Devotion: Judges 10-11:28. The Stone The Builders Refused

Wednesday of Trinity 16

September 22, 2021

Judges 10-11:28

The Stone The Builders Refused

Jephthah was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute.  His father’s legitimate sons drove him out of the land of Gilead, east of the Jordan.  Jephthah became a sort of warlord or outlaw in the land of Tob, badlands east of the Sea of Galilee.  “Worthless men” came and joined him there—a variety of outcasts, some no doubt cast out for good reason, others like Jephthah, misunderstood and suffering injustice from their brothers in Israel. 

But when the Ammonites come from the east and oppress the Israelites who live east of the Jordan, the people of Gilead can’t find anyone to lead them in battle against their oppressors.  No one is willing to begin the fighting, even though the leaders of Gilead say: “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites?  He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”  (Judges 10:18)  They aren’t looking primarily for a skilled leader.  They are looking for someone with courage enough to begin the fight so that others will follow.

But they can’t find anyone like that in Gilead.  So finally the leaders send messengers to Jephthah in exile, asking him to come lead them.  (Judges 11:6)  Jephthah’s response is predictable.  He said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house?  Why have you now come to me when you are in distress?”  (Judges 11:7) 

But Israel just treated Jephthah the same way they treated their God.  After the death of Gideon, Tola, and Jair, the people of Israel served not only the Baals and Ashtaroth, but also the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines.  And they forsook the Lord.  Then when they were in trouble, they turned to Him again, and He responded like Jephthah did later: “Go and cry to the gods you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”  (Judges 10:14)

The Gileadites sent Jephthah away because, as the son of a prostitute, he was disreputable and an embarrassment.  And because of his shameful birth it was easy enough to take away any share he might have had in his father’s inheritance.  In the same way, the people of the Lord often turn from Him.  He also appears embarrassing to us and easy to take for a ride.  The Jews rejected Jesus because He appeared weak to them.  He did not seem to have the strength to save them.  And Jesus tells us in a parable, the leaders of the Jews thought that if they killed Him, they could have possession of the Lord’s vineyard, His people (Matt. 21:37-39).

We too have sent the Lord away because He seemed weak to us.  We thought we could prosper without Him.  We may not always have gone as far as formally renouncing Him and bowing down to an idol.  But we frequently say, “Lord, I don’t need you now.  Your way won’t work here.”

Yet He does not turn us away when we come to Him in distress, in trouble because of our rebellious ways.  Jephthah came to the aid of those who cast him out and became their head.  And he did so because the Lord had already heard the cry of His people and sent Jephthah as their judge and deliverer. 

The Lord hears our cry also, even when we have sent Him away.  He gives us Jesus as our head and deliverer.  He goes willingly into the battle that we are afraid to fight and cannot win, against the devil and death.  And He leads us in triumph to trample death and the devil beneath our feet.  He delivers us from the distress caused by our sin with His own distress and anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross where He bore God’s wrath against us.  He was cast away by God for our shame, so that we might be brought near to God through faith that He has reconciled us.

He is the head over His body the Church, and supplies us with every spiritual gift so that we grow up into Him and join Him at the Father’s right hand in splendor.  He is the stone which the builders refused which has become the cornerstone (Matt. 21:42).  Whoever believes in Him, even though they have rejected Him in the past, will not be put to shame.  They will be built on this rock and will never be shaken.

Christ is made the sure foundation,

Christ, our head and cornerstone,

Chosen of the Lord and precious,

Binding all the Church in one;

Holy Zion’s help forever

And our confidence alone.  Amen.  (LSB 909 st. 1)

Devotion: Holy Cross Day. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

September 14, 2020

Holy Cross Day

September 14^th has been celebrated as the feast of the Holy Cross for at least 1400 years.  When Christianity became legal under the Roman emperor Constantine, the Bishop of Jerusalem (at Constantine’s order) paid for excavations to locate the site of the crucifixion on Calvary and the tomb in which Jesus lay.  During those excavations the cross on which Jesus was crucified was said to have been discovered.  So the cross began to be venerated as the instrument on which the Lord accomplished our salvation, and a feast was instituted on this day.

It’s hard for us to full grasp how strange this was.  The cross was a symbol of the cruelty of the Roman Empire.  It was the form of death they used to punish and shame slaves and rebels.  It was a curse: if someone wished you to hang on a cross, they were wishing on you the most awful death imaginable, a hell on earth.  Crucified people typically died in agony over the course of many days.  Then their bodies were left to rot and be eaten by animals.  And for the Jews, crucifixion was a curse too.  Their Scriptures declared that everyone who was hung on a tree was cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). 

Now the Roman Emperor was searching for the cross on which the Roman state had crucified the Son of God.  That was truly an odd turn of events.  How often does a powerful government admit it was wrong—not only that it wrongfully executed someone, but that someone turned out to be the Son of God?  And how often does a proud and powerful people come to venerate an implement of death and weakness, like the cross? 

Today the powerful do not seem to be likely to return to Christ or to recognize the wisdom of the cross.  But the Roman Empire did not seem likely to do so either.  The message of cross is both God’s wisdom and God’s power.  It is God’s wisdom because by the cross of Jesus He is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  He judges and condemns sin, but does so not by destroying us, but by making His Son bear the curse in our place.  By this wisdom of God the human race is justified, declared free of sin.

But the message of the cross is also the power of God.  We are unable and unwilling to believe this message by our own reason and strength.  The message of God nailed to the cross of shame is the last thing we are looking for in our own wisdom.  We would much rather hear a message that tells us the commandments we must follow to gain wealth, happiness, or a blissful life on earth.

Instead God declares to us what we have no power to do, what only He could do.  His message is a declaration that we are counted righteous before Him.  It was accomplished by His Son, who fulfilled the Law for us and bore His judgment against us.  And the message manifests God’s power in that it works faith in our hearts that are by nature set against Him.  Like the centurion and the Roman Emperor, we stand beneath the cross and see the man who died on it and say, “Truly this man is the Son of God, my righteousness.”

