Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: May 2019

Thursday, May 30, 2019

They Ascension of our Lord

»Afterward Jesus appeared to the Eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. ¹⁵And He said to them: „Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.“ ¹⁹So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.« (Mark 16,14-20)

Forty days ago our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the grave. Over the course of those several weeks He appeared to His disciples, taught them and opened up the Scriptures further. Today that drew to a close as Jesus ascended into heaven.

But Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit who would be with and guide His apostles and the Church. Through the working of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the apostles and the testimony of the disciples, the Church grew. The same is true in the 21st century as it was in the 1st century.

Christ has promised to be with us throughout time. He now rules from on high at the right hand of God the Father. He watches over us. He hears our prayers. He directs the Holy Spirit and the hosts of angels to guide and protect us.

The Son of God is now the ruling Prince. All of creation bows to Him. We confess and praise Him to be the risen Lord. The Lord works through us, our words and our actions, to spread the gospel that sin has been forgiven on account of Christ. May we always remember that gracious promise and declaration. Amen.

Let us pray. O Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

John 16,23-30. Rogate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

John 16,23-30 3119

Rogate (5. Sonntag nach Ostern) 040

Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, disciple of the Apostles, Apologist, ✠ 126

Coptic Martyrs (28+) in Minya, Egypt ✠ 2017

26. Mai 2019

1. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord, we ask that Your holy resurrection would be our comfort, so that our firm reliance in faith is acknowledging that in Your grave You did deeply hide our sin and guilt. Amen. (Löhe 479)

2. »Jesus said to His disciples: „In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. ²⁴Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full. ²⁵I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is arriving when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶In that day you will ask in My Name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ²⁷for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I arrived from God.²⁸I arrived from the Father and have gone into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.“ ²⁹His disciples said: „Ah, now You are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! ³⁰Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe that You arrived from God.“«

3. Rogate is Latin for ask, and in John 16 Jesus exhorts His disciples to »ask, and you will receive.« Jesus encourages us that the life of a Christian is a life of prayer to God; thus, prayer is a core activity each Sunday as the Church gathers in worship.

4. Jesus’ exhortation to pray to God the Father in John 16 occurs on Maundy Thursday, and as such is one of the last things He teaches His apostles before He is arrested and crucified. But this is not the first time Jesus taught about prayer, for He had exhorted His apostles several times before about prayer in the Gospels.

5. Such exhortation is necessary. We tend to live busy and stressful lives, and prayer can be one of the first things to be put aside as we manage our time. Jewish piety in Jesus’ day was to pray in the morning and in the evening. Several psalms encourage morning and evening prayer (Psalm 5,3; 57,7-10; 119,147; Psalm 63,6; 119,55.62). Often times the Jewish people prayed when the morning and evening sacrifices were offered at the temple in Jerusalem so that there would be a connection and a synchronization of prayer with the prayer of the priest, the sacrifice of the animal for forgiveness at that time of day and the praying of the Jewish people wherever they were all aligning at the same time (1. Chronicles 16,40). The apostles and the Church exhort Christians to follow this piety and tradition. By the Medieval Ages the Church had established 7 canonical hours for prayer. Luther gives in his Small Catechism examples of simple morning and evening prayers. In the Lutheran tradition, our hymnals contain at least two prayer services: Matins and Vespers.

6. Luther’s guide for morning and evening prayer is quite streamlined: Invocation, Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, a morning/evening prayer and a hymn. Luther’s morning prayer is this: „I thank you, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, so that all my dealings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, so that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.“ It costs us roughly 5 minutes of our time in the morning and evening to follow Luther’s advice. Luther’s order of prayer is printed in his Small Catechism and in our Lutheran Service Book.

7. In John 16, Jesus focuses on the object of our prayer, which is God. Jesus says: »Whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.« Luther explained it this way in his Small Catechism about the Lord’s Prayer: „God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.“ And again: „We should be certain that these petitions are pleasing to our Father in heaven, and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us to pray in this way and has promised to hear us.“

8. Take your prayers, petitions and concerns to the Lord in prayer, and do so with confidence for our Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them. After teaching His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said to them: »Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him: „Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him“; and he will answer from within: „Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything“? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!« (Luke 11,5-13).

9. With this parable Jesus teaches us that God the Father loves us, cares for us and provides for us. He wants us to ask things from Him, trust Him and to give thanks for His daily Providence. May the Holy Spirit form in us the habit of daily prayer, for He will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds and does justice for the righteous (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 35, 16b.21-22a). Amen.

