Category: Sermon Page

THE PURIFICATION OF MARY 
AND THE PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD,
    FEBRUARY 2, 2025                                

Faith and Faithfulness: Text: 1 Sam. 1:21–28 

Other Lessons: Psalm 84; Hebrews 2:14–18; Luke 2:22–32 (33–40) Sermon Theme: God used Hannah’s faith and faithfulness for her son to provide for all people through his Son.

Sermon Goal: That you find comfort and joy in being made worthy of the Lord’s house and be inspired to walk in faith. Based on a sermon in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Thomas B. Chandler

Sermon: It is hard to understand people—even ourselves. No matter how faithful, we are always being pulled in different directions by an inner struggle others can’t see. Hannah’s depression wasn’t caused by too many glasses of wine; she wanted a child of her own. She’d been married for years but remained childless. That’s not the only reason her tears flowed. At that time, people sinfully ostracized married women who were childless, as if they were not favored by God or some other such nonsense. If that wasn’t enough, her husband “fixed” the problem by taking a second wife to give him children. This solution always resulted in strife and jealousy. Her clueless husband made it worse: “Cheer up, Hannah,” he said. “Am I not worth more to you than ten sons?” (see 1:8). Although the Bible doesn’t tell us, it’s not hard to imagine the mess of conflicting emotions pulling at Hannah—disappointment, anger, jealousy, a desire for retribution. Whatever she was feeling, Hannah didn’t try to sort through the mess. She dumped the whole pile on God’s doorstep. And she made a vow that day, a solemn promise: “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1:11). Hannah is an example of faith and faithfulness. We are at the same time saints and sinners, and because we live in a sinful world, our minds are a battleground of conflicting emotions and desires. Hannah shows us what it means to be faithful in the midst of these struggles.  What happens in your mind when someone either carelessly or deliberately stomps on your foot, or cuts you off in traffic? Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek.” But there are other voices inside that want you to scream out in rage or even hurt the one who hurt you. What if this happened on the day you lost your job and your health insurance? What if there was a pile of bills on your desk that you had no way of paying? What if you knew your husband or wife had been cheating on you, and then you spilled hot coffee in your lap when that person cut you off in traffic? Despite it all, Hannah had faith. She sought comfort from God at his house in Shiloh. She went to worship; she let the tears flow. In the midst of her inner battles, she found peace at the Lord’s house. The burdens lifted from her shoulders; her smile and her appetite finally returned! In all these things Hannah is a role model. But the greatest test of her faith was when she kept her vow. Promises are easy to make but often hard to keep. Hannah is an example of faith and faithfulness. When we trust God’s promises and manage to do his will when we’re being pulled in different directions by our sinful flesh, that’s what it means to be faithful. Through Hannah, God poured out blessings on all his people. Her son Samuel grew to become a faithful priest, a fair judge, and a true prophet who would call people to repentance and faith. Even more, God used Samuel to institute the eternal kingdom of David, through whom God would provide us a Prophet, Priest, and King. It was a dark time, but like those candles burning on our altar, there was a flickering light in the heart of Hannah. In faith, she came to God’s house and prayed for a son whom she promised to give back to God to become his servant. Her prayer of faith was powerful and effective. God used her faithfulness to provide for all. Hannah had faith, and she was faithful. But faith doesn’t exist by itself; faith always has an object. Hannah kept her vow to God believing God would keep his vow to us. God made a promise. Hannah’s faith received that promise, and it guided the way she thought and lived in the world. She had faith, and therefore she was faithful. After Adam and Eve allowed sin to corrupt God’s perfect creation, God vowed that from the womb of a woman a son would be born who would undo all the damage they caused. Then, right before the gates of paradise slammed shut behind them, and right before they set foot on cursed ground for the first time, God covered their flesh with the skin of innocent animals. Those garments would be a reminder, not only of their sinfulness but also of the terrible price God would pay to keep his vow. As Hannah gave her little boy to live in God’s house, God gave his eternal Son to dwell in human flesh. God kept his vow when his innocent Lamb of God was slaughtered by sinful men and his precious blood fell on the cursed ground. By his death, the sins of the world are taken away; by his resurrection, the gates to paradise are open to all who believe.    When you were baptized into the death of Christ, God forgave your sins, covered your sinful flesh with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and lit the spark of faith in your heart by the Holy Spirit. Faith receives the precious gifts of God. Faith says, “God kept his promise to me. Jesus died and rose for me. The gate to paradise is now open to me.” Faith receives the promise from God and guides the way we think and live in the world. God’s people have faith, and therefore we are faithful. God still provides for others through his people. The need is great, even greater today than in Hannah’s day. The world is just as dark, but the need is more urgent. We are that much closer to the day of judgment. The world desperately needs people of faith to be faithful.  When we bring our burdens to God’s house, when pastors speak the words God has given, when children are brought to be baptized, when parents and sponsors keep their vow to pray for them and raise them in the faith, when we remember our sin and the awful price God paid to forgive us, when our faith is nourished by the fruits of the cross, when we go out into the world and let the light within us shine by turning the other cheek and explaining the hope within us, when we pray for all people according to their needs, when we support the work of the church with our offerings, then, like Hannah, we are being faithful. None of those things will save you or make you worthy to live in God’s house—Jesus did that—but God does use them to bless all people through you. When you are faithful, you become one link in a long chain that stretches from the cross to God’s eternal paradise.  Being faithful in the world is hard. It’s easy for me to say, but it is hard to do. We are saints and sinners at the same time, so our minds are a constant battleground of conflicting desires and emotions—pulling us away from where God leads. It’s also expensive. Jesus warned it might cost you everything you love in this world. All of this is true. But faith says, “The need is great! Do it anyway!” It is hard to be faithful. Very few worthwhile things are easy. Amen.

