Matthew 21,1-9. First Sunday in Advent

In the Name of Jesus

Matthew 21,1-9

The 1. Sunday in Advent, Populus Zion

Guenther, Bishop of Regensburg, Germany. † 938

28. November 2010

1. O Conquering Christ Jesus, we render unto You praise and adoration for You have fulfilled the words of the Prophets and triumphed over the evil and satanic forces of this fallen world. On Palm Sunday You rode into Jerusalem with enthusiastic cheers, but at the end of the week jeers of ,,Crucify him!” sounded forth in Jerusalem’s courts. You endured such suffering and humiliation for our sakes and in doing so You redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father and have opened unto us the joys and treasures of Your eternal reign of Divine glory. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: And when they approached Jerusalem and went to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them: ,,Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you will say: The Lord has need of them, and he will immediately send them.” And this has happened so that the word spoken by the prophet was fulfilled: »Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your King comes to you gentle and having mounted on a donkey and on a colt the foal of a donkey.« And the disciples went and did just as Jesus instructed them. They led the donkey and the colt and they laid their garments upon them, and Jesus sat upon the garments. And many in the crowd spread their garments upon the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds going before and those following were crying out: ,,Hosanna to the Son of David; the One coming in the Name of the Lord is blessed; Hosanna in the highest.“ This is our text.

3.

4. Jesus’ first advent culminates in His crucifixion and resurrection. Thus, the Historic Gospel Reading for the 1. Sunday of Advent is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The events of Holy Week draw to fulfillment the ministry of Jesus’ first advent.

5. Today’s Introit summarizes why Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. The Prophet Zechariah speaks these words of Yahweh, »Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and saving, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey« (Zechariah 9,9). Jesus rides into Jerusalem as the heir of David, the King of Israel, and He brings with Him righteousness and salvation.

6. Each Sunday we prepare ourselves for the Divine Service (Gottesdienst) with the Service of Confession and Absolution. In this service we acknowledge and confess that we are sinners who need deliverance from our many iniquities. In the Holy Scriptures, Yahweh continually arrives to redeem His people. He promised us a savior. He sent this savior to be born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. This savior rode up to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey. This savior bore His back and was whipped for our transgressions. This savior spread out His hands to be nailed to the cross.

7. We normally think of divinity in terms of power and miracles, but God often reveals His divinity with humbleness and humility. He wrapped Himself in flesh and blood and was born into our world as a baby, just as all of us experienced. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, gentle and humble. He was cheered and heralded as a prophet, but He never boasted in that title. He suffered, died, and was buried in a grave, which is the ultimate humility we human beings can face. Christ did all of this for us because we cannot save ourselves from our sins. Jesus must save us, and save us He did.

8. Everything is at stake with who is our lord (Nagel 5:10). If we trust in our own works to save ourselves from our sins, then we have another god besides Christ Jesus. If we trust in other methods besides the cross of Christ to merit the forgiveness of our sins, then we have other gods besides the Son of God. The First Commandment reveals idolatry as the sin most common among sinners.

9. In contrast, the first and chief article of the Church is Christ crucified. ,,This is the most joyous of all doctrines and the one that contains the most comfort. It teaches that we have the ... mercy and love of God“ (Luther 280). God enfleshed in our midst brings us divine mercy and love.

10. The disciples of Jesus on that first Palm Sunday rejoiced and called Him a prophet. The Prophet Zechariah rejoiced and called Him Israel’s King. The disciples also proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of David, which is a messianic title for the Christ who is God’s chosen one to save men and women. Jesus is all of these (prophet, king, and the Christ), and He is so much more but we simply call Him Jesus. He was promised to us long ago in the pages of Holy Scripture, beginning in Genesis 3. His first advent arrived nearly two thousand years ago. This Sunday we begin the journey anew, remembering all that God has promised us and rejoicing in all that He has fulfilled for us in Jesus Christ.

11. Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and He ascended into heaven as a victor and a conqueror (Christus Victor). He is our Victor and our Conqueror over sin, death, and the devil. He is our God and our Christ who draws unto Himself all of us poor, miserable sinners who have failed to save ourselves. We are drawn into His presence and we rejoice, for Christ is righteous and saving. He has given us His own righteousness, and He has saved us from our sins. What Christ has done is ours by faith. His righteousness is our righteousness by faith. He saves us by His merit and we receive it by faith.

12. Therefore, the heart of a Christian should be a continuously open road where Christ lives and walks; therefore our whole life should be a continuous endeavor festively to adorn the way of our Savior with thanksgiving and voluntary love (Walther 20). So Christians should spread out everywhere the fruits of the tree of their faith (Walther 20). ,,Because we have taken hold of Christ by faith, through whom we are righteous, we should now go and love God and our neighbor. Call upon God, give thanks to Him, proclaim Him, praise Him, confess Him. Do good to our neighbor, and serve him; do our duty. These are truly good works, which flow from this faith and joy conceived in the heart because we have the forgiveness of sins freely through Christ“ (Luther 133).

13. Rejoice! Our Savior has arrived. Jesus’ disciples cried out »Hosanna to the Son of David; the One arriving in the Name of the Lord is blessed; hosanna in the highest!« Today we the 21^st century disciples of Jesus also cry out ,,hosanna“. Yes, we call out for Jesus to save and deliver us from sin, death, and the devil. At His first advent, Jesus conquered sin, death, and the devil, for Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus was the sacrificial lamb offered up on behalf of every sinner. He has instituted for His Church the Sacrament of the Altar whereby He gives us the forgiveness of sin and victory over death and the devil, for Jesus is a male lamb, a ram with powerful horns, who has fought and defeated our great spiritual enemies. At His second advent, Jesus will arrive in the full splendor of His divine glory and might to usher us into His eternal reign. On that last day Jesus will make us pure and sinless, and He will cast death and the devil into hell for Jesus is Christ the Victorious by the cross and the empty tomb. Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal King of Zion, send us the Holy Spirit to keep our eyes focused upon the crucifixion and resurrection of Your first advent and our eyes heavenward in expectant waiting for Your second advent so that we may receive the perfection of beauty that culminates in the day of resurrection. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

   All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Matthew © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
   All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12^th Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
   Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
   Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Copyright © 1963 Concordia Publishing House: Saint Louis.
   Nagel, Norman. ,,Where are the Angels“. A sermon preached at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis in 2006/7.
   Walther, C.F.W. Selected Sermons. Tr. Henry J. Eggold. Copyright © 1981 Concordia Publishing House. With the liturgical season of Advent, we begin a new Church Year. The Liturgical Year begins with a focus on the first advent of Jesus and His birth in Bethlehem. The Liturgical Year concludes with parables that describe the second advent of Jesus which ushers in the everlasting, resurrected life.

Matthew 25,1-13. Eternity Sunday (Ewigkeitssonntag)

In the Name of Jesus

Matthew 25,1-13

Ewigkeitssonntag

Columbanus, Abbot of Bobbio, Italy. † 615

21. November 2010

1. Almighty and Everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in Your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Christus victor by the cross and the empty tomb: Mercifully grant that the people of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under His most gracious rule, for He reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever (Book of Common Prayer 185). O Christ, You bid us to watch and wait for Your second advent. Send us the Holy Spirit, for it is evening and we are tired and sleepy. Restore unto us the joy of Your salvation and the longing expectation of Your return with great fanfare and celebration. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: ¹Jesus said to the disciples, ,,Then the reign of heaven will be comparable to ten maidens, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ²Now five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. ³For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no olive oil with them. ⁴But the prudent took olive oil in flasks with their lamps. ⁵Now because the bridegroom kept delaying, they all grew drowsy and were sleeping. ⁶But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your olive oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹But the prudent answered, ‘No, there won’t be enough for us and you; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ ¹⁰And while they were going away to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. ¹¹Later the other maidens also arrived, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us!’ ¹²But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I don’t know you.’ ¹³Watch then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.“ This is our text.

