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Holy Trinity Sunday – A LSB #’s 370, 438, 555:1-2, 5-6, 10
Text – Acts 2:23 This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God… DELIVERED! In our world of online shopping, we can buy things without leaving the comfort of our home. When the product is dropped off, you don’t even have to be there to receive it. You’ll know it has arrived when you get the message “Delivered!” The postal service, UPS, FedEx & Amazon, they’re all in the business of doing delivery. According to St. Peter, so is the Triune God: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God...” (Acts 2:23 ESV) Yahweh not only knew it would happen, it was His plan. Many of us like to make plans as well. We plan for weddings, for retirement, for parties, for watching the big game – whatever sport it may be. Our planning is endless, & how do all of those plans turn out? The answer is not theoretical. Each one of us has lived that answer. How do you respond when all your planning fails to materialize? Certainly, that depends on how far short of your plans things fall. Sometimes we get angry. At other times we despair. Once in a while we are even grateful. Some people love pointing out plans gone wrong, complaining about every little slight & fault. They find joy in discovering the mistakes of others, but they aren’t around to be part of the solution. They seem to enjoy being part of the problem. A lot of the news these days is about people working to destroy things. If problems get fixed, their fun comes to an end. People who find joy in destruction have a lot to celebrate in this broken world. For those who follow Jesus, it’s a real challenge to endure all the struggles & suffering of this life. So many godly plans fail, or at least seem to. Jesus’ disciples no doubt had many plans for their Rabbi, & how He would make things right in their world. Then, He ended up dead in a Roman crucifixion. In their eyes, things could not have gone more wrong. After Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples realized that it was God’s plan all along to deliver Jesus on the cross. It often works that way in our lives too, that we realize God’s plan only after the suffering has ended. Being patient until that time is one of the challenges of faith. In the reading from the 2nd chapter of Acts, St. Peter is preaching after Jesus’ resurrection. He now understands what God was doing, but the people still need help connecting the dots. Peter begins with a simple phrase “Men of Israel…” To you & me, that probably sounds like the generic “Dear Sir,” kind of greeting with which you begin an official letter. However, to Peter’s audience, it was a title of honor, a title given to them by Yahweh in the OT. It’s the name that Yahweh gave to His covenant people. Peter is appealing to their sense of thousands of years of salvation history. Although they had been nothing as a people, just slaves in Egypt, God had chosen them to be His people. Due to their failures as a people, since the glory days of King Solomon, they’d once again become nothing. The weight of Rome was crushing them as a people & they no longer were a nation of their own. The recent celebration of Passover, would have had their rescue from slavery in Egypt at the forefront of their minds. Peter wanted to explain how Yahweh had just accomplished their new rescue, this time from slavery to sin. He had delivered Jesus to them as the final Passover Lamb, & His blood would now mark them as God’s people once again. The earthly kingdom of David had only been a foreshadowing of the eternal kingdom that Yahweh was creating in Jesus. “Men of Israel” highlights the glory to which Yahweh was calling His people. Peter wants them to aspire to that gift once again. This morning, as we consider the words of Acts 2, what gifts have you been aspiring to? Are they the gifts of an earthly kingdom, or the gifts of an eternal kind & kingdom? Are you tied to what you have known here at St. Matthew, or, are you aspiring to a gift that will never die? It is tempting to cling to what we know, & to our plan, but you & I can never bring our own plans into being. As we read in Proverbs 16: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” (16:9 ESV) The Holy Trinity is constantly at work establishing each of our steps. Sometimes those steps agree with our plans, but on many occasions they do not. When they don’t, it is easy for us as sinful creatures to become discouraged & to lose heart. It’s easy to forget what it is that Yahweh has called us to. By virtue of Christ, all of salvation history belongs to each of us. By virtue of our Baptism into Christ, Yahweh has called us – men, women & children – to be the eternal “Men of Israel.” By God’s grace, He accomplished the work of salvation through the Jewish nation, but that gift was never meant to belong exclusively to Jewish blood. Listen to these words of St. Paul in Galatians 3: “…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. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male & female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (3:26-29 ESV) Regarding the issue of salvation, all of us, & each of us, are “Men of Israel.” None are greater than another & none are less than another, because the same Jesus was delivered for each one of us. Our Lord & Savior does call us to make plans for our days, but our value & worth never depend upon our accomplishing them. We are “Men of Israel” regardless. That title applies to each of you this morning, & to all children of God around the world & already in heaven. St. Peter would like you to consider how that sense of salvation history can encourage & motivate you in the struggles of living by faith. You may recall these words from his 1st Epistle, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (2:9-10 ESV) We have received mercy because “Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God, [to be] crucified & killed by the hands of lawless men.” (Acts 2:23 ESV) Regardless of who built the cross or hammered the nails, as sisters & brothers, as Men of Israel, we are in this thing together. And Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. “God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:24 ESV) As Men of Israel, neither will it be possible for us to be held by death. Since our resurrection to eternal life is guaranteed, especially in our struggles, we should be focusing on our common ground. All of us are totally corrupt, yet, in what God has done for us, each of us are equally Men of Israel, already now citizens of heaven. We just aren’t there for the time being. Until then, we lean upon the strength & the promises of our Lord & Savior. Doing that, the Holy Spirit will use me & you to deliver the joy of God’s love to people who will receive it. Amen. A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing &, laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing; goes patient on, grows weak & faint, to slaughter led without complaint, that spotless life to offer, He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the mockery, & yet replies, “All this I gladly suffer.” This Lamb is Christ, the soul’s great friend, the Lamb of God, our Savior, whom God the Father chose to send to gain for us His favor. “Go forth, my Son,” the Father said, “And free My children from their dread of guilt & condemnation. The wrath & stripes are hard to bear, but by Your passion they will share the fruit of Your salvation.” Amen. LSB 438:1-2. 7th Sunday of Easter – A LSB #’s 525:1, 3-4; 427, 818
Text – John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven, & said, “Father, the hour has come…” THE HOUR HAS COME Looking at Jesus’ circumstances from our perspective we might refer to this as the moment of truth. In our sinful world, there are many times when we try to dodge the harsh realities of life. As broken creatures, it is our nature to put off difficult issues for as long as possible. In the sermon text, Jesus is stating that the hour of His crucifixion has come. Unlike the sinful creatures that we are, Jesus is not dodging, nor is He putting off the purpose for which He came. He is facing it head on right in front of His disciples, but they are confused & have no idea what Jesus is talking about. It might be confusing to you as well. According to the church calendar this Sunday is still the season of Easter. Yet, the Gospel reading comes from the moments after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper – the night before He’s crucified. In the season of remembering & celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, we revert back to a time before He’s even arrested, let alone crucified. The reading from the Gospel of John connects the cross & the glory of God so closely that one cannot be seen without the other. That’s why we sang a Lenten hymn right before this sermon. It is in the cross of Christ that us sinful creatures most clearly see the glory of the Holy Trinity. God’s death for His creation shows even sinners how unimaginable is God’s love. After September 11th, 2001, the police officers & firefighters who ran into the World Trade Center towers were recognized for their heroism, because everyone else was running out. Those sinful creatures made an amazing sacrifice in their attempt to help others. They gave their lives for people they didn’t even know. In that sacrifice we see the glory of their character. Though Jesus Christ never once committed any kind of sin, He willingly suffered the penalty of the sins of every man, woman & child who ever had lived, & whoever would live. He did this so that all of His creation could be released from the curse of sin, death & the Devil. In the sacrifice of Jesus we see the glory of the one true God. Instead of telling us how we need to earn our way back to holiness – an impossible task – Yahweh offers it to us freely as gift. For that, His children rightly praise our Lord & Savior: “His glories now we sing, Who died & rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring & lives that death may die.” (LSB 525:4) As September 11th dawned, none of the victims knew that their hour had come, their moment of truth. The