Pastor Tim Weiser

Grace Lutheran Church De Soto, MO

Radiant Beauty Text: Isaiah 62:1–5

Other Lessons: Psalm 128; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 2:1–11

Sermon Theme: With the righteousness, salvation, and glory of Jesus, God transforms us into his radiantly beautiful Bride.

Sermon Goal: That your’ lives shine with the radiance of the beauty of the Bridegroom, Jesus, now and fully in eternity. Based on a sermon outline by Rev. Dr. Adam Filipek in Concordia Pulpit Resources.

Sermon: The imagery in our Old Testament Reading for this morning is spectacular. It couldn’t be more joyful, filled with adoration, beauty, and steadfast love. The scene is anticipatory of a wedding, of a groom doting over his bride as he is captivated by her radiant beauty. You can almost see it, can’t you? The bride adorned in her dazzling white dress. The peoples’ breath taken away as they watched her elegantly process down the aisle. The groom’s smile beaming from ear to ear, with tears beginning to run down his face as he beholds his beloved bride coming ever closer to him. That glorious moment when the new husband and wife embrace each other for the first time and their new name rings out loudly and proudly in the air. You can hear it, can’t you? “It gives me great privilege and honor to introduce to you Mr. and Mrs. . . .” But as our Old Testament Reading for today reveals, this is no ordinary wedding. This is God’s wedding. God’s wedding to the inhabitants of Zion, to his people Israel. This is God doting over his bride with joy, adoration, and steadfast love, as he is captivated by her radiant beauty. And that, quite frankly, is shocking. Because if you know anything about God’s bride throughout the book of Isaiah, and throughout the history of the world for that matter, you know she is anything but beautiful. In fact, such a beautiful wedding—for Israel or for us—is possible only because With the Righteousness, Salvation, and Glory of Jesus,
God Transforms Us into His Radiantly Beautiful Bride. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet graphically describes Israel as ugly. She has pridefully put on and arrogantly strolled around in the filthy rags of idolatry. She has brazenly burned some of her children alive on the altars of Molech and Chemosh, believing it would secure financial prosperity (Jer 32:35). The Israelites have unabashedly engaged in sexual intercourse with cult prostitutes at the designated high places of worship for Baal and Asherah, believing it would result in fertile rain for the people’s crops (Judg 8:33; Is 57:3–9). You name it, Israel chased after it, believing she would become more prosperous and bountiful, more beautiful.                             But the reality is that she is repulsive. Instead of perfume, she will smell rottenness. Instead of a belt, she will use a rope. Instead of well-set hair, there will be baldness. Instead of an illustrious wedding garment, she will wear a skirt of sackcloth (3:24). And in the millennia since, God’s Bride hasn’t prettied herself a bit. We, like those before us, wear the filthy rags of idolatry. We brazenly chase after money and material possessions, thinking they will bring security and contentment. We unabashedly neglect to come to church weekly and study God’s Word daily because we are too busy chasing after everything we believe will make us happy.  