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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 2, 2022

“Timothy and the Women Who Raised Him in the Faith” (2 Timothy 1:1-14)

In today’s Epistle, Paul writes to Timothy to encourage him in his faith. Paul also reminds Timothy of the ladies who passed on the faith to him. Their names were Lois and Eunice. One was Timothy’s mother; the other, Timothy’s grandmother. Let’s see, now which one was which? Here’s the way I have of keeping them straight: “Lois” sounds like “oldest,” so she was the grandma. “Eunice” sounds like “youngest,” so she was Timothy’s mom. So now let’s hear more about “Timothy and the Women Who Raised Him in the Faith.” Let’s hear what that faith is, and what it means for us today.

First, a little background. When Timothy was young, he and his mom and grandma all lived in a town called Lystra, in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. And these two ladies–Eunice was the mom, and Lois the grandma–these two women did great work in support of the spread of the gospel. How? By helping to produce a missionary. Timothy may not have ended up as “St. Timothy” unless these two ladies had not first done a lot of work to prepare him to be the great missionary-pastor he ended up being.

In our text, Paul writes: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” Do you notice here the great work that Lois and Eunice did? They passed on their faith to young Timothy. That is perhaps the most important and God-pleasing work that you mothers and grandmothers–and fathers and grandfathers, and aunts and uncles–this is the great work that you also can do: You can pass on the faith that dwells in you to the next generation coming after you. Whether or not that child grows up to be a missionary or a pastor, whether or not he or she ends up having the word “Saint” in front of their name, the important thing is that your young person has been brought up in–and lives out and carries forward–the only saving, life-giving faith there is, which is a living faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

A little more background is in order. Why are only the grandmother Lois and the mother Eunice mentioned? Where’s the dad? Where is Timothy’s father? That’s the first question, since, according to God’s word, it is the father who has the primary responsibility for being the head of the household and its spiritual leader. The father is the person who should see to it that the whole family goes to church together and that the children are raised in and taught the Christian faith. That’s the way God has designed for families to work best. But unfortunately, in Timothy’s case, as in so many families, the father was not doing his job of being the spiritual head of the household.

In fact, Timothy’s father was not even a Christian. That’s the way it appears when we first meet Timothy, in Acts 16. Paul had come to Lystra, and it says: “A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer”–that would be Eunice–“but his father was a Greek,” that is, a Gentile, and presumably not a believer. So here you have Timothy, whose mom was a Christian and his dad was not. Nevertheless, Timothy was a believer, a Christian, a disciple. The apostle Paul took him under his wing, and Timothy became part of Paul’s missionary band. And the godly influence of Eunice and Lois played a big part in raising Timothy the right way.

How did they do it? They taught young Timothy the Bible and the Christian faith, and they did this from early on. In 2 Timothy 3, we read where Paul says to Timothy: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

And so here is an encouragement for you, moms and grandmas, dads and grandpas, aunts and uncles–any of you who can help influence a child for Christ. Even if someone in the family who should be taking the lead in passing on the Christian faith isn’t, perhaps God can use you in some small or not-so-small way to help get the job done.

I know in my own case, my dad died when I was one year old. But thank God, Grandma and Grandpa Henrickson lived right next door, and they did a lot–I mean, a lot–in both modeling the Christian faith for me and in seeing that my sister and I went to church and got a good Christian education. God put my grandparents in my life to help fill a void, a gap that my father was not filling. I would not be a pastor today–maybe not even a Christian–if it were not for them.

Well, that’s what Lois and Eunice did for young Timothy. They filled in the gap. They passed the faith on to him. They made sure he learned the Bible. And then Paul took it from there. Paul became Timothy’s spiritual father, his mentor in the faith. And you can hear that relationship expressed in the beginning of our text, where Paul addresses Timothy as “my beloved child.”

So what is it about the Christian faith that makes it so important to pass on–the most important thing in the world, actually? Paul explains that in our text, in a passage that is utterly brilliant and profound. Paul lays out an exposition of God’s plan for the ages. This plan stretches from eternity to eternity, and yet it lands smack dab in the present, with what’s happening here today. Notice, God’s plan begins before the beginning: He “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

Dear friends, God planned for your salvation before the foundation of this world. God knew that we would need a Savior, and so he made provision for that to happen. God the Father appointed and determined that his own eternal Son would one day come into this world to bring us God’s grace and favor. God’s own Son would win for us forgiveness for our sins, a work we could not do for ourselves. In the mystery of God’s foreknowledge and in the depth of his love, our heavenly Father knew that this is exactly what we poor sinners would need.

