Category: Sermon Page

Pastor Tim Weiser

Two Kings. Two Kingdoms.

Text: Mark 6:14–29

Other Lessons: Amos 7:7–15; Psalm 85:1–7 (8–13); Ephesians 1:3–14

Sermon Theme: We are called to reject the path of the kingdoms of this age and follow King Jesus under the reign of God, even if it means our own rejection by the powers of this present evil age.

Sermon Goal: That you would follow the way of the kingdom of God, the way of the cross. Based on a sermon outline in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Randall L. Pekari,

Sermon: Even when a text doesn’t seem to be about Jesus, it’s still all about Jesus. Mark teaches us to distinguish between the kingdoms of this world and the reign of God.

     Two kingdoms. Herod, a worldly ruler, lives in opposition to the reign of God. Jesus, the true King, brings the reign of God near. And We Are Called to Reject the Path of the Kingdoms of This Age and Follow King Jesus under the Reign of God, Even If It Means Our Own Rejection by the Powers of This Present Evil Age.

         To which kingdom do we most conform? What values most shape and influence us? Herod displays the values of this present evil age.        Herod knows but defies the clear law of God by committing adultery, marrying his living brother’s wife (vv 17–18). He serves the desires of his own flesh and is quite unconcerned with the will of God.

          Herod built his palace, even his whole capital city, Tiberius, to imitate the imperial glory and splendor of Rome. He is deeply concerned with fitting in, with conforming to the culture he admires.

        Herod throws a wretched party for himself and surrounds himself with “his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee” (v 21). He is deeply concerned with power and prestige.

        Herod caves to the pressure of his stepdaughter, wife, and noble guests (vv 22–26). He is deeply concerned with his own honor and pride.  Herod orders the execution of  John the Baptist (v 27). He wields his power for his own ends, for all his own concerns.

        Jesus embodies the values of the reign of God. Jesus lives in perfect obedience to the whole will and law of God. Jesus lives humbly, not in splendor. Jesus associates with sinners and outcasts. He is moved by compassion.. Jesus submits to the will of his Father, enduring scorn and humiliation.      Jesus gives his life for those who opposed and rejected him. He does not use his immense power but submits to death so that all sinners, even you and me, might be bought out of this present evil age and made heirs of his kingdom.

       We are called to follow King Jesus, conforming to the values of the reign of God. But, To follow the way of the reign of God is to follow the way of the cross. Before all else, to follow the way of the cross is to heed the call to repentance.

        This is the persistent message of the kingdom: Repent! John the Baptist came on the scene, “proclaiming a  baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (1:4).

After John came Jesus. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (1:15). Jesus sent out his disciples to preach this same message (6:12). The text for today is set in the middle of this mission.

       The call to repentance is not merely a general call to all of humanity. It is a specific call to particular people: Repent. John confronted the specific sin of the adultery of Herod and Herodias (vv 18–19).

      The Word of God is calling to you. How can you not respond to John’s and Jesus’ call to repentance? To reject the clear, revealed Word and will of God is to stand with Herod. To reject the clear, revealed Word and will of God is to stand against the reign and rule of God himself and to forfeit a place in that blessed kingdom.

       The One who calls you to repent is the same One who gave his life as a ransom to buy you out of sin and death, out of this present evil age. Jesus, moved by compassion for you, endured the humiliation of the cross, the taunts and rejection of his people, all for you.       Repentance is always met with forgiveness!

        Repent and believe this good news! But be aware that to follow the reign of God, the way of the cross, is to face rejection by the world. The arrest, execution, and burial of  John the Baptist foreshadows the arrest, execution, and burial of  Jesus.

              Therefore, those who follow Jesus will also face the way of the cross. Our text follows immediately after Jesus sends out his disciples to carry out his own mission (6:7–13) and comes immediately before they return to report on their work (6:30). Interrupting the account of the disciples’ mission with this story of  John’s execution highlights the reality of the world’s resistance and opposition to God’s message and messengers. John the Baptist, like the disciples, carried the message of the kingdom: Repent!

         Mark emphasizes that all who preach this same word and who live in the pattern of the reign of heaven will be in danger. Jesus himself warns of this reality: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (8:34).

       This, though, is exactly what we are called to do. This seems like foolishness to the world. Why be a John the Baptist and lose one’s head, when you could be a Herod and enjoy the comforts of Rome?

       But Jesus says that the opposite is true in his kingdom. The one who wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for him and the Gospel will save it (8:35). The pleasures of Herod and his kingdom are temporary. The gifts of forgiveness and the kingdom of God are eternal.              Those who follow the way of the cross, repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus, will be vindicated in the end of days with their Master and will share in eternal life under the fullness of his kingdom. Amen.

