Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Ezekiel 34,1-2.10-16.31. Misericordias Domini

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Ezekiel 34,1-2.10-16.31. Misericordias Domini

Ezekiel 34,1-2.10-16.31 2721

Misericordias Domini 037

Anicet, Bishop of Rome, Martyr 173

18. April 2021

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who of Your Fatherly goodness has been mindful of us poor, miserable sinners, and has given Your beloved Son to be our Shepherd, not only to nourish us by His Word, but also to defend us from sin, death and the Devil: We beseech You, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that, even as this Shepherd does know us and succor (assist) us in every affliction, we also may know Him, and, trusting in Him, seek help and comfort in Him, from our hearts obey His voice and obtain eternal salvation. Amen. (Veit Dietrich)

2. »„As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.«

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 (cf. AE 21,37). This is why Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

4.The Prophet Ezekiel likewise records these words of Yahweh: »For thus says the Lord who is the Lord: „Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and will seek them out. And you are My sheep, human sheep of My pasture, and I am your God“ declares the Lord who is the Lord.«

5. In the days of Ezekiel (particularly 593-70 bc) Judah was exiled to Babylon. This punishment occurred because of the peoples’ generations of idolatry. Not only the kings, but self-proclaimed prophets, tolerated or even encouraged this idolatry. The few prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who urged Judah to repent and put aside their idols were shamefully treated, persecuted and ultimately ignored.

6. The Church still has her share of false teachers in 2021. Such has been the case in every era of the Church, including the Apostolic Age, as the New Testament Epistles testify to. Particular to our day and age, is the prosperity gospel, the dating of the return of Christ and the empty gospel of vacuous content. In a nutshell, the prosperity gospel teachers that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God, and that faith, positive speech and donations will increase one’s material well. Just never thought this in the Gospels, and when Jesus did speak about material wealth it was usually cautionary, i.e. he spoke about not letting well worth the desire for wealth to become more important than the worship of God and the care of the neighbor. Likewise the apostle Paul caution to Timothy: »For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs« (1. Timothy 6,10). How many times have you hurt someone predict the precise date when Jesus will return? We can find preachers on TV and book after book in the bookstore or on Amazon telling when the person believes Jesus will be turned. Jesus sniffed this false teaching in the bud when he said: »But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the Flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man« (Matthew 24,36-39). And, finally, unfortunately it is easy to find creatures on TV or the Internet to simply preach, week after week, a message of vacuous content. Often this is a message that seeks to be an offensive. So, instead of speaking about Jesus, they choose to speak about a generic God that anyone could except. Or the teaching of Jesus is so water down that anything controversial or what the preacher simply doesn’t like about Jesus is simply ignored or glossed over. Jesus forthrightly said: »I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.« (John 14,6) and »Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.« (Matthew 10,34-35).

7. Christianity is not about the prosperity gospel, nor trying to date when Jesus will return, nor a religious organization with an empty message that can appease every person and every philosophy. The pure, Scriptural gospel of Jesus can be summarized in 5 succinct loci (points):

i. All children of Adam and Eve are sinful and have sinned (Erbsünde). Romans 3,23.

ii. The penalty for sin is death, both physical and eternal (Die Strafe für die Sünde). Romans 6,23.

iii. Jesus paid that penalty by His crucifixion (substitutionem poenali; solus Christus). Romans 5,8.

iv. Justification is pure gift and not your works (sola iustia; iustia imputata). Ephesians 2,8-9.

v. The assurance that you are right now justified before God (Heilsgewißheit). Romans 1; John 5,12-13.

8. Where does one find the proof of this assurance? We find the proof that we are justified before God in the Holy Scriptures. Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and the Apostles, tell us again and again and again that God has redeemed us and saved us. God the Father even sent His Only Son into this world to be the Word made flesh so that we would hear from His own lips and see in His deeds that our Heavenly Father indeed justifies us through the vicarious sacrifice of His Son. This gospel soothes consciences burdened by false christs and false prophets who seek to lead the elect away with great signs and wonders (Matthew 25,24). Every generation sees its share of false prophets who peddles a gospel mingled with the law and things we must do to be assured of our salvation. The gospel brings you blessed assurance (seligste Versicherung): Fear not, dear Christians, fear not, for you are saved by Christ alone (solus Christus) and no one and no thing can snatch you out of Christ’s redeeming hands: not your sins, not false teachers, not the tribulations of the world and not even the devil himself. You are free; you are forgiven; you belong to Jesus. Christ’s vicarious and substitutionary death solves your real problem: sin. There is now full and complete peace between God the Father and you. You are righteous and justified on account of Christ’s merits which have now been credited to you.

9. Our Lord Jesus Christ assures us through the words of the Prophet Ezekiel: »I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep, and I Myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord who is the Lord. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.I will feed them in justice. And you are My sheep, human sheep of My pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord who is the Lord.« Jesus truly is our Good Shepherd. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd; You guide us with Your voice in the Holy Scriptures, so that following You we receive eternal life and will never perish. 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. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Ezekiel 34,1-2.10-16.31. Misericordias Domini

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