And so Christ came. Paul says that God’s own purpose and grace “now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” Christ has abolished death. He did this by himself dying the biggest death of all, the death that put an end to death. The very Son of God, come in the flesh–this same Jesus Christ suffered and died in the place of us poor sinners, taking our sins on his own sinless shoulders, shedding his holy blood to purchase our redemption. This is what Jesus did for you! And then he rose on the third day, showing that life and immortality are the result when sin is paid for and removed. This gift, eternal life, is for you, in Christ, through faith in him.

And this faith comes through the gospel, the gospel as it is preached and sacramented to you, today, here in this place. Paul says that Christ “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher.” Through the ministry of the gospel, through the church’s work of Word and Sacrament, through missionaries like Paul and Timothy, through pastors today speaking the gospel of Christ into your ears and putting the body and blood of Christ into your mouth, you are being given faith in Christ and forgiveness for your sins. This is the gospel in the here and now, the present-day application of our text.

And this gospel will sustain you and sustain the church until the day of Christ’s return. That’s where Paul takes us next. He says: “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”

The Holy Spirit keeps and sanctifies you and me and the whole Christian church in the one true faith, until that great and glorious Day when Christ returns. The good deposit that has been entrusted to you, the deposit of the Christian faith, which you have received–the Holy Spirit will continue to keep you in that faith and keep you from falling. And so we look forward in hope to the return of our Lord on the Last Day. Then he will right the wrong, he will restore the whole of creation, and he will raise the living and the dead who have believed in him. Our Lord will bring us into unending, everlasting life and joy.

What a gospel! What a faith! This is the faith that Eunice and Lois passed on to Timothy. This is the faith that has been passed on to us. This is the faith we ourselves believe in and rejoice in and gladly pass along to our children and grandchildren. And this is the faith and the gospel ministry that our church will carry on.

Today I want to remind us all–moms, grandmas, dads, granddads, all of us–of the importance of raising our children in the Christian faith. We raise our children right by both our personal example and our verbal teaching. This means raising our “Timothys” in the faith, in the church, in the Holy Scriptures. This is our Lois-and-Eunice work. And it is some of the most important work that God has called us and gifted us to do.

Have you failed in this in the past? God forgives you for the sake of Christ. Do you need help to do this in the present? God will supply it. And together–parents, grandparents, children, all of us–together we have a great hope to sustain us as we head toward our eternal future.

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 25, 2022

“The Poor Man and Rich Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31)

Our text today is the story commonly known as “The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus.” But I’m going to suggest to you today that we could just as well call this story “The Poor Man and Rich Lazarus.” As we shall see. So let’s go.

Jesus starts out the story with the rich man: “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.” Now this is quite a picture Jesus is painting with just a few words. The man is described as a rich man, but his wealth is made more vivid by what follows. It says he is clothed “in purple and fine linen.” Now those were very expensive fabrics in those days. It would be like if we would say that a man today wears $6,000 custom-made Armani suits! So this guy was very wealthy, very rich, and he liked to dress in the fanciest style.

And what about his dining habits? It says he “feasted.” OK, fine. Special occasion, once in a while, maybe he likes to splurge a little bit. But no, it’s more than that. It says he “feasted sumptuously.” That means he didn’t hold back at all. He laid it on with the fanciest food, the most expensive wine, whenever he did feast. But wait, there’s more. It says he feasted sumptuously “every day.” He wasn’t content with just his daily bread. No, he wanted his daily filet mignon and pheasant under glass and several bottles of Dom Pérignon, every single day! This man is living in the lap of luxury. He’s living the dream.

But then we meet a man who’s living a nightmare. At the rich man’s gate is “a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table.” This poor man is not far from the rich man in terms of distance–he’s right at his gate–but in terms of living conditions, the two men could not be further apart. The rich man is covered with expensive clothes. The poor man is covered with sores. The rich man’s table is filled with sumptuous feasts every day. The poor man would be happy just to get some scraps from his table. The poor man has to be laid at the rich man’s gate, in hopes of getting some help from inside. And the rich man wouldn’t even miss the little bit of help he could have easily given the poor man, and it would have been more than plenty for the poor man. But the rich man will not help.