O tree of beauty, tree most fair,

Ordained those holy limbs to bear:

Gone is thy shame, each crimsoned bough

Proclaims the King of Glory now.  Amen (LSB 455 st. 5)

Trinity 15, 2021. Servants of the Great God

Trinity 15

Emmaus Lutheran Church

St. Matthew 6:24-34

September 12, 2021

Servants Of The Great God

Jesu juva!

In the Name of Jesus.

Jesus Christ says: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.”  (Matt. 6:24)

In the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, the servants of the two houses in Verona, Montague and Capulet, begin fighting over which of their masters is better.  In other times people were devoted to their lords and masters.  If your master was a great man, it meant you were the servant of a great man.  You belonged to the household of a great man.

That’s the way the Bible talks about belonging to the Lord.  Before Joshua died, he told the Israelites: If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  (Joshua 24:15) Joshua talks about the Lord the like a king or their feudal lord.  He is not embarrassed that he has to serve someone.  He is proud to belong to the Lord and be his servant.

But Jesus tells us today that we can’t serve two masters.  The reason is a person can only really love and serve one master.  His heart can only be devoted to one.  The other one he will look down on or hate.

So you can have one Lord that you love, and one lord only.  It can be money, or it can be God, but not both.

Literally the word is not “money”, but “Mammon,” which means, “what one trusts in,” or “your treasure.”  Jesus is saying, you can’t be a servant of money or other earthly treasures, other things that humans put their trust in—power, wisdom, beauty—and be a servant of the great God.

Now rationally, you would have to be a fool to choose to be a servant of Mammon or anything else instead of a servant of God.  If Mammon at the most basic level is money, what is that?  At one time money was gold and silver coins.  Gold and silver is shiny.  But it is dead.  It only has value because humans assign value to it.  But it is cold, it rusts.  And money today is not even as valuable in itself as dead metal coins.  It is paper.  It’s numbers in a ledger book.

On the other hand, there is God.  He was, and is, and is to come.  He is eternal.  He is the living one, the source of life.  He is the Almighty.  He does all things.  Nothing happens apart from His power.  He wills something and it comes into being.  The evil He does not will He turns to His own purposes, and the ones doing the evil depend on Him to give them life.  Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”  Is. 43:3

God is eternal, without beginning or end.  He is almighty.  He knows everything (unlike us, who don’t know what will happen an hour from now).  He does not change (unlike mammon, which rusts, unlike human power, which fades).  He is present everywhere, and there is nowhere He cannot find and protect His servants.  And beyond His great power and wisdom, He is just and righteous, holy and without sin, faithful, kind, fully of pity, gracious.  He is love, Scripture tells us.  These are His attributes.  He is not only able to provide for us and give us everything we need, protect us, but He is also gracious and kind to His servants.

You would have to be a fool to be a servant of money, or health, or power, or pleasure, or whatever else one might serve.  These idols are nothing.  They can’t really do anything at all.

And you can’t serve both.  Either you will love God and by comparison hate these other things.  Or you will be attached to intellect, fame, or prosperity, and despise God.  You will love these things and think God is weak and contemptible. 

2.

So which do you serve?  Are you a servant of the living God, or is your master Mammon? 

Most people do not serve the living God, the Scripture tells us.  Their master, to which their heart is attached, is not the all-powerful, eternal God, but far weaker lords.  They love their life on earth.  They love wealth, they love pleasure, they love their good name. 

Jesus says: they show who they are servants of by what they are anxious about.  They are anxious about their life, what they will eat and drink, and about their body, what they will put on.

During the last year and a half, we have seen many in our country be exceedingly anxious about their life. 

Of course you should take care of your life.  It is a gift from God.  But then again it is not yours alone.  Your life is given to you not for you to do whatever you want with it.  It is given to you so that you may receive God’s gifts in faith and give yourself to Him in thankfulness.  It’s given you so that you may serve Him.  And when He wills, your life will be taken away, and you will come and give an account of your life to God.

Is this the way we have thought about our lives in this country during this pandemic?  Obviously not.  Before the pandemic, everyone thought of their lives as theirs alone to do with as they wish, not as a gift of God.  After the pandemic, everyone became concerned about their lives, not as gifts of God to be cared for in service of Him, but as possessions we were terrified to lose.

Some were fearful of their health, others were anxious about their freedom.  We have all been anxious, as though the Almighty God had no ability to take care of our lives in this world, as though He could not be relied upon to do so.

But you can’t serve both God and Mammon.  If you are concerned about your body, what you will eat and drink, and your body, what you will wear; if you are concerned about your health, how you will keep yourself alive, and your freedom, how you will keep it safe from those who threaten it, you can’t also serve God.  You are anxious about those things when you should leave them to your Lord, who can and will protect you, who feeds the birds even though they don’t sow and reap, and clothes the grass with greater splendor than Solomon, even though it is here today and tomorrow thrown into the oven.

If you are a servant of Mammon, you will reap the rewards of serving it.  Since Mammon is a dead god, an idol, it can’t take away your sins.  It can’t give you life.

3.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you (St. Matthew 6:33).  This is how Jesus Christ describes being a servant of God—to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.  Then the other things we are worried about will be provided also—food, drink, clothing, shoes, as we learned as children in the first article of the Creed.  As we pray for in the fourth petition of the Lord’s prayer: devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health.  Servants of God will have what they need for this life.

But how can a person seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness?  A person doesn’t look for God unless he has already found him.  No one is righteous, no not one; says the Scripture in Romans chapter 3.  No one understands, no one seeks for God (Rom. 3:10-11).

A person who seeks God has already found Him.  A person who seeks righteousness already has it.  No one seeks God until God has found him.  Jesus says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:3,6)  When a person knows that he is spiritually poor and lost, when he hears the law, God opens the kingdom of heaven by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.  When a person knows that he is perishing eternally because of his sin through hearing God’s law, God feeds him with the bread of life, the righteousness accomplished by His Son in His death.

