Philippians 1,3-11. 22. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Philippians 1,3-11 5316

22. Sn. n. Trinitatis  067

 James the brother of Jesus. Bishop of Jerusalem. Martyr 62

Severin, Bishop of Cologne, Germany. ✠ 403

23. Oktober 2016 

1. О Almighty, Everlasting God: We confess that we are poor sinners and cannot answer one of a thousand, when You contend with us; but with all our hearts we thank You, that You have taken all our guilt from us and laid it upon Your dear Son Jesus Christ, and made Him to atone for it: We pray that You graciously sustain us in faith, and so to govern us by Your Holy Spirit, so that we may live according to Your will, in neighborly love, service and helpfulness, and not give way to wrath or revenge, so that we may not incur Your wrath, but always find in You a Gracious Father.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich for 22. Sn. n. Trinitatis). 

2. Finally I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

3. The Apostle Paul tells us this morning that »God the Father who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.« The sound apostolic teaching that Paul once again proclaims to us is that Christ is the center of our theology. Our Heavenly Father began His good work in us through His Son and He will complete that work in us likewise through His Son. God began that work in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus; to be sure, God was working long before those two dove-tailing events, but Good Friday and Easter Sunday are the foundational blocks of the good work the Holy Spirit does in us. Christ crucified paid for our sin; Christ resurrected promises our own resurrection on the last day, and it is at that last day that God will complete the good work He has begun in us through His Son. 

4. By His death and resurrection, Christ made us righteous, and »He will sustain us to the end, so that we will be guiltless in the day of His parousia« (1. Corinthians 1,8), for the good work He has begun in us is everlasting life in His fellowship, and whoever believes in Jesus shall have eternal life (John 3,15). 

5. As we await the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works in us to perfect the good work that we shall become on the last day. Love shall abound more and more.  Knowledge and discernment shall help us to approve what is excellent. Purity and blamelessness shall well up from us (Philippians 1,10). These good fruits are all fruits springing up from faith and created by the gospel through the working of the Holy Spirit in us. 

6. Saint Paul also reminds us: »we do not have a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith so that we may know Him and the power of Christ’s resurrection« (Philippians 3,9-10). This righteousness that comes through Christ is the pure, true gospel of the Church. No other religion has this gospel that is grounded on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ Jesus. The one holy catholic and apostolic Church alone has the word of salvation. Paul furthermore declares: »Righteousness will be reckoned to those who believe in God the Father who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, our Jesus who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ« (Romans 4,24-5,1).

7. As we await the day of our Lord: »Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Holy Spirit. Do not despise preaching, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole body, soul and spirit be kept blameless at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you« (1. Thessalonians 5,16-24.28).  Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, You heal those brokenhearted by their sin; bind up our wounds so that we may live peacefully knowing that You are not angry at us but that You are accepting of us.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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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, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th 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.