This rich man has everything you could possibly want–except of course the qualities of love and mercy that flow from a living faith. The poor man, by contrast, has absolutely nothing–except he does have one thing that the rich man does not have. This poor man has a name. And his name has in it all the riches and all the help that will make the difference in the long run. For this poor man’s name is “Lazarus.”

You know, it’s very unusual for anyone in Jesus’ stories to have a name. But here, in this story, this man does. And his name is Lazarus. In Hebrew, his name would be “Eliezer,” which means, “My God is help.” So, “Lazarus”: “The one whom God helps.” The rich man isn’t helping Lazarus. No one else is helping him. But God will.

Lazarus, the one whom God helps. And God does help him, magnificently so, at the hour of his death. The poor man dies, and he is “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.” Wow, what a beautiful way to describe what happens at a believer’s death! To be “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side”!

And this is the hope you and I have in Christ, the hope that will be realized at the hour of our death. It’s like we sang in the hymn: “Lord, let at last Thine angels come, to Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home, that I may die unfearing.” Friends, this is the hope and the help that God will give to you, so that you need not fear death. When you die, your soul will be with the Lord in heaven, even as your body is laid in the grave, awaiting the resurrection of all flesh, which will happen on the day when Christ returns.

So the poor man–I guess I should call him the formerly poor man–is carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. Beautiful! But now contrast that to what happens to the rich man when he dies: “The rich man also died and was buried.” Boom. Blah. Not so beautiful and poetic, is it? And what’s more, where does this formerly rich man end up? In hell. In Hades. In torment. Not because he was rich. No, in fact, Abraham himself was rich, and he ends up in Paradise. No, the rich man went to hell because he lacked faith. He was an unbeliever. He did not repent and put his trust in God. No, this unbelieving rich man was all about himself, indulging his pleasures and making himself his own god. That’s what sin is, that’s what sin does, and, if left unrepented and unforgiven, it will send you to hell. Whether rich or poor or anywhere in between, unbelief–that is, lack of trust in the mercy and forgiveness that God freely offers in Christ–this unbelief will send you straight to hell.

So the rich guy is in Hades, and he looks up to heaven and sees Abraham there, with Lazarus at his side. “Father Abraham, have mercy on me.” In the Bible, Abraham often is portrayed as the father of faith. So in this story, Abraham kind of functions like we might talk about St. Peter at the pearly gates–he’s sort of a gatekeeper. The rich guy addresses him with a special request: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” If you don’t think that hell is real, and that it’s a place of anguish and torment, well, guess again. Because Jesus certainly believes in and teaches, here and in many other places, the existence of a real hell.

“Abraham, help!” But Abraham replies: “No can do! You had your chance during your lifetime to escape the flames of hell. You could have received God’s free gift of repentance and faith, but you refused. That was evident in your lack of mercy toward Lazarus. Besides that, I can’t grant your request, because there’s no crossing over from here to there or there to here. There’s a great chasm, a great gulf, between heaven and hell, and it is impassable.” So much for the unbiblical notion of purgatory. No, once a person dies, that’s it. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment.”

“OK, disappointing,” the man in Hades thinks, “so I’ll have to try something else.” He says: “Then I beg you, father, to send Lazarus to my father’s house–for I have five brothers–so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Well, that isn’t going to work, either. If those boys need a warning, they’ve already got one, just like you had. It’s called the Bible. Abraham says: “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” “Moses and the Prophets” is shorthand for what we call the Old Testament, which was the extent of the Bible at that time. Now we’ve got the New Testament, too. The Bible throughout has plenty to warn a person of the dangers of sin, unbelief, and eternal judgment. But do people listen? That is the question.

The rich man hadn’t listened to the Bible’s message. And he’s worried that his brothers won’t, either. So he thinks he has a better idea: “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Abraham shoots that one down, too: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” If people refuse to listen to God’s word, if they will not hear the Bible’s clear message: that you are a sinner, and you will be going to hell if you think you’re good enough on your own. . . . If you will not listen to Holy Scripture’s clear teaching that you need a Savior, and you’re not it. . . . If you or your friends or your family have no concern about eternity and where you will spend it, if you just merrily go about your way, ignoring God, dismissing his word of penetrating law and life-giving gospel–well, then you’re on your own, because you are refusing the help God wants to give you. And good luck with that.

