanging on. Trying to “do” disability, be a pastor, and a father to two girls and a newborn only weeks old, it was all getting the best of me. I was barely holding on, only I didn’t know it at the time.

When I got back from my morning constitutional (nine holes of golf), I received a phone call from my insurance company. They told me matter-of-factly that they had determined I was no longer ill, and that my disability had been canceled/revoked as of two weeks previous. I hung up the phone. It was the last straw, the end. I could not hold all of this together anymore. I was (so my disease was telling me) not worth anything to anyone, and it was time to give up. I resolved to end my life.

Well, after church, of course. I was a pastor, after all.

So the day continued. I didn’t tell my wife anything. She was quite used to me wandering around the house as a zombie. By that time it would have been strange if I did anything else.

I went to our noon service, a joint Good Friday Tre Ore that we held with our sister congregation in town. I was preaching. Right before we went in I told my pastor (my colleague and friend), that I was going to kill myself after the service. It probably didn’t come out sounding that dramatic. I have no idea what I actually said, anymore than I have any idea what I said in the sermon. But I will say that it is a, well, unique experience to preaching on the death of God for the salvation of the world while you are planning your own death.

But I didn’t die.

My pastor wouldn’t let me out of his sight after the service. We eventually went to Panera and stared at each other over a cup of coffee for an hour or two (six? Half an hour? I have no idea). Eventually I came out of the fog enough to call my counselor. Somehow we/they developed a plan to get through the weekend, appeal the determination of the insurance company, get me to someone’s home where I could stay without responsibilities for some weeks, and slowly, slowly, rebuild my life.

Now, I’ve written about this many times. You can find some of themHERE, HERE, and HERE, for example. But after ten years, it strikes me that it might be useful to highlight a few things I’ve learned after ten years of a life that was saved:

First, my story is not unusual. While it may seem strange or unusual because I’m a pastor, there are many, many people with stories much like mine. Sometimes they are darker, sometimes brighter, but in almost every case there are commonalities. A sickness that no one fully understands. A low point that no one could see coming. Friends and family, or even a stranger stepping in so that life may go on. At the time it felt like no one could possibly understand what I was going through. Today I am more amazed that someone doesn’t understand, at least a little bit. We all have darkness in our lives. It is either our own darkness or someone else’s. But it is there. I have come to recognize that as a part of our common humanity.

Second, one can never be too grateful for the people around you. Family, friends, pastors, doctors, counselors, all of these and more are God’s instruments to bring you life, to hold you together, and to give you a glimpse into God’s mercy when the darkness surrounds you. The kindness that has been shown to me and to my family just never seems to end, and I am constantly amazed at the people that God continues to place into our lives so that we might be cared for and loved.

Third, recognizing our common humanity can serve as the beginning of healing. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .” (The Four Loves). If this is true of friendship, how much more is this true of our weaknesses, our diseases, and our need for mercy! Speaking with others who suffer, giving them permission to say “this stinks!” (or something more colorful), it is a liberating thing. While it is sometimes hard, very often I benefit more from the conversations that those who have reached out. We are never alone.

Fourth, healing never really stops. The last years have had plenty of ups and downs, health wise. I’ve tried going off medication (not a good idea for me). I’ve tried and transitioned through different counselors, and doctors, and even pastors. Each of these have held their challenge, but they have all pointed to the simple fact that while life is fragile, things do change. And that is okay.

Finally, it is the Lord’s Supper that continues to give life. I know, the pastor had to get one “pastor” answer in to this. But it is true. No matter how I feel, Christ is present delivering His gives to me. My mood or health don’t keep Him away. My confusion or hurt doesn’t deter Him. He gives Himself in the Eucharist, and in doing so, is with me to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). That rock, that certainty beyond all doubt, is what sustains me when everything else seems to go dark.

If you are suffering with depression, bipolar disorder, or the myriad over other mental illnesses that seem to afflict us day by day, know this: you are not alone. Christ has suffered for us, and we in turn suffer with each other.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalms 73:26 ESV)

Pastor Todd Peperkorn