In the flesh we are servants of sin.  We are worried about our lives and our freedoms.  We obsess about these things and set our hearts on them.  This is idolatry.  When we do this we despise God as our Lord and master, thinking our health and freedom is greater than He is. 

Yet God gives us His Kingdom and His righteousness.  He gives us something greater than food and drink, earthly health, good government.  He gives us righteousness in the good news of Christ.  He declares Jesus’ innocent death for sinners is yours.  Which means the law is fulfilled and you have eternal life.  That means you enter into His kingdom out of the devil’s power.  And you are safe from all he can do to you.  You cannot die eternally while you are in God’s kingdom.  You have life.

But why does Jesus say, Seek first his kingdom and righteousness if we have it already by faith in Him?

Well, you have food and clothing now, don’t you?  You have health now.  And yet you still seek to keep yourself in health.  You seek to be clothed and fed. 

Besides, though we have his kingdom and righteousness by faith, we are waiting for the day when we possess it by sight, and it will be all we have.  And we will not be able to lose it.

We seek the day when our righteousness appears before God and the universe, and we appear like a bride without any spot or wrinkle.  We seek the day when we see the kingdom of God coming down from heaven like a city with twelve gates of pearl.

And how do we seek it?  How do we serve God until that day?  St. Paul says:

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. (Rom. 14:17-18)

The kingdom of God is not a set of outward behaviors.  It is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  We have the kingdom of God by faith in Christ.  It manifests itself in the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  In the kingdom of God we have righteousness before God solely through faith in Jesus.  That is our righteousness.  But having this righteousness, we receive joy and peace from the Holy Spirit, along with His other fruits, the greatest of which is love.

Seek to be found in Christ’s righteousness when He returns.  Seek the forgiveness of sins; seek the Holy Spirit who forms you into Christ’s image.  So that instead of fear about your life you have love for others.  Instead of anxiety about your life, you have joy and peace, knowing that the great God is your Lord and Father.

When we allow anxiety about our life to distract us from Christ and to quench the Spirit’s peace, we are being tempted by the evil one, just as surely as if we are tempted by anger and hatred or lust or greed.

4.

You cannot serve two masters, because you will love the one and hate the other.  Your Lord is either the omnipotent, gracious God who gave you His Son.  Or it is mammon, the things of this life.

But you are a servant of God.  You have been baptized into His Son and entered His household.  His name is on you. 

You serve Him by faith in His Son alone.  Believing in Christ, you have fulfilled His Law.  You have His Spirit, who keeps you in His kingdom, and works in you joy, love, and peace.

You are not a servant of a weak and stingy master, nor a dead idol that can’t save.  Your master is the Lord of heaven and earth, who made all things, who feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field. 

He guides you with His eye.  Not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him, and you are worth more than many sparrows. 

He will support us as we serve Him, daily forgiving our sins and giving us life.  Come to His table and receive Your Lord’s rich gifts.  He gives you not mere earthly health and freedom.  He gives you the blood and body of His Son, and in these gifts He gives you life.

Amen.

The peace of God that passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria

Your People Will Offer Themselves Freely. Devotion: Judges 4-5

Monday of Trinity 15

September 13, 2021

Judges 4-5

Your People Will Offer Themselves Freely

To go into battle to fight is to sacrifice yourself on behalf of others.  This is why we celebrate Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day.  It’s also a sacrifice to lead people into battle.  Even though some people fight because they like violence, and some lead because they like to be first, to be in charge, to lead in conflict and battle is a sacrifice.  If you fail, the weight of the defeat falls on you.

Deborah and Barak’s song after the battle with Sisera recognizes this sacrifice and praises it in the leaders and people of Israel.  “That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!”  (Judges 5:2) 

When Deborah prophesied to Barak that the Lord had chosen him to fight and overcome the Canaanite oppressors, Barak was not bold and fearless in faith.  He offered himself, but with some reservations.  “If you will go with me,” he said to Deborah, “I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”  (Judges 4:8)  There were others in Israel who were not willing to offer their lives in the Lord’s service at all.  “Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.  Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks?  Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.”  (Judges 5:15-16)

The Lord Jesus has gone to war against the devil, the oppressor of His brothers.  He went with no reservations and offered Himself wholly to the Lord.  By His death for our sins He shattered Satan’s power to accuse and condemn us.

But we don’t see our Lord’s victory with our eyes.  By faith we see that He has broken death’s power.   It could not hold Him, so it cannot hold us.

In faith in Him we also offer ourselves freely to fight against the devil’s ongoing oppression of  our brothers.  Psalm 110 prophesies about Jesus: “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of Your power, in holy garments.”  (Ps. 110:2-3)

Barak wanted the prophetess near him to uphold him as he offered himself to lead God’s people.  He didn’t trust in the word of the Lord alone that promised him victory.  He wanted the physical presence of Deborah, too.  His faith was weak.

We also are weak through the flesh, like Peter, who began to sink when he saw the waves and the wind.  But believing that Jesus has conquered the devil and death, we offer ourselves freely to Him to fight against the devil’s oppression.  We offer ourselves to war against the devil’s work in our homes, church, and community.  And our warfare is not with physical force, but with the word of the Gospel and by giving ourselves on behalf of one another as He gave Himself freely for us.

The Word they still shall let remain

Nor any thanks have for it.

He’s by our side upon the plain

With His good gifts and Spirit.