Friends, today be a Lazarus, the one whom God helps. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you have been given a name, the name of the triune God, placed on you in your baptism. God knows you by name; you are his own. Your sins are covered by the holy blood of Christ. For there is one man who did come down from heaven. He is the God-man, our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came so that you would not be cast into the flames of hell, so that you would be delivered from eternal torment and anguish, so that you would be carried by angels into heaven. Jesus did this for you–he did this for your friends and family, he did this for all the rich men and poor men and everyone in between. Jesus did this out of God’s pure grace and mercy. Our Lord suffered pain and agony when he was beaten and flogged, and his body was covered with bloody stripes. He did this for you, in your place. Christ Jesus was crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross. There he cried out in thirst. There he suffered the agony of God’s judgment upon sinners–the judgment you and I deserve, which he took in our place.

And then, this man did rise from the dead. And yet, many still did not believe. Some people will not be convinced even if “someone should rise from the dead.” But, dear friends, you do believe. You are convinced. You have heard Moses and the Prophets and the rest of the Bible, and the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of faith. Praise God!

Now you are forgiven. Now, as Christ’s baptized believers, you share in his everlasting life. When you die, you too will be carried by the angels into the bliss of Paradise. And then when this same Jesus returns, you will share in his bodily resurrection, with a glorified body, in a perfectly restored creation. Brothers and sisters in Christ, whatever your income, you are truly rich! You also are named Lazarus! For you are the ones whom God helps!

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 18, 2022

“God Desires All People to Be Saved” (1 Timothy 2:1-15)

From time to time the Pew Research Center, an organization that tracks religious trends in America, comes out with a new study. This past week they issued their latest report, called “Modeling the Future of Religion in America: How the U.S Religious Landscape Could Change over the Next 50 Years.” Based on findings from recent decades, they are projecting how things could look in the future if current trends continue. The main question in this study is what percentage of Americans will identify as Christians in the future. Going back to the 1970s and even into the early 1990s, 90% of Americans identified as Christians in 1992. That number started to drop in the mid-’90s. By 2002, the percentage had dropped to 78%. Now, in 2022, the percentage of Americans identifying as Christians is down to 63%. From 90% to 63% in just thirty years. Meanwhile, the percentage of “religiously unaffiliated,” the so-called “nones,” has risen to approximately 30%.

Now what if these trends continue? In this study, the Pew Research Center says the most likely scenario is that by the year 2050, Christians will lose their majority status in America and be down to only 47% of the population, barely outnumbering the 43% who will have no religious affiliation at all.

So how do we react and respond to these discouraging numbers? More important, what does God think about it? And the good news is that, in the words of our Epistle today, “God our Savior . . . desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And God has provided the way for that to happen. And so our theme this morning: “God Desires All People to Be Saved.”

God desires all people to be saved. But the problem is, and increasingly so, that people don’t even think they need to be saved, let alone care about how God has provided the way for that to happen. They don’t think they need saving. They don’t think they need to be saved from their sins, because nothing is sin anymore. What used to be universally agreed upon as sin, no longer is. All forms of sexual immorality now are approved: premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex, adultery. “Hey, it’s your thing; do what you want to do.” Unscriptural divorce–divorce for any cause, not just for the legitimate reasons of adultery or desertion–now has become “no-fault divorce,” as though such a thing were possible. Homosexual behavior has gone from being shameful perversion, which it is, to prideful celebration, a view reinforced by media, education, corporations, and government.

Americans don’t think they need saving from their sins. Likewise, increasingly, they don’t think they need saving from death. We have softened the reality of death in our culture. We detach ourselves from death. We distance ourselves. Death happens in nursing homes and hospital rooms. We don’t see it happening. Funerals are no longer “funerals.” Now they are “celebrations of life.” We don’t like to think about what happens to a person after they die. But of course “he was a good person” and “God must have needed another angel.”

So, if people don’t think they need saving from their sins, and they don’t think they need saving from death, they’re not going to think they need a Savior. Thus the decline in self-identifying Christians, because Christianity is all about a Savior from sin and death.