10. Let us pray. O God the Father, who receives the prayers of His people; receive our songs of praise and the petitions we offer up in prayer, so that in hearing You respond to us and in responding You bless us. 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, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

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

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Summer worship time

We go to our 9:30 a.m. Divine Service schedule on May 26th.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Acts 16,23-34. Cantate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Acts 16,23-34 3019

Cantate 039 weiß

Pudentiana, Virgin at Rome, 1. c

19. Mai 2019

1. O Christ our Shepherd, risen from the dead, receive our joyful voice this day, so that we sing: „Blessed be God who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Löhe 479)

2. »And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice: „Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.“ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said: „Sirs, what must I do to be saved?“ And they said: „Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.“ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.«

3. Cantate is Latin for sing, and thus today’s Introit exhorts us: »Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!« (Psalm 98,1). Things, however, did not seem marvelous for Paul and Silas: they were beaten and thrown into jail. This happened in Philippi, a Roman colony in Macedonia. The charge against them: these men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city; they advocate customers that are not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice (Acts 16,20-21). Their crime that led to this accusation: Paul had exorcised a girl who had a spirit of divination (Acts 16,16.18). The girl was a slave, and her owners became mad because without her ability to fortune tell they lost income she brought in for them; thus, they brought Paul and Silas before the magistrates (Acts 16,19-20).

4. Paul and Silas make the best of their predicament: they prayed, sang hymns and comforted their fellow inmates. Just a few years earlier, Jesus had told His apostles on Maundy Thursday: »„A slave is not greater than his master.“ If they persecuted Me, then they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, then they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of My Name, because they do not know Him who sent Me. Indeed, the hour is approaching when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God« (John 15,20-21; 16,2). Thus, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail for proclaiming the gospel.

5. Luke does not give details as to what the gospel is that Paul and Silas spoke to the terrified jailer and his family. Luke is more specific in other places in his book of Acts. Luke gives us some details as he records one of Paul’s sermons a chapter later: »Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Jesus Christ to suffer and rise« (Luke 17,2-3). Throughout their epistles, Paul, Peter and all the apostles are very clear what the gospel is: Christ was crucified for us as payment for our sin and that He rose from the dead on the 3. day (1. Corinthians 2,2; 15,3); we are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law (Galatians 2,16). This is the gospel the apostles preached again and again; this is the gospel Paul and Silas preached to the jailer and his family.

6. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10,9.17). The gospel is about certainty, and faith receives and believes this certainty. The jailer asked: What must I do to be saved? Paul replies: Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. Is it that simple? Can it be that easy? Surely, we must do something on our part? The gospel says: yes, it is really that simple; Jesus has done everything for you already, and you do not need to add anything on your part. The certainty of our forgiveness and salvation is not grounded upon anything we might do but is solely grounded upon Christ and what He has done. The simplicity of the gospel has confounded human reason and given great peace to countless people since it first left the mouths of the apostles and disciples.

7. We respond to this free gift of the gospel with thanksgiving and songs of praise. In the words of the psalmist: »Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens! Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with strings and pipe! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!« (Psalm 150,1-2.4b.6a). The apostle also exhorts us: »Address one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ« (Ephesians 5,19-21).

8. Paul and Silas lifted high the crucified Christ and a Roman family was saved. That family then lifted high the crucified Christ, they were baptized and they rejoice in fellowship with a meal. This morning we have lifted high the crucified Christ with our worship and prayers; we have heard His gospel in Scripture and hymn. This gospel assures us of our salvation. We hear it, we’ve been baptized, we will partake of it in the Lord’s Supper, we have receive it, believe it and rejoice in it. Only Jesus forgives and saves. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Risen Christ, all the earth sings the glory of Your Name; we also praise You and we ask that You shoulder our heavy burdens alongside us or, if You will, bear them entirely for us, so that we receive Your light burden which is manifested in the reality of Your resurrection, that we are comforted and at peace with Christian discipleship that teaches us to trust You in all things. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Proverbs 8,22-36. Jubilate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Proverbs 8,22-36 2919

Jubilate (3. Sonntag nach Ostern) 038

Pancratius, Martyr at Rome 304

12. Mai 2019

1. O Lord Jesus Christ, Victorious Prince, like a true and mighty Sampson, You did powerfully lift up and destroy the gates of the portals of hades, so that we might pass our days in everlasting liberty. Amen. (Löhe 478)

2. »The Lord possessed me, Wisdom, at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before He had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When He established the heavens, I was there; when He drew a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him, like a master workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.«

3. King Solomon exhorts us: »Blessed are those who keep wisdom’s ways. Hear instruction and be wise; do not neglect wisdom.« And again: »The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight« (Proverbs 9,10). One of the reasons the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible is to give people wisdom and knowledge about God, and in the Old Testament 5 books are commonly described as wisdom literature: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon.