And take they our life,

Goods, fame, child, and wife,

Though these all be gone,

Our vict’ry has been won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth.  Amen.  (LSB 656 st. 4)

The Lord Has Raised Up a Judge. Devotion: Judges 2

Thursday of Trinity 14

September 9, 2021

Judges 2

The Lord Has Raised Up A Judge

Israel’s reluctance to fight the battles of the Lord has serious consequences.  Because they continue to put off taking the land, the angel of the Lord says He will no longer drive out the Canaanites before them.  “They will become thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.”  (Judges 1:3)

The generation after Joshua grows up without seeing the Lord’s mighty hand fighting for them.  They grow up with the Canaanites in their midst; they grow up familiar with the way their gods are worshipped.  And they grow up comfortable with their idolatry.  Perhaps, too, their parents neglect to teach them what the Lord has done for them and what His laws are, and that is why “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel.”  (Judges 2:10)

Not knowing the Lord’s deeds and promises, comfortable with the ways of their neighbors, this generation begins to worship their gods.  In Canaanite mythology Baal was the god of rain and lightning.  He went to the underworld every summer, but by sacrifice—often of one’s firstborn—Baal could be roused up to send the autumn thunderstorms that made their fields produce crops.  Astoreth was Baal’s wife, the goddess of love and fertility.  The Israelites came to believe the lie that these false gods provided harvests and fertile wombs, and not the Creator of earth and heaven who had sworn an oath to their ancestors to give them this land.

The result of this idolatry was that the Lord let the Israelites lose.  When they came into the land, no one could stand before them.  Now they could not stand against their enemies.

The Lord let this happen to them so that when they cried to Him in desperation, they would see His salvation.  He would raise up a judge who would deliver them.  The Lord would be with that judge as He had been with Joshua.  But when the judge died, Israel would relapse into the worship of idols again. 

Sadly, most of us know what this is like.  We have seasons or long years of our life where we fell  into sin, asked the Lord for pardon, and returned to the same idol again, like a dog returning to its vomit. 

But blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has raised up for us a mighty Savior and Judge in the house of His servant David (Luke 1:68-69).  He has sent His Son, the second Joshua, to deliver us from the devil’s oppression.  He has raised Him from death after He died for our sins and overcome the evil one.  Because Jesus lives forever, we are never left alone.  We have a Savior and a judge to deliver us from condemnation who always lives to defend us.  The Father is ever with Him (John 16:32) to give Him victory, and He is always with us. 

When we fall away from Him, He remains our mighty Judge who justifies us when we are restored to repentance.  And He gives us a new heart so that we don’t continually fall and return.  He has put to death our backsliding flesh in His death on the cross.  He continually pours out His Spirit on us in His Word to return us to our Baptism.  There our stony, idolatrous heart was made into a heart of flesh.  In the strength of the Lord we go up with Him to fight the devil, our flesh, and the world until nothing remains of them.  I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed.  (Ps. 18:37)

Come, Holy Fire, Comfort true, Grant us the will Your work to do

And in Your service to abide; Let trials turn us not aside.

Lord, by Your pow’r prepare each heart,

And to our weakness strength impart

That bravely here we may contend

Through life and death to You, our Lord, ascend.

Alleluia, Alleluia!  Amen.  (LSB 497 st. 3)

Wednesday of Trinity 14. How the Word Came and How You Received It. 1 Thess. 2:1-16

Wednesday of Trinity 14

Emmaus Lutheran Church

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

September 8, 2021

How The Word Came and How You Received It

Jesu juva

In the Name of Jesus.

In this chapter St. Paul begins by reminding the Thessalonians how He brought the Word of God to them, how they received it, and what fruit it bore in them. 

Paul was brought to the Thessalonians with the Word out of suffering.  He suffered for God’s Word in Philippi and was treated shamefully.  This is the same word Jesus uses in Luke’s Gospel to tell His disciples what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem.  “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.”  (Luke 18:31-33)  Paul is mocked and treated shamefully and spit upon because He is bearing and carrying the divine Word.  He is proclaiming Jesus Christ.  So instead of being treated like one who is bringing salvation, he is mocked, abused, treated outrageously.

To be very blunt, this is also what we must expect to accompany the Gospel among us.  There will be those who like the Thessalonians receive the Word with joy and honor the Word.  But the world will ridicule it, treat the bearers of it shamefully, and eventually do worse—as they did to the Word Himself.

The Word came to Thessalonica through abuse and shameful treatment.  And for the short time Paul preached it there, there was “much conflict.”  There was not peace when the Gospel came.  There was an uproar.  There was no peace.  We also should not expect that the Gospel of Christ will bring peace, at least not a worldly outward peace, since Jesus Christ Himself did not come to bring peace but a sword.

And Paul said when he brought the Gospel he did not seek glory from man.  He did not flatter the Thessalonians, or try to please them or anyone else.  He proclaimed the Gospel as in the presence of God, realizing that God was testing his heart.  So when he preached he told them the truth from God about their sin and condemnation, that there was no good in them, that the way to heaven was narrow. 

Just so we should expect preachers of the Word to come with a message that is not aimed at winning them praise.  It is the message of God, and they are accountable to Him to speak what He says, whether we like it or not.

But even though the Word came to Thessalonica with suffering, conflict, and the salt of God, it also came with gentleness.  Paul says: “We were like infants among you, so gentle were we.  We were like a nurse cherishing her children, as we exhorted, comforted, and charged you to walk worthy of God, who calls you to His kingdom and glory.”

Though God’s Word comes to us with conflict and suffering, it also comes with divine tenderness.  In His Word God calls us to His glory and eternal kingdom, through the suffering and shameful treatment of His son.  So when He calls us to walk after the pattern of His Son, to accept ridicule and shameful treatment, to bear with one another and love our enemies, He doesn’t scold or beat us like a prison guard or an executioner.  He encourages us like a father with his child.  He disciplines us, but He carries us under His wing, because we are His sons. 

And Paul says: Thanks be to God.  This Word brought to you in suffering and conflict, that called you to eternal life, and encouraged you to walk as sons of God—you received it, not as a human word, but as it really is: the word of God.