“God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” That is the truth: We do need saving from sin and death. And God does desires to save us. God desires, he eagerly wants, to save us. Yes, he does. This is what the Bible teaches. For example, in Ezekiel 18 the Lord says: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” Or in Ezekiel 33: “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Or 2 Peter 3: “The Lord is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” This is the same teaching as here in 1 Timothy 1: “God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

You see, God does not want to condemn you for your sins, however bad they have been. God does not want to cast you into eternal death and hell. No, God wants you to recognize your sins and repent of them. God wants you to know the truth, how things really are, not what the world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh will tell you. God’s fervent desire is to save you, to deliver you from death and hell, so that you will not perish eternally. God wants to bring you into his kingdom of light and life, new and eternal life, walking in the light of the truth.

And God has provided the way for that to happen. You know the verse, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And then verse 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God does not want you to perish, but rather to have eternal life. That’s why he sent his Son into the world, to accomplish just that.

Our text puts it like this: “God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” It is in and through Christ Jesus that God has provided the way for us to be saved. It’s through Christ Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us.

Who is he? He is the eternal Son of God, who, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven . . . and was made man.” The man Christ Jesus, God in the flesh. He came to deliver us sinners from sin and death. To do that, he had to become man himself, so that there would be one man who would keep God’s law perfectly and attain righteousness. And because as true man he is at the same time also true God, his righteousness has infinite value. As your representative, his righteousness is credited to your account. In Christ, through faith in him, you, a sinner, are counted as righteous before God. What an undeserved blessing!

“There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Notice, there is one mediator, not many. The only one who can save you is Jesus Christ. Mohammed with his made-up “Allah” cannot save you. Buddha cannot save you. Your own “spirituality” and goodness cannot save you. No, only Jesus can. Jesus himself says in John 14: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” St. Peter says in Acts 4: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” So there are not many roads to heaven. There are not many ways to get right with God. There is just one, the God-man Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one whom God has provided, the Savior for all men everywhere. And he is the only one we need.

“There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Jesus is our mediator. He is the man in the middle. He bridges the gap between God and men. We were alienated, separated from God by our sins and rebellion. But Jesus brings us together. God reconciles us back to himself in the person of Christ. Jesus is our mediator. He is the man in the middle. He bridges the gap between heaven and earth. And he does this precisely as he is hanging on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth.

As our text says: “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” Jesus is our ransom. He paid the price that sets us free. Jesus Christ is our ransom, our redeemer. As we learned in the Catechism: He has redeemed me “from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death.”

And to show that he has won the victory over sin and death, this same Jesus Christ rose from the dead and lives forever. What’s more, he shares his everlasting life with you who are baptized into union with him. The Holy Spirit gives you faith to believe in Christ, and he keeps you in that faith through the gospel means of Word and Sacrament.

This is why the church’s ministry is so vital and so needed. For this is how God gets the gifts to you and to all people everywhere. Jesus has promised, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” God our Savior is still doing his thing through his church: He is still saving people all around the world. The church may be wheezing here in America, as more and more of our countrymen think they don’t need a Savior. Same thing in western Europe. But in other parts of the globe, the gospel is spreading and being received, and more and more people are being saved for eternity.

And even here, here in Missouri, here in this stretch from Farmington to Festus, here among your own family and friends, God has lots of people he wants to be saved. We can’t predict which ones will believe and be saved and which ones will refuse and be lost. So we just go ahead and keep on proclaiming the good news, through our church and through your own personal witness, and we pray that God will bless the result. And he will.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 11, 2022

“Sound Doctrine: Applying Law and Gospel” (1 Timothy 1:5-17)

Sound doctrine: When you hear that phrase, what comes to mind? Maybe you think of a proud, triumphalistic claim: “We in the Missouri Synod have the pure doctrine, not like those other churches!” Maybe you think of sound doctrine as having all your facts in order, in your head, in a sterile, intellectual way, unrelated to real life. Or you think of sound doctrine as unloving, not caring about people, only about guarding the truth. Well, I’m here to tell you that nothing, none of that, could be further from the truth.

This stereotype of a concern for sound doctrine as being cold and unloving, all head and no heart, impersonal, uncaring–this is a caricature that people use to excuse their lack of concern for right doctrine and practice. We are accused of being obsessed with “incessant internal purification,” at the cost of being “missional.” But that is not the case. In fact, in our Epistle today, from Paul’s letter to Timothy, we will see that concern for pure doctrine and caring for people–that these two go hand in hand. And so our theme this morning, “Sound Doctrine: Applying Law and Gospel.”