3. Jesus exhorts us to ,,Watch for His second advent“, for we do not know the day or the hour in which this blessed event will occur. The first century Christians had an expectant hope that Jesus would return in their lifetime. The Apostle Paul thought Jesus was returning during his generation, so he hit the Roman roads and sailed the high seas to bring the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus to as many people as could. The Twelve thought Jesus was returning during their lifetime, especially after the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem razed, but one by one the great apostolic band dwindled in number: first James was martyred in 44, then Peter and Paul in 68, and one by one all the apostles had been martyred for the faith until elderly John alone remained. When John the Apostle entered his sleep at the close of the first century, many thought Jesus would return soon, but He did not, and so here we are almost 2000 years later still waiting for Christ’s return.

4. This two millennia wait for Jesus’ return has effected the Church’s outlook. ,,The Lord would have us to continue to long for, to wait for, to watch for His parousia“ (Gibbs), but many in the Church have ceased longing for, waiting for, and watching for Jesus’ return in any meaningful fashion. There prevails throughout the Church a view in which the expectation of the consummation of the age and of Christ’s final victory over death and every enemy has all but disappeared under the onslaught of rampant individualism in which what really matters is ,,my own personal fate“ and ,,whether I’ll be in heaven when I die“ (Gibbs). Let’s face it, what Jesus taught in His parable has come to pass: »Now because the bridegroom kept delaying, all the maidens grew drowsy and were sleeping.« We are like adults who have lost the Wunderlust, the joyousness, of the excited expectation of Christmas that little children have. We all remember those days, how we could not sleep on Christmas Eve, because we knew the next day would be a wonderful day of gifts, good food, lights and decorations, where the gifts we wanted most were under the tree, and even a few surprises greeted us in presents we were not expecting. We long so much to get just a little bit of our childhood Christmas joy in our present lives because we remember how special that day is.

5. Likewise, the Church needs to recover the joyous expectation of Christ’s return, for like Christmas with all its good gifts, Jesus’ second advent brings good things to us. The liturgical calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria describes the Last Sunday in the Church Year this way: ,,Often I dream of a world without suffering and pain, without parting and tears, a world, in which death loses its horror. A new heaven and a new earth, God dwelling in the midst of mankind, is the picture that the Bible draws of that end time. An utopia? Yes, but whoever believes is blessed. Because they have now beautifully changed in vigor. The promise of this new time lets us today keep a look out for Christ, as the bridesmaids looked for the groom who would begin the feast. In the hope that God truly does what He promises, many congregations also remember on Eternity Sunday the suffering and death of their deceased of the last year“ (ELKB).

6. The first thing we want to remind ourselves is that Christ’s return is for all people. In the parable, all of humanity is portrayed. Some are prudent maidens awaiting Jesus’ return, but others are foolish. The prudent maidens are prepared for Jesus’ return, but the foolish maidens are not prepared.

7. Secondly, while Christ’s return is for all people, His return will be a day of great joy for some but a day of intense sadness for others. The prudent maidens had oil for their lamps, but the foolish maidens did not have that oil. The oil for the lamps is faith in Christ. What made the prudent maidens prudent was their faith and trust in Jesus. What made the foolish maidens foolish was their absence of faith and their lack of trust in Jesus. In this parable, Jesus teaches that His second advent will surprise us. All will grow weary and fall asleep, but Christians are prepared for Christ’s return because they have faith in Him. ,,In Christ God has atoned for all our sins and has made it possible for us in faith to be partakers both of forgiveness and of life eternal“(Giertz 123). We live ,,in Christ,“ and to us who are in Christ there is no condemnation“ (Giuertz 123). The return of Christ ushers in the day of judgment, and that judgment shall be given according to our faith in Jesus, for ,,the one who believes in Jesus has eternal life“ (Giertz 122).

8. Everlasting life in heaven is the final goal of the reign of heaven that Christ brings into our midst. Jesus ushered in this heavenly reign during His public ministry and He established its certainty by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. On the last day Jesus the Bridegroom will return for His Church and lead us in a joyous procession to His Father’s house were we will enjoy the everlasting fellowship of resurrected life.