Pastor Tim Weiser

Old Testament Reading: Ezekiel 2: 1-5
Epistle Reading: 2 Corinthians 12: 1-10
Holy Gospel Reading: Mark 6: 1-13

Pentecost 6 (Proper 8), June 30, 2024, Watch the Words of Jesus!

Text: Mark 5:21–43

Other Lessons: Lamentations 3:22–33; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:1–9, 13–15

Sermon Theme: In the midst of so many voices that surround us today, only the words of Jesus bring unqualified comfort to our lives.                                                                                                     Sermon Goal: That you distinguish the voice of your shepherd from all other voices out there in today’s information technology world and the voice of Jesus continue to bring comfort to you as you are gathered to this Divine Service. Based on a sermon outline in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Dr. Naomichi Masaki.

Sermon

We are living at a time when we daily get more information than we can possibly handle. Internet, social media, TV, podcast, you name it. We are surrounded by many and various voices. Which one is authentic? Which one tells us the truth? Dr. Luther defined the church as “lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd” (SA III XII 2). For Christians, the voice of our Shepherd Jesus is the one thing needful. Against the temptation into which Adam and Eve fell—to hear a voice other than God in the garden—we are exhorted to pay attention to the words of  Jesus more than anything else.

For In the Midst of So Many Voices That Surround Us Today, Only the Words of Jesus Bring Unqualified Comfort to Our Lives. What words of  Jesus do we hear in our Gospel today?

In Mark’s larger context, Jesus is proclaiming a new relationship between himself and his church, so that any claim to a special relationship with Israel under the Law is an old, false voice.

The new relationship is demonstrated by the confession of the centurion at Jesus’ death. The old, false voice is demonstrated by Israel’s leaders failing to understand Jesus as their fully human as well as divine Messiah who would go to the cross. This voice is heard in modern Zionism and the false eschatology of many media preachers. But this is also simply the false voice of all works-righteousness.

The new relationship is demonstrated by Mark’s references to the Twelve—and to other twelves: twelve tribes of Israel and now Jesus’ own Twelve.

The new relationship is expressed in Jairus and the suffering woman trusting the word they had heard about Jesus, rather than trusting their own piety (vv 22–23, 27–28). Against the voices of despair we often hear from within, God calls us to believe his promises in Christ.

The promises of God’s Word are absolutely reliable, the true voice for all these situations. Against the false voices of neo-Pentecostalism, charismatics, and “prosperity Gospel,” Jesus’ voice teaches us what it truly means that our faith makes us well (v 34).

Personal faith itself is never the cause of healing or salvation. This is clear since the woman Jesus healed and to whom he spoke those words was truly sinful and unclean. This is even more obvious in the case of Jairus’s daughter, since she was dead and his faith was weak. Rather than something meritorious in ourselves, faith is a gift that is received. In fact, healing miracles were only secondary in Jesus’ ministry. They were “easy” for Jesus, the Creator of the universe. They were accomplished simply by Jesus’ word. Jesus’ primary mission was to forgive sins.

This required Jesus becoming flesh and taking our uncleanness upon himself. It required Jesus vicariously bearing our sin on the cross. A true voice says, “You can keep the miracles and healing, and we will keep salvation.”

Above all, against the terrifying voice that says death is the end, Jesus speaks the sweetly comforting words, “The child is not dead but sleeping.” It seems laughable to deny the voice that says death is the final tragedy (vv 38–39). But against all voices of the world concerning death, we receive sheer comfort in the words of  Jesus. For Jesus, the baptized believers are sleeping when they are dead.

And these are not merely his words. With his words come his vicarious atonement and satisfaction. Jesus bore our sin in his body, taking upon himself our uncleanness and giving us his holiness in return—the great exchange indeed! With his wounds, we are healed!

Because Jesus destroyed our death by his death and by it achieved our salvation, those whose sins are forgiven by his words and Sacraments are confident without any room for doubt that Jesus will come to awaken us when we are dead.   In the meantime, we will only sleep!

Yes, we live in an age of information overload, with so many voices speaking at us. But God would have us pay attention to the words of  Jesus alone. Against all the voices that speak death, Christians get to say boldly that we will only sleep when we die, because we are in Christ and our sins are forgiven through Baptism and the Lord’s gifts that we keep receiving in his church through the means of grace. Blessed are you who will be addressed by your Lord, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (v 41). “Do not fear, only believe” (v 36). God’s mercies are new every morning; great is his faithfulness to you (cf Lam 3:23)! “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing” (Ps 30:11). And “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Amen!