First, a little background on Paul and Timothy and this epistle: Paul, of course, is the apostle Paul, appointed by Christ to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and to oversee churches across the Mediterranean world. Timothy was Paul’s younger assistant and his apostolic representative when Paul was traveling elsewhere. That was the case when Paul writes this letter. Paul was needed in Macedonia, northern Greece, so he left Timothy behind in Ephesus to oversee the churches there. And so in this letter Paul has instructions for Timothy on how to handle matters there in Ephesus.

Our text begins. Paul says to Timothy: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Now what is this “charge” that Paul speaks of? Well, Paul had told Timothy to remain at Ephesus so that he, Timothy, might “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.” Which is to say, Paul had told Timothy to charge, that is, to command and sternly warn, certain persons not to teach any doctrine different from what Paul himself had taught.

Now in our day, people would say of this: “Who does Paul think he is? Isn’t he being rather haughty and arrogant, as though he thinks he has a corner on the truth? Shouldn’t people be able to teach whatever they perceive to be the truth? What is truth, anyway? Isn’t whatever you believe to be true your truth? You’re not allowed to say that anyone is wrong in what they believe!” That’s the attitude in our society today.

But that is not the biblical view. No, the Bible throughout teaches that there is truth and there is error; that the truth has specific, unchangeable content; and that we are not at liberty to mess with that. That’s the viewpoint St. Paul takes and we should take also.

So the charge that Paul had given Timothy to rebuke and correct false doctrine–that same charge, Paul says, is done out of love: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Insistence on sound doctrine is done out of love and the care of souls.

Doctrine has to do not only with facts about God, such as his divine attributes, getting the Trinity right, getting the person of Christ right–oh, it is all that, but there’s more to it than that. Sound doctrine also has to do with God’s commandments, his law, how God wants his human creatures to live. Doctrine has to get the law right, so that people will know what sin is and what God thinks of it. In our text, Paul says that the law is good and that it is laid down “for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

What jumps out at you in this list? To me, it’s that Paul lists as sinful behavior certain behaviors that are condoned or even celebrated in our day. For example, “the sexually immoral.” That covers all forms of sexual immorality–premarital sex, cohabitation, adultery, unscriptural divorce–anything outside of the marriage of one man and one woman for life. Of course, that teaching has fallen by the wayside in our lifetime.

And, even more specifically, what Paul lists next: “men who practice homosexuality.” “Oh, there, now you’ve done it, Paul! Now you’ve gone too far! You’re a homophobe! You’re guilty of hate speech! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.” You see, Paul has the audacity to say that homosexual behavior is a sin. And it is. But our culture says: “Love is love! Love wins! Celebrate LGBTQ! Pride! Let’s have a pride parade! A pride month! And if you don’t agree with us, we will cancel you out!”

But sound doctrine applies law to people so they can see their sin before God, even if society says it’s ok. Otherwise, if there is no sin, people will think they don’t have any need to repent. They’ll not see their need for a Savior. And that would be disastrous.

So let’s not limit our application of the law to just those bad people out there–the gays and the fornicators and the abortionists. Sure, they need to repent. But then so do we. We, the respectable, morally upright people–we need to see ourselves as sinners, always in need of a Savior.

Take Paul himself as an example. As Saul of Tarsus, he was as morally upright a person as you could find. Clean living, dedicated to God’s service, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee devoted to the law–as zealous a young man as there was. But how does Paul reflect back on those days? He says, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” In his zeal, and thinking he was doing a service for God, Paul had gone exactly opposite of God’s will, going so far as to persecute the church of Christ!

So Paul recognizes himself as a sinner. It’s not just those bad people out there. In fact, Paul puts himself at the top of the heap, as the chief of sinners! But even as bad as he had blown it, God still had mercy on him. Paul writes: “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Friends, this is the gospel! This is the good news! Whether you have been a proud pervert or a proud Pharisee, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, which means . . . Christ Jesus came into the world to save you!

Who is this Christ Jesus? He is the very Son of God, one with the Father from eternity. Christ came into our world in the flesh, to do the great rescue mission, to save humanity. Jesus came and kept the law of God perfectly, as a man, fulfilling all righteousness, in our stead. Then this same Jesus of Nazareth went to the cross, willingly, to suffer and die as the sacrifice for your sins, shedding his holy blood to win your forgiveness. Christ then rose from the dead, showing his victory over sin and death–his resurrection life, which he now shares with you in your baptism. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and this is who he is and how he does it.

