Hebrews 4,14-16. Invocavit

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Hebrews 4,14-16        1719 

Invocavit  024; 1. Sonntag der Passionszeit „He will call“

Caius and Alexander, Martyrs at Apamea in Phrygia, Turkey 279 

10. März 2019 

1. O Lord, from You alone come modesty, admiration, love and adoration; work them in us and all who belong to this congregation. Be mindful of us! Give us repentance and forgiveness of sins, for You must do it all. All our striving, living and regretting is worth nothing. Help us, and then may our eternal gratitude be Yours. Amen, Lord Jesus!  Amen. (Löhe 16)

2. »Since then we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.«  

3. The Epistle to the Hebrews points out a number of Old Testament prophecies that Christ fulfilled. One is Christ is greater than the old testament covenant high priest. Under the Sinai covenant, the high priest performs the most important duties in the temple, particularly he was the only one who could enter the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur, the day of national atonement. On that day he burned incense and sprinkled the blood of a male goat upon the ark of the covenant, the very throne of the Lord. The high priest represented the nation of Israel and was the mediator between the Lord and His people. The high priest brought the sin offering before the Lord Himself for the forgiveness of the people. 

4. The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus is this great high priest who has mediated our forgiveness before God the Father. Jesus is simultaneously the high priest who presents the sin offering and the sacrificial animal whose shed blood covers the mercy seat of the Lord. St. Paul tells us that as our High Priest, Christ is able to sympathize with our weakness for He has in every respect been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Our Gospel pericope tells us of three temptations Jesus experienced shortly after His baptism. He was 1. tempted with food while He was fasting and hungry; 2. tempted to put His Father’s Holy Scripture to the test; and 3. tempted to worship a false God and be rewarded with temporal power and glory. 

5. Notice that Adam was likewise 1. tempted with food from a tree forbidden by the Lord; 2. tempted to put his Father’s Holy Scripture the test: will you really die if you eat from this tree of knowledge?; and 3. tempted to become a god himself: when you eat you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3,1-5). Adam failed to stop Eve from sinning, and then he himself fell prey to the master deceiver, the Devil. St. Paul tells us: »Just as sin entered the world through the first man, Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned« (Romans 5,12). And again: »For as by a man, Adam, came death, by a man, Christ, has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive« (1. Corinthians 15,21-22). 

6. The apostle exhorts us to hold fast our confession. St. Paul summarizes this confession to the Corinthians: »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 3. day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to the apostles, the 500 disciples, Peter, James and also to me, Paul« (1. Corinthians 15,3-8). This confession is the cornerstone of our great Western Creeds: the Nicene, the Apostles’ and the Athanasian.  

7. We draw near to the throne of God’s grace with confidence, for there we find a kind, loving, forgiving merciful God. Christ has mediated our debt of sin with the Father; Christ has paid the ransom price with His own blood. Good Friday is the day of atonement for all the world. 

8. „Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day the Church begins the holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

9. „From ancient times this season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self denial and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on His Word and draws from it life and hope. 

10. „Let us pray that our dear Father in heaven, for the sake of His Beloved Son and in the power of His Holy Spirit, might richly bless this Lententide for us so that we may go to Easter with glad hearts and keep the feast in sincerity and truth“ (altar book 483). 

11. The Apostle John tells us that the reason the Son of G appeared was to destroy the works of the Devil (1. John 3,8). Invocavit rightly showcased the Devil’s defeat with Jesus triumphing over His 3 temptations. Hymnist Paul Gerhardt poetically describes our affection for Jesus: „Your cords of love, my savior, Bind me to You forever, I am no longer mine. To You I gladly tender All that my life can render And all I have to You resign“ (KELG 64,8); LSB 453,6). 

12. During Lent we remember that we are dust, and to dust we will return. But the Prophet Ezekiel assures us: »O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin, put breath in you and you will live« (Ezekiel 37,5-6). Lent prepares us for Christ’s Passion where He died to redeem us from sin and rose again so we will also rise in Him when He returns.  Amen. 

13. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You appeared to destroy the works of the Devil; send us the Holy Spirit to guide us along Your holy path throughout Lent so that by traveling with You to the cross we see the joy of eternal life that is pure gift to us.  Amen. 

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To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Gerhardt, Paul. „Upon the Cross Extended“. Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. The Word Remains. Copyright © 2016 Emmanuel Press. 

Lutheran Service Book Altar Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.