9. For this morning’s parable, Jesus deliberately chooses the example of a wedding and its reception banquet. Such events are times of great joy and happiness. Jesus describes eternal life as a feast with great joy, singing, dancing, eating and drinking, and having fun. Yahweh describes eternal life this way, »For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind« (Isaiah 65,17). John’s apocalyptic vision explains what this will mean, »Jesus will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away« (Revelation 21,4). This is why Jesus exhorts us to long for, to have that childlike excitement, for His return. Eternal life awaits us, and it is a life full of wonders and blessings the like of which we cannot imagine. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is Eternal Life and He gives us eternal life. We have eternal life now by faith in Him. He gives us eternal life today in the Sacrament of the Altar. He is returning for us on the last day to lead us in a fantastic procession to our heavenly home. Do not become discouraged.

10. Watch and wait for Jesus’ return. May His second advent burn in your hearts with patient expectation of the good life that is to be ours. Jesus is preparing our life in His heavenly reign right now, and when He is finished He will return to bring all His Christians to their true and everlasting home. Eternal life with Jesus will be more blessed than a wedding banquet. Everlasting life in Yahweh’s heavenly reign will be more exciting than our childhood Christmas. Watch and wait, for Jesus will return for us, and that day will be a great and glorious day. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Path onto eternal life, bless us with Your presence and the fullness of joy so that we may not become discouraged as we await Your glorious return; we eagerly await Your return for at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

   All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Matthew © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
   bayern-evangelisch.de/www/liturgischer_kalender/PreLoader.php?feld=Datum&wert=21.11.2010
   Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1990 Oxford University Press.
   Gibbs, Jeffrey. ,,Matthew 24,37-44“. Concordia Journal.
   Giertz, Bo. Preaching from the Whole Bible. Clifford A. Nelson, Tr. Copyright © 1967 Augsburg Publishing House.
   Löhe, Wilhelm. Evangelien-Postille für die Sonn- und Festage des Kirchenjahres. Copyright © 1859 Samuel Gottlieb Liesching. A sermon preached on Matthew 25,1-13 for Ewigkeitssonntag. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2010.
   Luther, Martin. ,,The Feast of St. Barbara, the Holy Virgin: Matthew 25,1-13“. Festival Sermons of Martin Luther. Copyright © 2005 Joel Baseley. Mark V Publications. (Eternity Sunday: The Last Sunday of the Church Year)

2nd to Last Sunday in the Church Year. Malachi 4,1-6

In the Name of Jesus

Malachi 4,1-6

2^nd to Last Sunday in the Church Year

(Proper 28C); Buß- und Bettag

Justinian, Emperor and Confessor of Christ. † 565

14. November 2010

O Great, Merciful, and Gracious Lord Jesus, we confess that we have sinned against You in many ways and abundantly deserve Your righteous condemnation. Nevertheless, You do not desire the death of a sinner, nor have You any pleasure in the destruction of them who die; yes, even therefore did You Yourself suffer death, and by Your death did rob death of his power, so that the dying may have life. Therefore, we beseech You, reach out unto us from heaven Your mighty and gracious hand to save us from the hand of our enemies so that they do not rejoice over us in our anguish. O Christ, while we were yet sinners You did redeem us with Your precious blood, and have reconciled us to our Heavenly Father. We bow before You seeking Your mercy in the day of judgment, and trust only in You, O Lamb of God, and Your bitter sufferings and death, for our salvation so that the day that is arriving will usher us into eternal, heavenly fellowship (Löhe 309-12). Amen.

Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Prophet Malachi where the holy prophet writes: Yahweh said to Malachi, ,,Certainly the day is arriving! It will burn like a furnace. All arrogant people and all evildoers will be like straw. The day that is arriving will burn them up completely. It won’t leave a single root or branch. The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings for You people who fear My Name. You will go out and leap like calves let out of a stall. And you will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Yahweh Sabbaoth. Remember the torah of My servant Moses, the commandments and judgments that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the great and awesome day of the advent of Yahweh. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I arrive and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.“ This is our text.