By the way, did you notice that everything I just said is doctrine? Yet it’s the most wonderful, the most comforting, the most joyous and loving and caring thing I can say! “Sound doctrine” simply means “healthy teaching.” To teach the word of God in its truth and purity–this is the healthiest, the most beneficial–this is the best thing for you! For it steers you away from all sorts of false doctrine, with their dead ends. Sound doctrine applies the law of God to your life, so that you will see that you are a sinner, in need for a Savior. Sound doctrine, healthy teaching, then points you to your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can save you, and, thank God, he does!

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Do you qualify? I do. Paul did. And if God can save Paul, the foremost of sinners, he can certainly save you, no matter where you fall on the sinner scale. So, we’ll give Paul the last word here. He says: “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 4, 2022

“Delightful Meditation” (Psalm 1)

Our psalm today, Psalm 1, begins as follows: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Today I want to tell you about the kind of meditation this psalm is talking about: what it is; why we delight in it; and how to do it. What, why, and how; so here we go. Our theme this morning: “Delightful Meditation.”

First of all, what it is. When you hear the word “meditation,” what do you think of? Maybe you think of someone sitting cross-legged on a yoga mat, with their fingers like this, and repeating a mantra like “Ommm. . . .” Well, this is not that. No, the meditation this psalm is talking about is not some clearing-your-head centering technique with no real content. Rather, this meditation is very much content-filled. It’s filled with the word of God. Notice, it says, “and on his law”–the law of the Lord, that is, the word of God–“he meditates day and night.” In this kind of meditation, the mind is engaged, and it is focused on God’s word.

Now a word about this word “law.” It says, “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” When you and I as Lutherans hear the word “law,” we immediately think of the law as that which accuses us, as that which condemns us as sinners. The law as opposed to the gospel. And there are places in the Bible where the term is used that way. But here the word “law” is used in a broader sense. It’s the Hebrew word “torah,” which literally means “instruction.” So you could translate this verse, “his delight is in the instruction of the LORD, and on his instruction he meditates day and night.” “Torah” in this sense means all that the Lord teaches us in his word, both law and gospel. So “the law of the LORD” here means essentially the same thing as “God’s word.”

What is it to meditate on God’s word? It is more than simply letting God’s word go in one ear and out the other. It’s more than just a quick look at a Bible passage. Meditating on God’s word goes deeper than that. It means to go over and over that word of God in your mind. To ruminate on it. To ponder it and treasure it up in your heart. To meditate means to let the word sink down into your soul, so that it will strengthen your faith and change your life. That’s what it is to meditate on the word of the Lord.

And meditating on God’s word is not limited to one hour in church on Sunday morning. Certainly, it includes that, and you are here today for that purpose. But this meditation goes far beyond that. Our psalm says, “and on his law he meditates day and night.” Day and night, every day and every night, we have God’s word in our mind and heart. There are 168 hours in the week, and you don’t compartmentalize your life into one hour on Sunday for God’s word, and 167 other hours when you block it out of your mind. No, God’s word permeates your whole week. It saturates and invigorates your entire life.

Listen to what Moses tells the Israelites: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” That is no compartmentalization. That is permeation, saturation, no time or aspect of your life left out. We teach God’s word to our children; we don’t just leave it up to the pastor. We talk about God’s word with others, with our family members, with our friends, in our homes, when we’re out and about–wherever, whenever, and with whomever. That’s how all-encompassing God’s word becomes for us. It’s the greatest thing we’ve got going in our life, and we want others to know this joy also.

So that’s the “what” of meditating on the word of God. Now we ask the “why”: Why do we delight in meditating on God’s word? What makes our meditation so delightful? Our psalm tells us. It says that the man who delights in meditating on the law of the Lord “is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

Now, to be sure, this is not saying that you will prosper financially or that you will have no troubles in your life. Indeed, your life may be full of trouble. But you will prosper spiritually. And when you go off in a wrong direction or stray from the right path, the law of the Lord will get you back on track.

God’s word will be the refreshing stream that nurtures and produces your fruitfulness. You will bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, and all the rest. No matter the problems in your life, you will have a joy that runs deeper than your circumstances. You may not always be “happy,” because “happiness” depends on what happens. But you will always have the joy of the Lord, because nothing or no one can take that joy away from you.