You name it, we chase after it—anything and everything we believe will make our life more beautiful. Past and present, God’s bride looks ugly in her sin. Anything but beautiful! The only thing beautiful about Israel’s past and our present is the commitment her husband has made to us. Despite her unfaithfulness, God has always remained faithful to his unfaithful bride (vv 2, 4–5). He fought for his people and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground (Exodus 14). He protected them in the wilderness for forty years, led them into the Promised Land, and granted them victory in thirteen battles so that they could enter that Promised Land. Even in exile, God sustained them and promised to free them from exile through the Persian King Cyrus II. God is so committed to his bride that he will not keep silent until he has removed her ugliness of sin (v 1). As we heard last week, there in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus laid aside his own righteousness, salvation, and glory and clothed himself in our filthy rags of idolatry (Mt 3:13–15). He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we would become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus, your Bridegroom, was faithful unto death upon the cross. He loved you with an everlasting love, giving himself up for you, in order to sanctify and cleanse you from your sin (Eph 5:25–26). In Jesus our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12). Risen from the dead, Jesus comes to bestow his beauty on his Bride (v 3). In the waters of Baptism, Jesus clothes us with a dazzling white robe of his own righteousness that covers all our sins (Rev 7:14). In the sweet words of absolution, “I forgive you all your sins,” our sins, which were like scarlet, are washed clean; they are now whiter than snow (Is 1:18). Today, in Christ, you are without spot, blemish, wrinkle, or stain (Eph 5:27). You are a beautiful Bride prepared and adorned for her wedding day (Rev 21:2). Conclusion: O people of Zion, O Jerusalem, O Bride of Christ, what a day that will be! The day of our wedding, the day of resurrection, when we are raised up in glory and so thoroughly transformed by Jesus’ righteousness, salvation, and glory that our sin is forever removed, and we shine with the radiance of our Bridegroom. The day when our husband takes us by the hand and says, “Arise. Shine. My beautiful one. My love. Come with me. No more sin, sorrow, pain, or death. Behold, I make all things new.” On that day, you will be inseparably joined to Jesus. You will be fully bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. And you will forever and only be called by your real name, Christian, for you were taken out of Christ. This is God’s promise to you. He has spoken. And he will not be silent until you are fully and completely his radiantly beautiful Bride, and eternally “he will rejoice over you with gladness; [and] he will quiet you by his love” (Zeph 3:17). In Jesus’ name. Amen.

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD,
JANUARY 12, 2025

IN God’s Eyes Text: Isaiah 43:1–7 Other Lessons: Psalm 29; Romans 6:1–11; Luke 3:15–22 Sermon Theme: Despite all that makes us feel worthless, we are valuable in God’s eyes because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Sermon Goal: That you are assured you are precious in God’s eyes on account of Christ. Based on a sermon in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Dr. Adam T. Filpek.

Sermon: Have you ever felt worthless? Insignificant. Incapable. Unlovable. Shrink-down-in-your-chair, bury-your-head-in-your-hands, unworthy-of-the-time-of-day kind of worthless. It is easy to feel and to see yourself as worthless, isn’t it?