Malachi prophesied 430 years before the birth of Jesus. Malachi was the penultimate prophet, and when he died Yahweh’s prophetic word was silent unto four centuries. The next prophet to succeed Malachi was John the Baptizer in A.D. 30. This is not to say that God’s people were silent, for during the time between the Old and New Testaments, God’s people translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint, LXX) allowing a wide audience of readers and hearers access to Yahweh’s Holy Scriptures, for in Jesus’ day, Greek was the common language of many diverse people and nations much like English is the standard language around the world today. God’s people also wrote what is commonly called the Dead Sea Scrolls and the 20 Books of the Apocrypha from Tobit - 4^th Maccabees.

Malachi prophesies about a future day that will burn like a furnace. These are Yahweh’s very own words that Malachi proclaims, and these are words that point to Yahweh’s destructive wrath against all arrogant and evil people. This final day is a day of fire that will consume sinners and leave them as ashes. This is not good news for us, for we are sinful people who rightly merit Yahweh’s wrath and punishment. Therefore, the Church has the Rite of Confession and the Sacrament of Absolution.

When we confess our sins, we affirm that we are ,,poor, miserable sinners who have offended Yahweh and justly deserved His earthly and eternal punishment“. Thus Yahweh’s law is given so that we do not remain arrogant and evil people, and the law does this by convincing us that we are arrogant and evil people who need to repent of our great, offensive sinfulness. Thus all of Yahweh’s prophets from Moses to John the Baptizer urge and encourage us to repent of our sins.

It is not enough to repent of one’s sins, but that repentance should be followed by faith in Christ Jesus. The Prophet Malachi proclaims this promise from Yahweh, »The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings for You people who fear My Name«. To fear Yahweh’s Name is to fear, love, and trust in Yahweh for healing and salvation. Repentance is the first part of salvation, for in repentance we acknowledge our sinfulness and seek God’s forgiveness. Jesus Christ is the one who merits absolution that declares and proclaims that all sin is covered, paid for in full, and forgiven. Jesus and His righteousness has merited our forgiveness by His crucifixion and resurrection and thus His righteousness is credited and accounted to you, me, and all people. Faith receives this righteousness and accreditation as one’s own. The life of a Christian is one of ongoing repentance of our sinfulness and the daily trusting upon Christ and His righteous merit that we are forgiven, saved, and justified. Therefore, Christians need not fear the future day of Christ’s second advent.

We know that Christ will return. Unbelievers constantly scoff at this, but the Holy Scriptures testify to His return. Jesus, who is the Son of Man, will arrive in a cloud with power and great glory (Luke 21,27). For we who believe in and trust upon Jesus as our Savior from sin, death, and the devil, Christ’s second advent will be a day of great and glorious joy. Jesus gives the signs that will precede His almighty return: signs in the sun and moon and stars, nations on earth in anguish and perplexity at the tumultuous sea, and the heavenly powers shaken (Luke 21,25-26). Such portents prelude the end of this world. Such signs are not unusual natural phenomena, but they are apocalyptic and cataclysmic events in the heavens that underscore that this earthly world is becoming undone as what God has ordered begins to revert back to chaos (Just 800-01).

The average TV special on The History Channel or The Discovery Channel would have everyone react with grave concern as such dates such as 21. December 2012 or some other cosmically significant date rushes toward our present time. Christ who is the Lord over Creation, time, and all the powers of heaven would have His beloved Christian people react with expectation and blissful peace. Jesus consoles us, saying, ,,But when such cosmic signs begin to happen, straighten up and lift your heads, for your redemption draws near“ (Luke 21,28). The unbelieving world sees these heavenly portents as signs of impending horror, disaster, and destruction, but we Christians see these portents as signs of our impending salvation, glory, and bodily resurrection. Eternal life in the presence of the Triune God, all the angels, and believers who have gone on before us is about to begin as we enter into everlasting communion together. Yahweh describes this eternal joy to Malachi by saying, »The Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings for You people who fear My Name. You will go out and leap like calves let out of a stall.«