Delightful meditation: What makes it so delightful? Why is it so? Because you will be meditating on the good news of all that the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for you. It’s the wonderful gospel of God’s free grace in Christ. This is the golden thread running throughout all of Holy Scripture. This is the true treasure that God delivers to you, that he gifts you with, in his holy word. There is nothing greater or more precious than that! What a joy it is to hear that our heavenly Father has made us his own children, his own people, for the sake of Christ! That he cares for us, that he watches over us from day to day. What a joy it is to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the one who died on the cross to win our forgiveness, who has delivered us from the death and hell we deserve and given us his own righteousness and resurrection! What a gift it is to have the Holy Spirit implanting the word of God in our hearts and minds to keep us firm in the faith! What a delight it is to know we have the hope of heaven to look forward to, eternal life with our Lord and with all his people! Can there be anything more wonderful than these great blessings to occupy our mind and our thoughts? This is why meditating on God’s word is such a delight!

Of course, not everyone delights in God’s word. There are those who “walk in the counsel of the wicked, and stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of scoffers.” But that is not you. But those folks surround us, don’t they? They’re all over the media. Don’t listen to them. Don’t fall in with them. That is the devil tempting you to drift away from God’s word. And your own sinful, self-serving, lazy flesh will want to keep you from meditating on God’s word. “Oh, it’s too boring. Oh, I’m too busy. Oh, I get enough of that at church. Oh, I’ll put it off till tomorrow.” Well, now you’ve gone “oh” for four, and that’s not a good average. But don’t give up! No matter how many times you’ve fallen, the Holy Spirit will pick you up again. God is gracious, and he doesn’t give up on you.

Delightful meditation: What it is, why it’s so delightful, and now, third, how to do it. And here I want to recommend to you some practical, specific suggestions. Notice that I’m holding in my hands three books that will help you tremendously in your meditating on God’s word. One is The Lutheran Study Bible. This is the best study Bible there is, and it will help you so much when there’s a passage you’re puzzled by or you want to know more about. Even if you don’t get the study Bible, at least have a Bible that you read and don’t just let gather dust. So first, the Bible, especially The Lutheran Study Bible.

Second, the catechism. This is Luther’s Small Catechism, with Explanation, the 2017 edition, which I recommend. With the catechism, every day you can meditate on the chief parts of the Christian faith: the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Sacraments. There are Daily Prayers to help you with your devotions. There’s a Table of Duties to guide you in your various vocations in life. There are Christian Questions with Their Answers to help prepare you to go to the Sacrament. And what’s more, this week I will begin a new round of catechesis, for those wishing to become communicant members and for those already members who want a refresher. Talk to me if you’re interested.

The Bible, the catechism, and book #3, the hymnal. Our hymnal is the Lutheran Service Book. And yes, we have copies in the pews, but it would be wonderful if we each had a copy in our home. Being familiar with our hymns and the various liturgical orders–singing our hymns, and not just on Sunday morning–this is a great and delightful way to meditate on God’s word. What does it say in Colossians 3:16? “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Through music, through singing, the word of Christ has a way of dwelling richly in our souls. That’s what you will find as you learn and enjoy our hymns. And again, this week we will be starting a class to help you to do that. I’m calling it “At Home in Our Hymnal: Understanding Our Liturgy and Hymnody.” The class will start this Tuesday, 3:30 at St. Matthew’s and 7:00 at Grace. Come, and I guarantee that you will grow in your knowledge and appreciation of what we do in church and what we sing in our hymns. By the way, even if you don’t have a piano or an organ in your home, there are ways you can still hear the music to sing along with the hymns, what with the internet, CDs, etc. And I can help you with that.

The Bible, the catechism, and the hymnal–three books that all of us should have in our homes and put to good use. Those are some suggestions on the “how.” The “what,” as we said at the outset, is that we meditate on God’s living, life-giving word, which he wants each one of us to know and to grow in and to apply to our lives. But what will lead us to do this eagerly–that is the “why.” Why is this meditation so delightful? Because it tells us–and plants deeply in us–the wonderful good news of what God has done, is doing, and will do for us for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ, as our Lord himself says: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” This is delightful meditation, dear friends, and this is God’s gift to you!