It is the word of God that came to Thessalonica for those brief weeks before Paul was driven out.  It is the Word of God that is among you.  It is not a human word that has proclaimed Christ crucified to you, Christ raised from the dead for your justification.  It is God’s Word.  He declares to you that Jesus, treated shamefully and killed in Jerusalem, has reconciled you to God,  blotted out Your transgression.  His Word in the Baptismal water declares you risen with Him into a new life as a son of God.  His Word in the bread and wine declares His body and blood are for you, and you are released from your sins.

This word “is at work in you believers.”  Paul carried this word in him and with him.  It worked in him so that he suffered like Christ and lived like Christ, so that he loved the Thessalonians and poured himself out for them like Christ.

But it didn’t work only in St. Paul but in the Thessalonian saints.  It worked in them so that they also stood firm under persecution.  Just as it worked and made Paul like his Lord Jesus, so it did in the Thessalonians.

So it is doing in us.  We have received the Word in weakness, but we nevertheless has received it as it really is, the Word of God.  We believe that it is God who has cut off our sins in the suffering of Jesus.  We believe that the Lord has ended our old life and begun a new one in our Baptism into His resurrection.  And so His Word is at work in us who believe, even though we may not always be aware of it.

Brothers, take it to heart.  The eternal God has spoken this word to you.  He has called you to His kingdom and glory.  He has declared you cleansed in the blood of His Son.  As a tender Father He exhorts and teaches you, His sons, to live worthy of your calling, after the example of Jesus, the Son of God.  You are not called to live like a philosopher or a moral hero but like the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Let us come to His table that He may work in us through the Word of His Supper to strengthen us in faith toward Him and in fervent love toward one another. 

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Devotion: Judges 1. The Battle Is the Lord’s.

Wednesday of Trinity 14

September 8, 2021

Judges 1

The Battle Is the Lord’s

Before Joshua died, he warned: If you turn back and make peace with the remnant of the nations, marrying with them and associating with them, the Lord will no longer drive them out before you.  They will become a snare and a trap to you (Josh. 23:12-13).

Moses had already told them that they would not overcome the Canaanites in one or two quick battles.  “The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little.  You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.”  (Deut. 7:22)  But even though they would not defeat the Canaanites all at once, Israel was to trust in the Lord and fight faithfully, knowing that the Lord would give them the victory.  They were not to give up until the Canaanites were wiped out of the inheritance of the Lord.

But what happens?  Judah and Simeon win a few great battles.  They defeat the Canaanites and Perizzites.  They burn Jerusalem and capture three Philistine cities—Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron.  The house of Joseph conquers Bethel.

But Canaan isn’t conquered in a few big battles.  And we start to hear about a whole lot of battles Israel doesn’t finish.  They start well, but don’t follow through.  Judah can’t drive the inhabitants of the plain out because they have chariots of iron.  Benjamin does not drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  Each one of the northern tribes leaves a remnant of the Canaanites in their midst.

Why was Israel not able to drive the Canaanites out?  The disciples of Jesus asked Him something similar.  When He came back down from the Mount of Transfiguration, a man ran up to Jesus asking Him to cast a demon out of his son.  He had asked the disciples, but they had been unable to drive the demon out.  And after Jesus had performed the exorcism, they asked, “Why could we not cast it out?”  And He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”  (Mark 9:28-29)

The Lord leads each one of us up to take possession of what He has promised.  He leads us up to become participants in the divine nature through faith in His promises (2 Peter 1:4).  He leads us up to put to death what is earthly in us (Colossians 3:5) and to put on Christ’s nature (Col. 3:12f.)—compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness and love.  And He leads us together, as His Church, to proclaim the Gospel and extend His kingdom.  He leads us to war against the devil where he has set up strongholds in the Church, leading people to tolerate false teaching, bad practice, and sin in their midst.

Why do we have the same experience, that the Canaanites remain in the land, and we are not able to overcome our flesh and the strongholds of the devil?

Like the Israelites we forget and think we are fighting our own battle’s, not the Lord’s.  So we go in our own strength.  When our strength fails, we lose interest in the battle.  We don’t want the difficulty, or we are afraid.

Our battles against our flesh and against the devil’s strongholds in the world and the Church are not our battles.  It is the Lord’s battle to put to death our sinful flesh; it is His battle to rescue unbelieving sinners and to reform His Church.  They are the Lord’s battles.  We go to fight them not for our own sakes, for our own purposes, but because He has commanded it.  He wills it.  By prayer we call upon Him to win them, knowing that we have no strength of our own.  And He will lead us to victory, here or at the Resurrection.  And we will give all the glory to Him who has already triumphed over the world and devil in His resurrection.

Cast afar this vain world’s pleasure

And boldly strive for heavenly treasure.

Be steadfast in the Savior’s might.

Trust the Lord, who stands beside you,

For Jesus from all harm will hide you.

By faith you conquer in the fight.

Take courage, weary soul!

Look forward to the goal!

Joy awaits you.

The race well-run,

Your long war won,

Your crown shines splendid as the sun.  Amen.  (LSB 668 st. 2)

Trinity 14, 2021. Galatians 5:16-24. Led By the Spirit, Not Under Law

Trinity 14

Emmaus Lutheran Church

Galatians 5:16-24

September 5, 2021

Led By the Spirit, Not Under Law

Jesu juva

In the Name of Jesus.

What does it mean to be “under the law”? If you have ever seen a painting of King Henry the VIII, it was probably the one by Hans Holbein the younger. He has another painting called Allegory of the Old and New Testaments. In this painting a man is sitting on a rock under a tree with no clothes on looking wretched. Off to his right is a skeleton in a coffin, which has the letters “mors” – “death” in Latin. Beyond that we see Adam and Eve with the serpent next to the word “peccatum” – sin. Underneath the wretched man it says in Latin: “Miserable man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?” (Romans 7) The painting tells us in a blunt way what it is to be under the law. It is to be helpless, guilty, and doomed to die.

