Isaiah 41:8-13 Notes

                                                               Isaiah 41:8-13  Notes

Isaiah 41:8-13 Notes

Title: A Mountain of Comfort - In the midst of many idols of Universalism & Unitarianism in our pagan age

 Invocation & Opening Prayer

 Three modern idols that totter before the Lord:

 Unitarian Universalism

Unitarianism is an open-minded and welcoming approach to faith that encourages individual freedom, equality for all and rational thought. There is no list of things that Unitarians must believe: instead we think everyone has the right to reach their own conclusions.  We see different opinions and lifestyles as valuable and enriching, and don’t discriminate on grounds of gender age, race, religion or sexual orientation. Although Unitarianism has its roots in Jewish and Christian traditions it is open to insights from all faiths, science, the arts, the natural world and everyday living.  Unitarians characteristically: base beliefs on rational enquiry rather than external authority; accept beliefs can change in the light of new understanding and insight; form principles from conscience, thinking and life experiences; hold reverence for the earth and the whole natural system of which we are part. We welcome anyone with an open mind who shares our tolerant and inclusive views, who embraces the freedom of being in a faith community that doesn’t impose creeds or specific beliefs, and who bases their approach not on dogma but on reason.  ie. Lodges.  

Universalism is a theological and philosophical concept that all religions lead to the same god. Universalist doctrines consider all people in their formation.  In Christianity, universalism refers to Christian Universalism which is focused around the idea of universal reconciliation, also known as universal salvation — the doctrine that every human soul will ultimately be reconciled to God because of divine love and mercy.  ie. all religions lead to the same god.

Enthusiasm This is anyone in Christianity who separates the work of the Holy Spirit from the text of the Holy Scripture. ie.  Romanism, Anabaptist, Calvinist/Reformed/Evangelical, and within Lutheranism - Pietists.  All Lutheran groups have this in common - they had their origins in Pietism.   Major pietistic influences might be Missions, Youth Work and Church/Cell Group Worship rather than Divine Service.  The emphasis is on church growth.

Neopaganism is a movement by modern people to revive nature-revering/living, pre-Christian religions or other nature-based spiritual paths, frequently also incorporating contemporary liberal values at odds with ancient paganism. This definition may include groups such as Wicca and Neo-Druidism.

8  “But you, Israel, are My servant (child), Jacob whom I have chosen (elected),

As if to say, “Let your enemies have their triumph.  Let them claim their victory as loudly as they want.”  The Lord appears to be weak but these enemies cannot harm Him.  You conscience must be confident that you are His child.  The world will say differently.

The descendants (seed) of Abraham My friend (the one I continue to love).

9  You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions,

How is one called by God?  Small Catechism “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 said to you, ‘You are My servant (child), I have chosen (elected) you and have not cast you away:

10  Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

This is the comfort.                                                          And more comfort    

I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

And more    And more          And more comfort.

Verse 10 is a great verse to memorize.

11  “Behold, all those who were incensed against you Shall be ashamed and disgraced;

They shall be as nothing, And those who strive with you shall perish.

12  You shall seek them and not find them—Those who contended with you.

Those who war against you Shall be as nothing, As a nonexistent thing.

Verses 11-12 are promises which can be prayed as imprecatory (with sin upon another) prayers.  It is actually, ask for the Lord’s judgment upon another according to the Lord’s Word and Will.  For example, the Lord’s Prayer has similar petitions - Hallowed be Thy name (not my name or anyone else’s name), Thy kingdom come (which excludes unbelievers), Thy will be done (not me or my unbelieving neighbor)

13  For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand (right hand of grace so more comfort),

Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’  (Amen. Come quickly Lord Jesus)

Foreknowledge - God is all knowing.  But this is not how He elects or chooses His children.

Election - God promises to choose His children through His means of grace.  Word and Sacrament.  This Word is “living and active” and when it is added to water, bread, and wine they become “living and active” also.  They are “living and active” because the Holy Spirit is always in partnership with Holy Scripture.  The means will cause you to believe or be hardened.  The ‘cross of theology’ is to answer how this can be.  I am saved so God gets all credit.  If I’m damned I get all the credit.

Matins Service - June 28, 2017

Our Savior Lutheran Church - LCMS 2611 Lucas Street, Muscatine, IA 52761 Pastor Pautz's email - oslcp@machlink.com www.oursaviormuscatine.org

Second Sunday after Holy Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church - LCMS 2611 Lucas Street Muscatine, IA 52761 www.oursaviormuscatine.org

Second Sunday after Holy Trinity

Luke 14: 16-24; 1John 3:13-18; Proverbs 9:1-10; Hymn 622 Lord Jesus Christ, You have prepared

June 25, 2017   Also anniversary of the Augsburg Confession of 1530.

Introduction:  Welcome to the Great Banquet.

 It became a Sunday tradition.  The Pautz family was living in Bangkok, Thailand.  I was learning to live on missionary pay rather than Sr. Chemist at a Fortune 100 company.  There was this hotel that had the most amazing Sunday brunch.  In the U.S. it would probably cost $70-80 person but over there it was less than $10.  Carved roast beef, fresh sushi, assorted dishes, soups, breads, desserts.  You name it.  It was there.  All you could eat.  What shocked us the most?  No one was there!  There were more restaurant employees than guests.  Like I said, for us, it became an almost every Sunday brunch after the Thai church services & Bible studies were over.