Who is this Sun of Righteousness? He is Christ Jesus our Lord who has ushered in the last day by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Sin has been forgiven. Death has been swallowed up by life. Christ is returning for you and me and all Christians. All of Creation reverberates at His second advent, rejoicing and ushering in His arrival by quaking and shaking in creative praise to the Lord of Creation. At His return we will join in with Creation and usher Jesus back to this earth with hymns of praise and Hallelujahs. Jesus says, »,,Yes, I am arriving quickly.“ Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen« (Revelation 22,20-21).

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, the Firstborn risen from the dead, when we see the signs that pretend to Your second advent, exhort us to straighten up and raise our heads so that we rejoice that our redemption is drawing near. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

   All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
   Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 9:51– 24:53. Copyright © 1997 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.

Luke 20-27-40. Trinity 23

In the Name of Jesus

Luke 20,27-40

23. Sunday after Trinity (Proper 27C)

Willibrord, Apostle of Frisia in the Frankish Empire (Netherlands) 738.

7. November 2010

As the deer longs after the water brooks, so our lives long after You, O God. Our lives thirst for God, for the Living God: when will we arrive and appear before God? O Fountain of Life and Well of Living Waters, when will we leave this miserable, erring, pathless, and desert world to arrive at the sweet waters of Your beauty so that we may behold Your power and majesty and quench our thirst in the fountain of Your grace and mercy? O that glorious and happy day which knows no night nor waning, when we will enter into the beautiful mansions of our God and into His joy and the enjoyment of His unfathomed miracles without number! There will be no enemy, neither opposition, nor vexation. No evil and deceptive temptation will come nigh, but only harmless, continuing safety to the body, holy rest, pure, peaceful joy, a blessed eternity, and everlasting blessedness; yes, the Most Holy Trinity, and the blessed beholding of the Deity of God Himself, which is the joy of the Lord our God. O when will we arrive and appear before God? We rejoice that our days on earth are declining. Hasten the evening, O Lord Jesus. Arrive and lead us forth from this our prison house unto eternal joys; out of the darkness of this life to the light of never ending day. Arrive, O Desire of the Gentiles, make us to behold Your countenance, so that our hearts may revive from the sorrows of this life, and we live forever. Amen. (Löhe 312-14).

Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the holy evangelist writes: ²⁷There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, ²⁸and they asked Him a question, saying, ,,Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. ³⁰And the second ³¹and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. ³²Afterward the woman also died. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.“ ³⁴And Jesus said to them, ,,The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵but those who were made worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³⁶for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. ³⁷But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.“ ³⁹Then some of the scribes answered, ,,Teacher, you have spoken well.“ ⁴⁰For they no longer dared to ask Him any question. This is our text.

Who were the Sadducees? The Sadducees were liberals and freethinkers. The Sadducees took their name, and were descended from, the priest Zadok who supported Solomon when Adonijah attempted to appoint himself King of Israel (1 Chronicles 1). In Jesus’ day, the Sadducees were the priests who ran the temple and were responsible for all the temple sacrifices and rituals; when Jesus was arrested, the priest Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas, was the head of the Sadducees. In Jesus’ day, the Roman governor appointed the Jewish high priest instead of allowing the Levitical process that dictated the high priesthood descends from father to son. The Sadducees also had a group within them known as the Herodians, who had ties to King Herod. They favored the Herodian polity and enjoyed the culture of the Greco-Roman society. They probably had respect for the emperor who had been a childhood friend of Herod the Great. While the Sadducees were few in number, their control of the temple and their wealth, gave them an important position of authority.