Son of God knew from all eternity that His hour was coming. It’s one thing to bear that load as God. Jesus also spent 30 years in human flesh waiting for that hour. Imagine that dread that you or I would feel while knowing that was our destiny. Even when Jesus confronts His disciples with the reality of His coming death, they could not comprehend it. In spite of following Jesus for three years, they were not ready for the stunning impact of what would happen at Mt. Calvary. After the resurrection it all made sense to the disciples of Jesus. As John began his gospel everything in it pointed to this hour: The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, & the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, & His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13 ESV) These words sound very innocuous: “…to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (1:12 ESV) However, to give us the right to become children of God was a very costly endeavor. It meant that this True Light would have to pay the penalty of all the sins committed in earth’s history. No doubt, that part made the torturous physical death seem minor by comparison. And because none of us have ever been holy, it’s only the torturous physical death that any of us can relate to. Our own physical death is one of the greatest fears we face as sinful beings. How painful will it be? How long will it drag out? Will any family or friends be with us or will we have to go it alone? When the hour has come, how will we respond? That is not a comfortable question to consider. For that reason, John included V. 9 in the Gospel reading, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” Jesus is praying not only for the 12 disciples He chose 2000 years ago. He is praying for you as well. Jesus continues, “All mine are yours, & yours are mine, & I am glorified in them.” (John 17:10 ESV) We can appreciate that Jesus is praying for us, but it may seem odd that He includes the last phrase, “I am glorified in them.” However, anyone who receives the blessing of His forgiveness, life & salvation, brings glory to Yahweh because the death of Jesus was not wasted. God created us to be with Him & to know Him that He might interact with us personally. Yahweh wants to have the relationship with you that He had with Adam & Eve before The Fall. Right now, much of our relationship with God is centered in His Church, & to be honest, His Church & His people do not appear all that impressive. But then, the Jewish carpenter & rabbi didn’t look like much either while hanging on the cross. Who would have thought that was the Creator of the universe working out the rescue of all mankind from the corruption of sin? To sinful human beings, appearances & reality do not always agree. Much of the time, what we think we see is not real, & what we don’t see is real. Through His suffering, His apparent weakness & through His death & resurrection, Jesus was establishing His reign over all the earth. Not even Satan can snatch God’s children from His hand. Jesus is carrying with Him all who belong to the Father as He makes His way to the cross & out of the tomb. That is the hour that had come for Him. There are many times in our lives when we feel the weight of the moment – the first day of school for the child, for the parent the first day that child leaves home to go to school. Your first day on the job, your first house fire as a firefighter, the day of death for the first of your parents to go. The list is long, but the Holy Trinity is with us, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Glory & cross are inseparable, because in this sinful world a price must be paid for all the wrongs that are done. If no price is paid then there is no justice. So Jesus paid that price out of love for us, & He is praying for us constantly, even as He prayed for us that night before His crucifixion. Jesus shared our experience of death that we might share His experience of life. There is a deeper kind of knowing that happens in shared experiences. There’s a profound difference between looking at a video of a trip to the zoo & being in the video clip of that trip to the zoo. When we are in the video clip, we are part of the action. Jesus has invited us to be part of the action as He conquers sin, death & the Devil. We are not merely watching faith in action, we are living faith in action. In a sense, for us every day is the hour that was to come, & Jesus is with us every hour unto the very end of this age. (Matthew 28:20) Amen. When the woes of life o’er take me, hopes deceive & fears annoy, never shall the cross forsake me; Lo, it glows with peace & joy. Bane & blessing, pain & pleasure by the cross are sanctified; peace is there that knows no measure, joys that through all time abide. Amen. LSB 427:2, 4. 6th Sunday of Easter – A LSB #’s 475, 713:1-3, 6; 932