4. Human beings have an insatiable quest for wisdom and knowledge. God created this desire in us by making us in His Divine Image and Likeness. It was also this quest for wisdom that led to our great Fall. The Serpent tempted Eve with knowledge, for there was a tree planted in the garden that held the knowledge of good and evil. This was the one tree God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from, and thus it is the very tree the Serpent tempted them with. Recall the story from Genesis: »Now the Serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the board God had made. The Serpent said to Eve: „You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil« (Genesis 3,1.4-5). Therein was the temptation: the tree was desired to make one wise (Genesis 3,6). Created in God’s Image and Likeness, Adam and Eve already had the knowledge of what is good: good is loving and trusting in God, rejoicing that He created them with every good blessing provided to them by His hand and carrying out His exhortation to be good stewards of the earth and the animals. They did not need the knowledge and evil to be any more in God’s Image and Likeness than they already were.

5. Here is the craftiness of the Devil’s temptation: God is holding back on you; He is not providing you with everything that there is. God has held back the knowledge of evil because He knows that when you discover that knowledge, then you will be like Him, You will be His equal and that you can overthrow Him and become a god yourself. The Serpent’s temptation worked, and it still works today. Mankind’s great Fallen boast is pride. It manifest itself in many ways, but ultimately it is a boast that we do not need God; we can be independent and succeed without Him. Indeed, people can accomplish great things without faith or trust in God. We are still creative, smart and industrious people; our arts and sciences testify to the things humanity can devise.

6. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux wrote (circa 1115): he’ll is full of good desires, and Virgil wrote (circa 29-19 bc) in his Aeneid: the decent to hell is easy; from these proverbs come our own: the road to hell is paved with good intentions [hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works]. Time and again, throughout history and in our own lives, this proverb is proven true. Consider two examples from the Gospels: Peter and Judas Iscariot.

7. After He had been teaching and preaching for a time, Jesus asked His 12 apostles this question: Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16,13). Peter replied: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16,15). Then Jesus explains what this confession means: He must suffer many things from the Jewish religious leaders, be killed and rise on the third day (Matthew 16,21). At that point, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him saying: This shall never happen to you! Then Jesus said to Peter: Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (Matthew 16,22-23). At another time, many disciples turned back and no longer walked with Jesus. So He asked the Twelve: Do you want to leave as well? Peter answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and know that You are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them: Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iscariot who was going to betray Him (John 6,66-71). Jesus called Peter „Satan“ because he attempted to stop Him from going to His suffering and death; He also called and Judas a „devil“ because he was the one who betrayed Him.

8. The actions of both Peter and Judas pave the way to hell, and had they remained on that path they would end up there. Peter walked down that path twice: he tried to hinder Jesus from dying and then outright denied knowing Him. Judas walked down that path too: he betrayed Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders. Judas walked the path all the way to hell: he turned aside from the apostleship and ministry to go to his own place (Acts 1,25). But, Peter did not remain on the way to hell.

9. Psalm 23 promises us: »The Lord leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me (Psalm 23,3-4). A wise person realizes when they are on the wrong path, thus the Holy Scriptures exhort us to the wisdom of God. Solomon wrote: »For whoever finds wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.« The Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is the main point of wisdom. Psalm 23 tells us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who puts us onto the path of righteousness. Jesus is the one who saved Peter from his despair and forgave him. Three times Jesus asked him before He ascended: Do you love me?, and three times Peter confessed: yes, Lord, I love You; three times Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, that is, be a shepherd to His Church. Jesus is about changing the path people are traveling. Another man who was on the path to hell was Paul. Jesus put him onto the path of righteousness and salvation while he was on the path to Antioch to persecute Christians. The Bible is full of stories about men and women whom Jesus set upon a different path, a Godly path.