But also in the painting two men stand next to the man. One has his hand on the man’s shoulder. One is John the Baptist, the other is the Prophet Isaiah. Both are pointing away to Jesus, who is crucified on a tree like the one on the other side of the man, where the serpent is seducing Adam and Eve. He is also coming out of a stone vault like the one on the other side with the skeleton that said “death”. And He is trampling on a skeleton and a demon, next to Him is written “Victoria Nostra” – our victory. To be under the law is to be under sin and death and to be enslaved by a body of death. But as Holbein’s painting proclaims, Jesus is our victory over sin and death. The one who believes in him is not under the law but is free from sin and death.

However, in the epistle, St. Paul does not say it in this way: he does not say, “If you are of faith in Christ, you are not under the Law.”  He says in our text: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Gal. 5-18) He is saying something like what Holbein’s painting said. We are wretched people in a body of death. Our flesh is opposed to the spirit of God. Its desires are against the Holy Spirit. It constantly desires to do as Adam and Eve did: take the fruit God had forbidden, which looked so pleasant to the eyes. It wants to do that over and over and get the fruit of sin – Mors, death, the skeleton of the tomb. Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? That is the way our flesh thinks and acts.

But Paul says: in Christians there is something else besides the body of death. There is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who desires the opposite of what the flesh desires. He does not desire to take the forbidden fruit and to put us in the grave. He desires to lead us to the tree of life, to Christ crucified for our transgressions, and to put our sinful flesh to death with Jesus, so that we live and have the victory. So that a new man daily emerges and arises within us.

 So, St. Paul says, “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” Those who are led by the Spirit believe in Jesus who put sin to death in His flesh and rose victorious over death. And by the same Spirit they put to death their sinful flesh and rise with Jesus to live a new life. They are not under the law but under grace. But there are those who understand how Jesus’ tree is the tree of life and how He has won the victory over death. But it is something they understand with their head only. It is merely a work of the flesh. It is not a work of the life – giving Spirit. So they remain under the law with its condemnation of all those who do not do all that is written in it. They remain under God’s wrath and displeasure.

What does it mean to “be led by the spirit?” St. Paul explains this more clearly in the 8^th chapter of Romans: “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:12 – 14) To be led by the Spirit means to “put to death” or “mortify” the deeds of the body, meaning the sinful nature with its desires.

This makes sense if we go back to Holbein’s picture. Our flesh, what we are by nature, is the image of Adam. It takes what God has forbidden. God says “You shall not eat of it, or you will surely die.” Our flesh seeks after those very things God forbids. It can’t do otherwise. So our flesh is hostile to God, and completely dead. But the spirit of God gives life. He raised Jesus from the dead. He also leads us to life. So He leads us to Jesus who died for our sins and rose victorious over death.

So we cannot be led by the Spirit of life if we are obedient to the flesh that craves sin and death. We are in the midst of a conflict, as St. Paul points out. The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. As long as the Spirit is in you making war against the flesh and putting it to death, you are in Christ Jesus. You are not enslaved by death and bound for hell. You are clothed in Christ’s victory over sin and the grave.

But St. Paul doesn’t merely explain the way this conflict between the spirit and the flesh works. He gives us an exhortation: “Walk by the Spirit and you will not bring to completion the desires of the flesh.” (Gal.5:16) Paul is saying not just that this conflict between the Holy Spirit and the flesh happens in Christians, but he is exhorting us to walk in the Spirit. It’s like he says in Romans chapter three: “Let not sin reign in your body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.” (Romans 6:12-13) Actively offer your body to God, because He has raised you from death to life. He has set you free from sin and death.

Why is it necessary to say this? Isn’t this obvious? I don’t think so. One of my seminary professors is no longer in the ministry. The pastor who confirmed me is no longer in the ministry. They knew these texts, but not well enough. We have the same sinful flesh as they do. Our sinful flesh has the same evil desires against the Holy Spirit – to idolatry, enmity, drunkenness, fits of anger, sexual immorality, rivalries, dissensions.

We can’t be free of the desires of the sinful nature. But by the Holy Spirit the sinful nature will be prevented from bringing its desires to completion. So Paul exhorts and warns us to walk by the Holy Spirit. To actively present our member to God in gratitude that He has raised us from the dead. When did He do that? In Baptism.  In Baptism your old self was crucified with Jesus and buried. You were set free from sin. When God finds us in the flesh, as we are born, He finds no good in us, nothing that He can work with.

So He causes us to be born again as His sons, by water and the Holy Spirit. He makes us a new creation. He creates a new man in us who hates sin and wants to be free of it. He creates a new person in us who believes that Jesus has destroyed our sins and set us free from them in His death on the cross and made us new and free creatures in His resurrection.

Because He has raised up a new man in you, you are not a slave to sin. Before your Baptism into Christ, you were controlled by sin and the devil. Now you have been set free. Your old self has been nailed to the cross. Now, it is true that your old self is very close to you and daily fights against you. But it isn’t your master. Your Lord is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And just as the Spirit led king David to fight against Goliath and overcome him and led Joshua to cross the Jordan and overcome the Canaanites, so the Holy Spirit leads you to put to death your old Adam.  And to rise up a new creature, filled with the spirit’s fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self – control.

The reason the victory will be yours is that it has already been won. Jesus has already won the victory over your flesh, as powerful as your flesh seems. “God has done what the law could not do. By sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law might be met for those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3 – 4) Sin has already been condemned in Jesus.

And the condemnation and cutting off of sin that happened in Jesus has been done for you in Baptism. That is why sin will not be your master. You are not under the law trying to take away your own sins. You are under grace. Jesus’ fulfillment of the law has been given you. And you are a new creature, made alive by the Holy Spirit, no longer to live in bondage to sin. The Holy Spirit who has already made you alive in Christ Jesus will also give life to your body. As you are led by Him, presenting your body to Him, he will mortify your sinful nature and bring forth His fruits in you, and in us, together.