Pentecost 5 (Proper 7), June 23, 2024

 Questions to Live (and Suffer By Text: Job 38:1-11  Other Lessons: Psalm 124; 2 Corinthians 6:1–13; Mark 4:35–41 Sermon Theme: Instead of questioning God when we suffer, we can remember his questions to Job, which remind us of his wisdom and His Love for us in Christ  Sermon Goal: That the hearers be strengthened in faith to trust in God through times of suffering. Based on a sermon in Concordia Pulpit Resources by Rev. Dr. Aric A. Fenske,

Sermon: The story of Job is perhaps the most tragic story in the entire Bible. To say that Job suffered would be an understatement. We are also told that through all his suffering, Job never lost his faith in God. But he was certainly being tempted to! Time and again, Job complained to God and questioned God’s motives. If he didn’t outright accuse God of being unfair to him, he certainly got close! Job even insists that he be given the chance to defend himself before God: “But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God” (13:3).

Perhaps you’ve been there. Maybe you haven’t experienced suffering to the same extent that Job did, but you do know what it means to suffer. I know that some of you have had to bury your children and your husbands or wives. Some of you have faced financial ruin for one reason or another. Many of you deal with painful, lingering illnesses or have endure terrible treatments for various conditions. The suffering that Job faced, while extreme, wasn’t really all that uncommon. As sinners living in a broken world, we all face suffering.

And when we suffer like Job, we often question God as Job did. We want to know why God has allowed these terrible things to happen. Why would God allow a thirteen-year-old girl to die of cancer or get killed in a car wreck? Why did God send that torrential rainfall that flooded out our entire crop for the year? Why would God make me suffer for years with this disease? Why am I still languishing here on earth while my wife and all my friends are already in heaven?

Suffering of any kind is a severe test of our faith. It shakes us and makes us wonder if God is really good, and if he really cares about us at all. It makes us wish that we could stand toe to toe with God and ask him straight to his face what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.

And that brings us to today’s text. God gave Job the chance he was looking for. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (v 1a). Job stood toe to toe with God. But he didn’t get the answers he was looking for. In fact, instead of Job doing the questioning, it was God who asked the questions. The Almighty doesn’t have to answer to us; we answer to him!

Of course, Job had no answers for God’s questions. He couldn’t make any of this known to God. “ Job knew that God alone had done all these things. He just had no idea how! How did God lay the foundations of the earth? How did God create the seas and sets their limits? None of us know this! Science has done wonderful things, made amazing discoveries about God’s universe, but the truth is that we’ll never fully understand how God made the universe and how he continues to uphold it and rule over it. God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours.

And if we can’t understand how God does those things in creation, why would we think we could understand the deeper mysteries of God, like how God can make “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”(Rom 8:28)? We can’t. And that will finally be Job’s only reply. After several more chapters of questions from God just like these, Job finally gets the courage to speak. “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:3, 6).

Job repented. We, too, should repent in dust and ashes and quit uttering things that are too deep for us. We don’t know the specifics of why God allows the things that he allows. And even if he told us, we wouldn’t be able to understand it.

But we do have one unique advantage over Job. We can look back at the work of  Jesus. We know that the very same God who laid the cornerstone of the earth (v 6) became the Cornerstone of our faith! “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Mt 21:42). Unlike Job, we can see both the wisdom of God and the love of God at work in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord for our salvation—events that God had planned before he laid the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:20).

Knowing all of this means that we can answer some of God’s questions in ways that Job could never have imagined. “The Lord God, who created and upholds the universe by his divine power and wisdom, has also reconciled you to himself through the blood of  Jesus. Therefore, you, my friends, are beloved by God. So we can confess along with Paul that “he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). I know it’s sometimes hard for us to see and even hard for us to believe, but God does not allow anything to happen to you that is not ultimately for your eternal good. This means not only should we trust that he knows what he’s doing, but we should also trust that what he does, he does because he loves us and because he wants only what is good for us.

In the midst of our sufferings, these are the truths we must cling to. We can’t comprehend the inner workings of God. His wisdom and his ways are just too deep for us. And that’s okay. We have to let God be God. If we can’t understand how he holds the universe together, how could we expect to understand how or why God could allow and use suffering for our good? But in the midst of things we don’t understand, we do know that God knows what he’s doing and that he loves us so deeply he was willing to come and suffer and die for us. So, Instead of Questioning God When We Suffer, We Can Remember His Questions to Job, Which Remind Us of His Wisdom and His Love for Us in Christ. To God alone be all glory, forever and ever. Amen.