 Our Lord has prepared a Greater Banquet.   What shocks our God the most?  It is this: The vast majority of Jews and Gentiles refuse to attend the Great Banquet.  They refuse to taste the Gospel.  Or if they give the Gospel a taste, they turn away from it desiring their own junk food.

 Your creator Father is the host of this Greatest of all Banquets.  He has spent much effort preparing for the day He would serve it.  The entire Old Testament is a record of the effort and tender care He put into it.   Your Father promised this meal while Adam and Eve were still in the Garden.  Feast on any fruit except one.  But Adam and Eve were like teenagers who often argue against their parents.  Adam and Eve were escorted out of the Banquet Hall.  But already then and there, the Lord began preparations to bring them back to His great feast.  Your Father promised to send His house servant, Jesus Christ, to do what no one else could.  Jesus did the will of the Father.

 The whole Old Testament is a record of God making preparations to restore Adam and Eve and all their children including you to the Great Banquet of the Gospel.  Moses prophesied.  The prophets came and went.  Finally, John the Baptist announces the arrival of Jesus.  Jesus is the Great Banquet.  All would be ready upon the completion of His death and resurrection in accordance with the Holy Scripture.

 Jesus went through all Israel during His earthly ministry.  Most Jews wanted no taste of the Gospel.

 The Father is getting agitated.  “Then go to the Gentiles so they may come to My Gospel”.  

 Jews and Gentiles have this in common.  The majority excuse themselves from this feast with its eternal benefit - life.  Unbelief is the sin that angers you Father.  Unbelief is a spiritual disease.  Today’s parable diagnoses the three general symptoms of unbelief.  

 For example, I just bought a field and I need to inspect it.  Please excuse me, I have a ball game and won’t attend to the Lord’s banquet.

 Another example, I just bought five animals and must go and examine them.  Excuse me, this is our day to go shopping or we have travel plans so we won’t attend the Lord’s banquet.

 Finally, for this morning, I just got married.  Sunday morning is the only time we have together as a family in the midst of work schedules and school schedules and all the other schedules that claim our time.  So, I’m not even apologizing but telling you I are not going to the Lord’s banquet.

 Sports, shopping, family time are all good things.  God created your body and sports is a great reason to strengthen what God has given.  God gave you a job and shopping or traveling and such and it is good to enjoy the benefits of hard work.  God gave you a family and spending time together with each other is more than good.

 But sports, travel, or family BBQs have become your god if you find yourselves making excuses to avoid feasting on God’s Word whether at church or at home or both.  If the Christian faith is an add-on to your more important pursuits then you have found your repentance for this morning.

 Your God does get irritated with your excuses.  To Him, you sound like a teenager who won’t accept that your parents are probably correct so you keep badgering them to let you go your own teenage way.  

 And yet, God still loves you dearly.  He sent His only-begotten Son into this disordered world.  Born of a woman, born under the Law that some might be saved.  

 But, but but, … your constant excuses can still on His nerves.

 A few weeks ago we heard from John chapter 3 that Jesus was not sent into this world to judge the world.  Without the love of God in Christ, all are condemned.  You can’t change the verdict of the Law.  We have all fallen short of the glory of God.  You can’t change that.  

 But, but, but ... Jesus provides another way.  Jesus does the Father’s will.  Jesus fulfills the Law and gives you the benefits.  A main purpose of God’s Law is to show you your sin and that you can do nothing about your situation before God.  But Jesus was sent into this world, born of a woman, born under the law (Gal) that some might be saved.  So stop your unbelief.  Rather, be baptized and believing in the Christ.

 Jesus does the will of the Father.  The Father sent Jesus to be the Great Banquet.

 Today, Jesus is doing that.  He continues to find the spiritually poor and crippled and blind and lame to fill His Father’s banquet hall.  Jesus continues to go to the highways and hedges.  Jesus compels those with the Word of God to come to the feast.  You have nothing.  You are the poor and crippled and lame.  You know this from God’s Word.  His Law.  But He found you with God’s Word.  His Gospel.

 Let me speak what we already sang (LSB 622:5):

 5 Though reason cannot understand,

Yet faith this truth embraces;

Your body, Lord, is even now

At once in many places.

I leave to You how this can be;

Your Word alone suffices me;

I trust its truth unfailing.

 This is the faith you are given.  

 You can’t understand it like you want but you embrace it.

 You don’t know how this can be but you leave that to the Lord.

 And yet you feast at the Great Banquet.  You trust Jesus.  

 God’s Word alone suffices you.  You believe Jesus.

 The Great Banquet doesn’t surprise you but rather the Great Unbelief does.

 That is why it is good for your to hear a little bit about a Great Event that happened on this day in the year 1530.  On June 25, 1530 a Great Confession was made to the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  The same emperor that kicked Martin Luther out of his kingdom.  But it was not pastors making the confession.  It was the people.  Several princes, representing the people, signed what is called the Augsburg Confession.  As they presented it to the emperor, knowing that they could be put to death, the princes told the emperor that there would be no compromise.  So, bending one knee to the ground and lowering their heads, they told the emperor to accept this Augsburg Confession even if he demanded their heads with it.