But no doubt, as you hear this you probably tremble a little. So much is at stake. If we live according to the flesh, we will not inherit the kingdom of God, St. Paul says. And then we realize how much the flesh is with us, provoking us to envy, sexual immorality, fits of anger, divisions, factions. Yes, this is just the reason why the catechism says: if you feel no hunger and thirst for the sacrament of the altar, you should touch your body and see if you still have flesh and blood, and if you do, you should believe what the Scriptures say of it in Galatians 5. If your flesh does what it wants, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Who will rescue us from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord. He instituted this Supper to help and refresh us as we are led by the Spirit to put our flesh to death. To devote It to destruction, like Joshua did the Canaanites. Here He promises us that He has put our flesh to death and forgiven all our sins. Here He nourishes us with His body and blood that won the forgiveness of sins. And where there is forgiveness, there is also life. We come to Him with our weakness and helplessness in death. He here gives us forgiveness and life, the pledge that we will rise in victory even while we are still in these bodies of death, and then put on glorified bodies like His in final victory on the day of His coming. Amen! Come Lord Jesus.

Amen.

The peace of God that passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Soli Deo Gloria.

Wednesday of Trinity 13. 1 Thessalonians 1. In Every Place Your Faith in God Has Gone Forth

Wednesday of Trinity 13

Emmaus Lutheran Church

1 Thessalonians 1

September 1, 2021

In Every Place Your Faith in God Has Gone Forth

Jesu juva!

In the Name of Jesus. 

St. Paul came to the city of Thessalonica with Silas and Timothy after a painful experience in Philippi.  He had cast a spirit of divination out of a girl.  This led to a riot where he was beaten by a mob and put in prison.  The next day the governor of the city asked Paul to leave and personally escorted them out.

Thessalonica was a major city in this region of Macedonia, north of Achaia or Greece.  Paul and Timothy and Silas probably went there intending that the church they planted there would become a hub out of which the Gospel would go into the whole region.  But they were only there maybe a month.  Paul was preaching Christ in the synagogue and some believed, and the Jews formed another mob and started trouble.  The Christians sent Paul and his companions away, and they went to Berea and ultimately to Corinth.  This letter was probably written a month or two after leaving Thessalonica.  Paul was anxious to hear what had happened to the church that he had planted.  Imagine a church having to survive after only a few weeks of catechesis!

But it did.  And in the first chapter, St. Paul says from you the word of the Lord resounded not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.  (1 Thess. 1:8)

What a blessed thing that would be to hear from the apostle of the Lord, speaking in the stead of Jesus.  The Word of God sounded forth from you everywhere.  You have become an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, to Oregon and Washington, he might say to us (if he were going to say it to us.)

But how did this happen, that Christians with a month of catechesis bore so much fruit so quickly?  God’s Word does not need a long time to work.  It works “when and where He wills”, as the Augsburg Confession says.

1.

But in order for the Word of God to go forth from the church in Thessalonica, it first had to come to them. 

Paul says the way it came to them showed that the Thessalonians were elect, that they had been chosen by God from before the foundation of the world. 

The proof was that it had come not only in word but also in power, in the Holy Spirit and in full assurance (1:5). 

Of course the Gospel never comes only in word.  It always comes in the Holy Spirit and power.  But there are many who only receive it in word.  They hear it, and that is as far as it goes.  The Gospel’s power is lost on such hearers.  They do not receive the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.  They hear it and do not believe it.  They hear it and reject it.

But the Thessalonians heard the Gospel, believed it, received the Spirit of God, and became fully assured of its truth—that Jesus was the Son of God in the flesh, that He died for our sins and rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.  They had full assurance that their sins were forgiven solely because of His death for them.  The Holy Spirit gave them this assurance through the Gospel.  So they turned away from their false gods to serve the living and true God by faith, and waiting for Jesus to come from heaven and deliver them from the wrath to come.  That was how Paul knew that they were chosen by God.

And as a result of being chosen, and as a result of hearing and receiving the powerful, Spirit-filled Gospel, something happened in them and through them.

They became imitators of Paul and his co-workers Silas and Timothy.  They received them and their word.  And they imitated them and the Lord Jesus by enduring “much affliction” that came with the Word.

The result of this was “the word of God resounded” from them in Macedonia, the region in which Thessalonica sits, and in Achaia, the nearby region of Greece.  But not only there—news of their conversion spread throughout the world.  Paul says “the Word of God” resounded from them, but then he says, “your faith toward God has gone forth.”  Their faith in the Word of God proclaimed that Word.  When Christians believe the Word and their lives reflect it, the Word of God resounds through the Church, even if not always as loudly as it did in Thessalonica. 

2.

“For from you the word of the Lord resounded not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.”

Those are high words of praise from the apostle.  What he is saying is: just as Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, and people talked about it everywhere, so Jesus from heaven has done a mighty wonder in you, His Church in Thessalonica.  And the word about Him goes forth everywhere through you.

And notice how Paul stirs up the Thessalonians.  “You have become an example to all the churches in Macedonia.”  What does he hope to do by saying that?  He hopes to stir the Thessalonians up so that they will want to continue to be an example to their brothers of the work of God through His Word.

And the Lord wants to stir us up in the same way.

What would the apostle say about our congregation?  Would he say, “You have become an example?  The Word of God has gone out through you everywhere?”

Maybe you are saying, “Who knows?”  I am not the judge.  I don’t know.  Maybe hearing this question makes you think of your sins, and the sins and faults of the congregation.

One thing I do know: I want the Lord to say that about this congregation.  Don’t you?

As a pastor I want to be able to say about myself, “You know what kind of man I was among you for your sake, and you became an imitator of me and of the Lord.”  And I want to be able to say about you: “You became a pattern to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”  Or Oregon and Washington. 

But who can ever hope to say that?  Is there a pastor who can say “You became an imitator of me and of the Lord?”  Is there a congregation that has become a pattern to other believers, about whom everyone talks: “Look what the Lord has done in them?”