10. From the moment men and women were created we have sought what our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, sought: knowledge and wisdom. The Bible tells us that we don’t want the wisdom that the Serpent offers, but the wisdom that the Savior gives. In Jesus is life, and the life was the light of men and women (John 1,4). The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1,5). Mary was another one on a different path: she was going to be the wife of Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth. The Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and said the Lord is altering your path a bit: you will also be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. So even God saw fit to have an earthly mother. They are His gift to us, for our mothers taught us the faith, shaped us in the way of Christian righteousness and prayed for us. They have passed down to us their wisdom so that we can become wiser and better people. So we give thanks to God for His great wisdom who has given us a Savior and a mother who points us to that Savior. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who preserves our lives; daily remind and enable us to seek Your wisdom and hate evil, so that we may trust upon Your death and resurrection to be the greatest wisdom taught by Your Holy Scriptures. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

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

Monday, May 6, 2019

John 10,11-16. Misericordias Domini

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

John 10,11-16 2619

Misericordias Domini 037 weiß

Gotthard, Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany. ✠ 1039

Frederick the Wise, Landgrave of Thuringia & Elector of Saxony, Defender of Luther ✠ 1525

5. Mai 2019

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who for our sins did give your Only-begotten Son, and for our justification did raise Him up from the dead, we beseech You in mercy to awaken our dead hearts to newness of life; and, with Christ, make us ever to live by the power of the resurrection of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Löhe 477)

2. »„I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf advancing and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.«

3. The theme of this Sunday is the mercy of the Lord (Misericordias Domini). Martin Luther nicely summarizes it this way: „If we truly believe that Christ is our Savior, then we have a God of love, and to see God in faith is to look upon his friendly heart. For we know One who suffered and made satisfaction in our behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God. Where He is, there we shall be also“ [1] (Luther 21,37). This is why Jesus is the Good Shepherd

4. Those who see Jesus as angry are not seeing Him correctly, but have covered His face with a dark cloud. Jesus lay down His life for us and all the world. He saw and knew the cost. Saint Luke tells us that late on Monday Thursday evening: »Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives, knelt down and prayed: „Father, if You are willing, then remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.“ And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. And for being in agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground« (Luke 22,42-44). Jesus knew the cost, agonized over it and was determined to accept it. To see the suffering face of Jesus is to recognize Him correctly as gracious and faithful. Saint Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Philippians: »Jesus emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, … and He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross« (Philippians 2,7.8).

5. John tells us in his Gospel that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. Those who see Jesus as loving are seeing Him correctly, and to see a loving Jesus is to see a loving Heavenly Father, for Jesus and His Father are one (John 10,3) and whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (John 14,9). When Adam sinned and consigned all men and women to sinfulness, God approached this Fall with a Fatherly heart of love. He did not invoke the sentence of the law right then and there by striking down Adam and Eve. Rather, He evicted them from Eden, denied them access to the tree of life so they could not make the sinful Fall any worse and then made a promise to save men and women. Jesus is the Son of Eve who is the Second Adam. Whereas the first Adam could not overcome the Serpentine Satan, the Second Adam cast out the Devilish Dragon.

6. Psalm 23 tells us that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has a rod and a staff to comfort us. One of many uses of a shepherd’s staff is to protect the sheep from predators. The Holy Scriptures give us a couple of vivid images of Jesus driving back our Predator the Devil. »The 72 disciples returned with joy saying: „Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name!“ And Jesus said to them: „I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and over all the power of the enemy“« (Luke 10,17-19). And again: »Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the Dragon. And the Dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great Dragon was thrown down, that ancient Serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: „Now the salvation, the power and the reign of our God and the authority of His Christ have arrived, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the Devil has gone down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!“« (Revelation 12,7-12). The Legend of Saint George and the Dragon builds upon this work of Jesus. (St. George festival is 23. April.) The 11. century legend tells about George slaying a dragon that had been demanding human sacrifices.

7. Jesus is our Good Shepherd; He has redeemed us, purchased our forgiveness and opened up heaven to us. Jesus is the living personification of His Father’s merciful heart. His promise to us is: »My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.«

8. Psalm 23 speaks of the merciful, loving Good Shepherd that Jesus is. »The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.« (Psalm 23). Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Good Shepherd; speak to us through Your Word, so that in the Holy Scriptures we hear Your Voice and follow You unto eternal life. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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

[1] „Anyone who regards Him as angry is not seeing Him correctly, but has pulled down a curtain and cover, more, a dark cloud over His face. But in Scriptural language „to see His face“ means to recognize Him correctly as a gracious and faithful Father, on whom you can depend for every good thing. This happens only through faith in Christ“ (Luther 21,37).

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, May 30, 2019

They Ascension of our Lord

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

John 16,23-30. Rogate

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Summer worship time

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Acts 16,23-34. Cantate

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Proverbs 8,22-36. Jubilate

Monday, May 6, 2019

John 10,11-16. Misericordias Domini