 The Great Banquet produces this Great Faith even and especially in the midst of unbelief.

 To this day, when people build new churches they often inscribe the letters U.A.C. into the cornerstone of the building.  The Unaltered Augsburg Confession.  It is printed in your Book of Concord.  The Concordia.  

 You might not know the history of the Christian Church but you have tasted the Great Banquet.  Keep enjoying it; in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life

Sunday, June 25, 2017

John 3:22-36

Title: Jesus is the Bomb - Whoever has the faith of the Son has eternal life!

Invocation

Opening Prayer

3:22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized.   This is an introduction to Jesus’ next sermon which starts in Chapter 4.  These introductory verses explain how John the Baptist office of baptism was to prepare for the coming of Jesus.  Now that Jesus has come, the office of baptizing is back to the one who gave it - Jesus.  John the Baptist becomes less and Jesus the Christ becomes greater.  This office comprises nothing else but preaching, teaching, praying, baptizing, eating, sleeping, and preaching… So John the Baptist is not to be the ruler but the forerunner.

3:23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized.  Salim nestles in the mountains, not right on the Jordan but some distance away. John did not remain in one place but traveled here and there until he also reached this place. He began his work among the tribe of Judah, and then transferred his activity to Galilee, where he was beheaded. Christ reversed the order: Jesus began in Galilee, and here He traveled into Judea and toward Jerusalem, where He was crucified.

3:24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

3:25-26 25 Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!” The dispute was between John’s disciples and some Jews.  The message of John was “If you would enter life, keep God’s Commandments” (Matt. 19:17) but Christ says: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). How do these two statements harmonize: that he who keeps the Law will be saved and that he who believes will be saved? Which is the true purification? This is a bone of contention to the present day.

3:27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  John the Baptist begins his sermon to his disciples and some Jews.  Luther says: Since the beginning of the world the question has been raised and hotly debated whether salvation is attained by God’s grace or by works. The chief purification must precede, for “grace and truth come through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Furthermore, “from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). After that we do not forbid good works. However, we do preach that good works can neither make up nor bring about this purification. But Christ must purify us with His blood; then the other purification will follow from grace.

More Luther: John’s Baptism in itself does not purify; it must be enveloped in faith. It is not derived from man; it comes from God and from heaven. Thus faith, too, springs from no one but God. This is also true of purification. God had also commanded circumcision, but it was a means to the end, Christ; it was enveloped and wrapped up in faith. Thus all the sacrifices by the prophets had to be ordained by God, not by man; otherwise they should have been trampled underfoot. We must accost the Turk and say: “Where did God command the message preached by Mohammed? It has nothing to do with faith.” The pope has brought out his canon law once more; and he rules the church with chasubles, cowls, and tonsures. If I were asked to comply with such things on the supposition they are commanded, I would not place so much as a thread on the altar. But he says: “You must obey the church.” “You lie,” I reply. “God did not command from heaven these externals with which you deal. That is why you have no faith.”

29 He who has the bride (Christians/church) is the bridegroom (Jesus); but the friend of the bridegroom (here it is John the Baptist), who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine (John the Baptist) is fulfilled.

30 He (Jesus) must increase, but I (John the Baptist) must decrease.

31 He (Jesus) who comes from above is above all; he (all of us) who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He (Jesus) who comes from heaven is above all.

32 And what He (Jesus) has seen and heard (from the Father), that He (Jesus) testifies; and no one receives His (Jesus/the Father’s) testimony.

33 He (Jesus) who has received His (the Father’s) testimony has certified that God (Father) is true.

34 For He (Jesus) whom God (the Father) has sent speaks the words of God (the Father), for God (the Father) does not give the (Holy) Spirit by measure.  WOW!  The Gospel is not measured out.  Like the Sower of the Seed who sows liberally.  Throwing seed that is landing on rocks (devil) and weeds (world) and sun-scorched soil (sinful flesh) and good soil (Christ).  Note: speaks the words of God - is rather “solemnly proclaims the Divine Word of God.  Also, this sermon of John is not recorded in the other Gospels.

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His (the Son’s/Jesus’) hand. This is the great commission of Father to the Son.  

36 He (anyone) who believes (in the) Son (Jesus the Christ) has everlasting life; WOW!! Jesus is the Bomb!?!  Believing or faith is itself a work of God accomplished but hearing “solemn proclamation of the Divine Word of God”.  HAS - this work was done when God purified you with water + Divine Word.  The life your were given in that purification (Holy Baptism) is nurtured in the hearing of the Divine Word.  This Divine Word is preached and taught and prayed which is how God gives life.  The Divine Word is also attached to water and to bread and wine.  How is one purified?  How does one believe?  How does one come to faith? By hearing the Divine Word by which the Holy Spirit is given without measure so you may receive the faith of Jesus.  This passage is clearly speaking of the teaching of the effective Word as the means of grace.

...and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Close with the Lord’s Prayer.