You lose your job. You search and search to find another one. But it seems that no one wants to hire you. You have nothing to offer. Worthless. You go on date after date, but you never really find “the one.” Or you ask and ask people to go on a date, but no one seems to say yes. Worthless. You lose your spouse. You go through a messy separation or divorce. You feel that you have nothing to offer the opposite sex. You have no one to share your life with. Worthless. You’re diagnosed with a debilitating illness: cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis. Or simply just old age, which renders you incapable of doing the things that you normally used to do: mowing your lawn, shoveling snow, working in your shop or garage, driving, reading, feeding yourself, going to the bathroom alone, talking, walking, or seeing clearly. You feel incapable. Yes, you feel worthless.

You hear those dreadful words ring in your mind and out of your loved one’s mouth, “I am extremely disappointed in you.” And you mentally kick yourself: “Why? Why did I do that? I know better. That was a stupid thing to do. If I could just take it back. If I could just change that one sin, that one moment of weakness. That one word. That one night I lost my virginity, that one day I lost my temper, the onetime where I lied, taking the Lord’s name in vain just to save my own skin and not get caught. That one moment of pride and arrogance where I should have just bit my tongue and said nothing.” But you can’t. You can’t take it back. 

And you don’t want the whole world to know what a failure you are. That you are not the student, citizen, employer, employee, friend, husband, wife, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, child, man, or woman that you know you should be. You’re not even the one you know you could be. You don’t want everybody to know that you fail God, that you fail others, and that you fail even yourself. You feel worthless. Insignificant. Incapable. Unlovable. Shrink-down-in-your-chair, bury-your-head-in-your-hands, unworthy-of-the-time-of-day, “I-a-poor-miserable-sinner” (see LSB, p 184) kind of worthless. 

This is the Southern Kingdom of Judah’s reality at the start of our Old Testament Reading this morning. And despite all of God’s warning cries to them through the mouths of his prophets, Israel and Judah have reveled in their idolatry. Hence, in chapters 41 and 42, Isaiah refers to them as a “worm” (41:14) and a blind, deaf, disobedient servant (42:18–25). “I-a-poor-miserable-sinner” kind of worthless.

Yet it is to these worthless sinners, to Judah, to you, and to me that God speaks. Today, God speaks a blazing word of hope and comfort through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah. Notice how our Old Testament Reading begins. It begins with a radical shift in identity. You may very well feel and see yourself as worthless. You have been a bunch of worthless sinners. “But now thus says the Lord,” you are valuable! “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you” (vv 1, 4). 

And what’s more, Judah’s value is also determined by the price that God willingly pays for them. In verse 4, God says, “I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.” And so he did. When God led Israel out of Egypt, he paid for them with the lives of some Egyptians. And when God led Judah out of Babylon, he paid for them with the lives of some Babylonians.

But the greatest payment that God would make for his people, for Israel and Judah, for you and for me, was when he “sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4–5). And there, at his baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus took your sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that on a hill outside of Jerusalem, the Father might give his only-begotten Son as ransom for you. Jesus willingly and graciously loved you unto death, even death upon the cross. He paid for your sins in full. Not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood, innocent suffering, and bitter death. You are free. It is finished. Jesus has done it all, and all that he did was for you. You are forgiven all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There is no condemnation, no fiery judgment of God, for you who are in Christ Jesus. Do you see what kind of love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called sons of God (cf 1 Jn 3:1)?

And so, you are! “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:26–27). You were buried and raised with Christ in Baptism. You don’t belong to sin, death, or even the devil any longer. They have no power over you. You belong to God. In Baptism, he who created you, who formed you and numbered the hairs on your head, marked you with his cross, covered you with the robe of his righteousness, and said to you, “You are mine.”

Don’t you see, dear saints of the living God? The Good News of the Gospel is that it doesn’t matter if you feel worthless. It doesn’t matter if the world calls you worthless. It doesn’t matter what accusation the devil throws at you, or your life circumstances, the turbulent waters and the fiery trials that you endure in this vale of tears. It doesn’t matter if in your eyes you seem worthless. Because none of these things define who you truly are. Despite All That Makes Us Feel Worthless,
We Are Valuable in God’s Eyes
Because of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. Your identity comes from God himself. He has given it to you. He has told you who you are. To him, “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you,” now and forever. In Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.