We can’t control what the Lord does with His Word in us.  But thanks be to God, what Paul says about the Church in Thessalonica is true of you.

We know God has chosen you, because the Gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power, in the Holy Spirit and in full assurance.  It came to you in power and the Holy Spirit because it caused you to believe in Jesus, that on account of His death and resurrection alone you are righteous before God.  You may not always feel fully assured about that.  But the Holy Spirit who gave you faith, even if it is a dimly burning wick, nevertheless holds so tightly to Jesus’ righteousness within you that nothing can separate you from Him.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.  This church has not had to endure the kind of affliction the Thessalonians had.  Not angry mobs attacking the Church and driving the pastor out of town.  But you have had other kinds of affliction.  And if you have not imitated the Lord perfectly, you have imitated Him in enduring the cross of conflict within the congregation.  You are imitators of the Lord.  He has worked that in you by His Gospel and by the Sacrament of His body and blood.  Rejoice that that can be said of you!

For they themselves report what kind of entrance we have among you, and how you turned from God to idols to serve the living and true God.  You received the apostles when you received their teaching.  You received me, who holds the same ministry of the Word, and received me as a servant of Christ.  You called me by the Holy Spirit, you received my teaching of God’s Word.  You have received my ministry among you with your ears and with your offerings.  Many congregations would have chosen to keep the money as security and hire a part-time preacher.  You preferred to have a minister of the Word of God to money.  The Lord’s Gospel has shown its power among you.

And you serve the living and true God.  You receive His Word that declares you righteous with the righteousness of Jesus.  You live your life by faith in His word in your calling as husband, wife, son or daughter.  You may be a sinner, but by the Gospel you are a servant of the living and true God.

How then will His Word go forth from you?  Will you become an example to other churches?  That is the Lord’s to decide.  The Thessalonian Church became an example not because they worked hard, but by His grace alone.  He made His Word powerful in them and they became zealous imitators of Christ right away.  But they also had a great cross laid on them right away.  They were persecuted and left with no apostle Paul a few weeks after their Baptism.  They didn’t want that cross, but that was how the Lord made His Word go forth from them.

In the same way, the Lord will make His word go forth from you by hearing it and by giving you the cross.

But first we must receive it.  We can’t make anything of ourselves.  It is the Lord who chose us and sent us the Word of His Son that justifies us.  By that same Word He will impress His Word on you, imprint it on you, leave its impression and pattern on you.  He will impress Christ Jesus into your heart.  Gladly hear and learn His Word.  Don’t hear it merely as the word of men, and deny yourself its power, the Holy Spirit who comes in it, and the full assurance He gives.  When congregations are full of those who receive the Gospel only in Word, they shrivel and die.

But as you receive this Word as it is, the Word of God, the power by which He justifies you, joy and assurance will follow.  And also affliction.  These are the means through which He will make us an example and cause His Word to go out from us.  Maybe not to all of Oregon and Washington, but to those whom He has appointed.

Let us come and receive His Body and Blood, praying that He impress His Word powerfully in us and cause it to sound forth from us.

Amen.

The peace of God that passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria

Till Our Rest Be Won. Devotion: Joshua 18-19:16

Wednesday of Trinity 13

September 1, 2021

Joshua 18-19:16

Till Our Rest Be Won

At the beginning of chapter 18 the tabernacle is set up at Shiloh.  It will stay there until the time of  Samuel, for around three hundred fifty years.  It does not need to be constantly on the move, because the people of God are no longer moving.  They have come to their dwelling place, and so the Lord rests in the midst of them.

But this is only a temporary rest for God’s people, not the true rest.  Joshua did not give them rest (Heb. 4:18), even though the Lord gave him victories over the most powerful kings and strongholds in the land.  Battles still remained for the Israelites to fight.  Although the tribes of Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Gad had received their portion, and Levi would not inherit land because the Lord was their portion, seven tribes had yet to receive their inheritance. 

But as we have already seen, Israel wanted rest before the rest was won.  So Joshua rebuked them: How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?  (Josh. 18:3)  He sent twenty-one spies out to gather intelligence and help decide the boundaries for the remaining seven tribes.  In the reading for today we hear about the boundaries of Benjamin, Simeon, and Zebulun. 

The Israelites want rest, but they cannot have a lasting rest in this world.  In the book of Revelation St. John has a vision of a great dragon who wanted to devour the newborn son of a woman clothed with the sun (Rev. 12:1-6).  The dragon is the devil, the woman the people of God, the baby Jesus Christ.  When the dragon is unable to eat the male child, he “goes off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”  (Rev. 12:17)

The devil has been going around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, since the first family on earth, where Cain murdered Abel.  So in this world there can be no lasting rest for God’s people.  Israel has to fight to take possession of the land God promised his forefathers.  The Church has to put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Eph. 6:11).  We are not yet the “church at rest”, as the hymn sings.  We are the Church Militant, the Church at war.

But our Lord calls out to us, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28).  And the letter to the Hebrews proclaims to us who are weary: “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”  (Heb. 4:9) 

Our Lord Jesus won eternal rest for us, laboring and fighting on the cross to redeem us from our sins.  He rested in the tomb on the seventh day and rose and went ahead of us into the new creation.

Baptized into Him and believing in Him, we enter that rest (Heb. 4:3).  We are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).  And yet we do not experience the fullness of that rest now.  We have temporary rests, as our Lord feeds us with His body and blood.  He knows our need for refreshment as we go from battle to battle.

But our rest is not yet won.  We strive to enter His rest (Heb. 4:11).  We press on to take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us (Phil. 2:12).  Let us bravely follow our Lord into battle, because He is bringing us to the eternal rest with Him.

Jesus, lead Thou on

Till our rest is won;

And although the way be cheerless,

We will follow calm and fearless.

Guide us by Thy hand

To our fatherland.  Amen.  (LSB 718 st. 1)