Although the Sadducees controlled the temple, the Pharisees with their rabbis, scribes, and lawyers had supplanted the priests in the synagogues, and these synagogues were the local congregations where men and women gathered to worship each Sabbath. They regulated the synagogues wherein they taught and interpreted the Law. The Pharisees were solidly devoted to the daily application and observance of the Mosaic law and the ,,oral law,“ known as the Oral Torah. While the Pharisees believed that the entire Law and the Prophets were Divinely inspired, the Sadducees only believed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (the Torah; the Pentateuch) were inspired.

The Sadducees rejected the oral laws of the Pharisees (although they kept their own), and the Sadducees had a number of unbiblical and heretical beliefs, including: a denial of angels and demons, a denial of the arrival of the promised Messiah, a denial of Satan’s existence, a denial of the supernatural and miracles, a denial of the last judgment, and a denial of the resurrection in favor of Sheol as the universal abode of the dead.

Jesus’ answer affirms the fact of the resurrection. In this earthly life, death is a daily reality and experience. On account of our sinful nature, men and women die and are buried in a grave. Markers and tombstones witness to their existence.

Physical death, however, is not the end. Jesus confesses what is clear in the Old Testament: the dead are raised. Jesus had many Biblical passages at His disposal to prove the Scriptural teaching of the resurrection of the dead, but in His discussion with the Sadducees He chose a unique passage to affirm the resurrection. Jesus refers to Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3). At the Burning Bush, Yahweh tells Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, showing that during the lifetime of Moses, the three great patriarchs who had died several hundred years prior to Moses’ birth are nonetheless (dennoch) still alive in Yahweh.

Given this Biblical truth, how does one be considered worthy to attain the age of the resurrection (v.35)? The discussion that St. Luke records in this 20^th chapter of his Gospel is the Lucan equivalent to Jesus’ dialog with the Jews in John 6 where Jesus declares with full Divine authority: »I am the Bread of Life. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day« (John 6,35.40). Every person who believes upon Jesus as his or her savior from sin, death, and the devil is considered worthy to attain the age of the resurrection. Faith trusts in the gospel which proclaims Christ Jesus alone makes us worthy of the resurrection. »For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith upon faith, as it is written, ,,The righteous will live by faith.“« (Romans 1,17). »Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ« (Romans 10,17).

Jesus Himself makes us worthy of the resurrection unto eternal life. The Apostle Paul boldly proclaims: »But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man death arrived, by a man the resurrection of the dead has also arrived. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His advent those who belong to Christ.« (1 Corinthians 15,20-23). At the return of Christ, He will reunite our resurrected body with our soul. Christ will make us equal to the angels, in that we will never suffer or die. At the present time we are sons of God by faith, and on the last day when Christ returns we will be sons of God in our physical, resurrected body. God is not the God of the dead, but He is the God of the living.

When Christ fulfills the age of the resurrection, we will enjoy eternal life in His presence. Eternal life is a grand and glorious fellowship of all believers in Christ. The patriarchs will be there, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will join all the Old Testament believers in the eternal fellowship of heaven, including such believers as Adam and Eve, Abel and Seth, David, Moses and Elijah, and all the rest. We will join the New Testament believers in everlasting communion, including John the Baptizer, Stephen the Archmartyr, and ever Christian born till Christ’s return. Yahweh is the God of the living. We live, and will live eternally, through the merits of Christ Jesus who is the Living One. By Christ’s merits on the cross and at the empty tomb we now live. We live by faith in Christ which receives His merits. We live by Holy Baptism in which God brought us into His family. We live by the Lord’s Supper wherein Christ gives us His body and blood for our everlasting life. Jesus says, »I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh« (John 6,51). At the Last Supper »Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, ,,This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.“ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ,,This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.“« (Luke 22,19-20). Hear and believe, take and receive, for you are sons of God and heirs of the resurrection through Christ. Amen.

Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, the God of the living, You have given us Your beloved only Son who for our sakes died and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation so that by His glorious and Divine merit we are accounted children of the resurrection. Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!

   All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
   http://www.centralcal.com/crist2.htm
   http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt01.html
   http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/
   Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
   Luther, Martin. WA I:353-4. ,,Theses for the Heidelberg Disputation“ (April 1518). Karlfried Frö hlich, Tr.