✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
2. Timothy 1,7-10 4716
16. Sn. n. Trinitatis 061
Paphnutius, Bishop of Thebes, Egypt ✠ 335
11. September 2016
1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father, who did send Your Son to be made flesh, so that by His death He might atone for our sins and deliver us from eternal death: We pray: confirm in our hearts the hope that our Lord Jesus Christ, who with but a word raised the widow’s son, in like manner will raise us on the last day, and grant us eternal life: through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for 16. Sn. n. Trinitatis).
2. For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power, love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
3. The Apostle Paul tells us that „God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power, love and self-control.“ This is a timely message for some who still fear this date with dread and trepidation 15 years later. It is natural for fallen human nature to fear those who would harm us and kill us simply over religious beliefs. Paul knew about such zeal firsthand: Christians were persecuted first by Jews and later by the Romans. Before Constantine became emperor in 306, hundreds and thousands of Christians had lost their lives to imperial persecutions sporadically throughout the Roman Empire. Thus St. Paul comforts us when we experience persecution on account of the Christian faith by telling us God gives us a spirit of power, love and self-control.
4. In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul connects this spirit of power with the gospel: »I am not ashamed of the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek« (Romans 1,16). But how does the gospel exert such power in our lives? The gospel is simply the proclamation: Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1. Corinthians 2,2). Jesus was crucified as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1,29). The gospel tells us that in being this vicarious sacrifice for the world that Jesus took our sin upon Himself and in return imputed to us His righteousness so that we stand before His Father as absolved and holy people.
5. The gospel also is the proclamation that Christ Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. Since Christ has risen from the dead, then there is a resurrection of the dead (1. Corinthians 15,12). Since Christ has been raised, then our faith is effective and our sins are forgiven (1. Corinthians 15,17). Since Christ has been raised, then He is the first fruits of the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in death (1. Corinthians 15,20). When Christ returns on the last day, He returns to raise all people back to life, gather His Christians into His eternal presence and completely destroys the last enemy which is death (1. Corinthians 15,23-26). The Apostle Paul poetically states the power of the gospel in his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians: »Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?« (1. Corinthians 15,54-55).
6. God has also given us the spirit of love, and »He first shows us what love is: that Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for each other« (1. John 3,16). God has told us that we should love one another (1. John 3,11). Love does what the law commands, but love does it out of devotion and not obligation. The spirit of love »is joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires« (Galatians 5,22-24).
7. Finally, God gives us the spirit of self-control. In the Olympics that recently ended, athletes strive to win a gold medal, but are placated if they manage to win a silver or bronze medal. In Paul’s day, Olympians strove to win a laurel wreath. Thus Paul wrote in his epistle: »In a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable« (1. Corinthians 9,24-25). The word Paul uses here can be translated as either crown or wreath. Of this wreath, the Apostle James tells us: »Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the wreath of life, which God has promised to those who love Him« (James 1,12). And the Apostle Peter says: »And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading wreath of glory« (1. Peter 5,4). And finally the Apostle John testifies to the words by Jesus: »Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the wreath of life« (Revelation 2,10).
8. Faith in Jesus creates steadfastness and self-control to finish this earthly life trusting in only Him. Paul exhorted Titus: »For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ« (Titus 2,11-13). And the Apostle Peter urges us: »For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with Godliness, and Godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love« (2. Peter 1,5-7).
9. Again St. Paul: »Therefore we are not ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, but we share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.« All who die in the Christian faith die in Jesus and are welcomed into His Paradise to await the resurrection of their body on the last day. Not even acts of terrorism can change this reality; in fact, those who die as martyrs, dying because they confess the Name of Jesus, are worthy of a double honor.
10. At this very moment all the martyrs petition God to avenge their shed blood. St. John saw in his Revelation: »The martyrs cried out with a loud voice: „O Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, how long before You will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?“ Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow bondservants, their brothers and sisters in the faith, should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.« (Revelation 6,10). In his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis describes Jesus (who is Aslan the Lion in this story) as: „Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course He isn’t safe. But He’s good. He’s the King, I tell you“ (Lewis ). Behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. And the armies of heaven were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword. On His robe He has a name written:, King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19,11.14-16). In that day the Lord with His great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing, twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27,1). For the trumpet will sound, and the great red dragon will be thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where he will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 11,15; 12,3.9; 20,10). Thus Jesus will be the twilight doom of Satan and all the wicked.
11. Our Savior Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel; He gives us the spirit of power, love and self-control. That which falls, Jesus will rebuild. Those who now mourn, Jesus will wipe away their tears. Those who suffer for His Name, Jesus will give them the wreath of victory. Those who believe on Him, Jesus will give them everlasting life. He will do it, for He is the King of kings, the Rider of the white horse and Mighty Trumpet who signals the defeat of the devil and all his followers. Amen and Amen.
12. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Lord sent to redeem His people; establish Your new testament in our hearts so that we may endure each day with the sure and certain hope of our resurrection victory by Your mighty hand. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
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