Text – 1 Peter 3:14a But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. SUFFERING FOR THE SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:1-3 ESV) It’s a well-known & well-loved Psalm, used at many funerals because it can bring great comfort in the midst of our suffering. However, as we find comfort in the thought of Jesus leading us in paths of righteousness, we’re probably not considering the words of Peter from the sermon text. Those very paths of righteousness that Jesus leads us on can also be what causes the world to slander or persecute us. You only have to look at Cain & Abel to see what can come of it: “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous…” (Hebrews 11:4a ESV) At the hands of his older brother, Abel suffered death for the sake of that righteous offering. Abel simply did what was good, right & God-pleasing. It cost him his earthly life. Note that key distinction – his earthly life. No matter how much value anyone places on this life all of it, all of it, is temporary. Everything in this room will be gone in fairly short order compared to eternity. Each of our most treasured possessions will be gone sooner than we realize. The same is true of our suffering in this broken world. All of it will be over in short order compared to eternity. God the Holy Spirit is at work blessing us through any suffering we endure for the sake of righteousness. That’s what St. Peter is teaching us in the Epistle lesson, but reading it & living it are vastly different experiences. No doubt you’ve done a good deed & still caught flack for it. Or maybe the person you helped was totally not appreciative. Not once did they thank you. It’s happened to all of us. Were you disappointed? Did you get frustrated & angry? Did you pray about it & discover something about your motive for doing good? If the Holy Spirit is guiding you, examining those motives is always dangerous territory. Each time sin will be discovered beneath it all. Even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) If our motive for doing good is the recognition we hope to receive, in addition to suffering for righteousness’ sake we also will experience frustration & anger. The frustration & anger reveal that our motives were not pure. When we do good & suffer for it, how we endure that suffering reveals something about us. You might remember this from the Epistle lesson two weeks ago: “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin & are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good & suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.” (1 Peter 2:19-20 ESV) The next time you do something righteous & suffer for it, Peter encourages you not to be frustrated & angry. He’s calling you to see it as a gracious thing in the sight of God. When you do, then realize that your motives are improving. Jesus calls us to love our neighbor & our enemies simply because God loved us when we were His enemies. If we do good with God’s love as our motive, it doesn’t matter if the one receiving our help is ungrateful or even belligerent. The heavenly Father always appreciates the righteous things we do when love for Him is our motive. If we suffer for it, He will see that & He will bless us. How God blesses us is not under our control, but His Word promises that He will. Whatever Satan means for evil God is able to turn for good. The next time you do good, try tapping into the pure joy of working alongside your Lord & Savior. That is a far greater reward than any sinful being can ever give you. Earthly recognition, even in its highest form, is here today gone tomorrow. Your heavenly Father’s recognition is perfect & pure & it never ends. “…even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” (1 Peter 3:14a ESV) That is Christ’s promise to us & He should know. As Peter continued: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh…” (3:18 ESV) Jesus suffered for righteousness’ sake all the way to death that He might restore you & me to the eternal family of our holy Creator. Jesus suffered horribly so that He could be blessed with your presence in heaven. That may sound a little over the top because you have not yet met your holy & totally perfect self. However, do you know how long Yahweh has known the self that you will become in heaven? St. Paul gave us that answer in Ephesians 1: “Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & blameless before Him…” (1:3-4 ESV) Since before the foundation of the world – that’s how long Yahweh has known your perfect self. Would you like to meet that you – the holy & blameless you? We tend to think of heaven in the sense of no more sin, sorrow or suffering. Yet, there we will meet the self none of us has ever known, & best of all, it will never ‘go to our head.’ Never again will we be ‘full of ourselves,’ expecting everything to revolve around me, myself & I. We will be perfectly grateful & filled with joy just to be completely in the presence of Jesus. Everything else will be ‘icing on the cake.’ All that, is what the book of Hebrews refers to, when it says of Jesus: “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (12:2 ESV) Jesus wants the opportunity to create the perfect you when He raises you from the dead. Hebrews continues: “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (12:3 ESV) That living in this world can be difficult is an understatement. That’s why the Holy Spirit coordinated St. Peter with Hebrews, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed.” (3:14a ESV) He’s not just talking about blessing in this life. Peter is also speaking of heaven. As the sermon hymn put it: “Yet even though I suffer the world’s unpleasantness, & though the days grow rougher & bring me great distress, that day of bliss divine, which knows no end or measure, & Christ, who is my pleasure, forever shall be mine.” LSB 713:6. The context of Peter’s letter is our daily Christian living, the ‘undeserved’ suffering it brings, & the resulting attitude we take toward those who cause the suffering. Hostile, aggressive self-defense is the knee-jerk reaction to the world’s harassment. Jesus teaches & models a different way, yet, ultimately, Jesus accomplishes that new way for us. He doesn’t let us ‘off the hook’ for loving our neighbor even when we suffer for it, but Jesus does accomplish that to the perfection our heavenly Father requires. Because Jesus did that perfectly, & on our behalf, those who follow Jesus will have a 2nd & eternal chance in heaven. There, everyone will perfectly love their Lord & their neighbor in every way. When times are tough, we can lose sight of what is good & true. The time we have left here is short, especially in comparison to eternity. The suffering we have left here is short, especially in comparison to joy & glory of eternity. In the meantime, we have Psalm 23, & our Good Shepherd has promised that He will never leave us. Amen. When those whom I regarded as trustworthy & sure have long from me departed, God’s grace shall still endure. He rescues me from sin & breaks the chains that bind me. I leave death’s fear behind me; His peace I have within. The Lord my life arranges; who can His work destroy? In His good time He changes all sorrow into joy. So let me then be still: my body, soul & spirit His tender care inherit according to His will. Amen. LSB 713:2-3. 5th Sunday of Easter – A LSB #’s 822, 549:1-3; 549:4-7
Text – 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. A CHOSEN RACE The topic of race can bring out a tremendous amount of emotion in the United States. Horrific crimes were committed in our nation & the hatred it still brings out in people today is disheartening at best. Even considering race in its Biblical context is complicated because God’s Word was twisted by those who claimed that enslaving people was part of God’s design. However, in that regard, the Word of God is clear that all human beings are of the same race. All people throughout history have descended from one couple – from Adam & Eve. Among all the other horrors of this world, their sin also gave us the curse of racist thinking. Then, because of the arrogance & evil of mankind, the Creator confused the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel. He also caused them to be dispersed across the land as they’d been commanded yet refused to do. Yahweh wanted the people to be fruitful & multiply across the world. They all wanted to stay in the same place & make a name for themselves. Once the people were dispersed, significant differences developed in culture from one place to another. Combined with the confused languages, the amount of evil that men could do together was curbed. However, when one group of people doesn’t understand another’s ways & customs, our sinful nature easily labels those other people groups as strange & inferior. Taken to its extreme, Satan & sin would divide the world into the anarchy of every man for himself. To say, “It’s a dog eat dog world,” is to describe what Adam & Eve brought into the human race as they automatically spread the blame for their rebellion. Eve blamed the serpent, while Adam blamed Eve & even Yahweh who gave her to him. As Peter wrote his letter to Christians scattered across the Roman world, they too knew the evils brought about by being different. Many of them were aliens & exiles, slaves & women, all of them marginal people who were easy & constant targets of ridicule & persecution. They had none of the civil rights protections that so many people of our nation take so for granted today. In the face of such unrelenting persecution & danger, the Christians, Peter was writing to, understandably felt vulnerable & questioned the value of their faith in Jesus. If Christ had saved them from damnation, where was the evidence of it? Yet, those are exactly the people whom our Lord loves to save. People in our nation, who have flat out rejected Jesus as Lord, act as if they are lord themselves. And, that’s no different than their father because all self-righteousness in God’s creation began with Satan & his fall. That’s why Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32 ESV) He is calling us back to Himself. With the evil of Satan at work in our hearts & minds, it’s no wonder that many people have a low opinion of their status. They are constantly ridiculed & persecuted so they assume it’s because they have no worth or value in this world. Yet, those are exactly the people whom our Lord loves to save. He loves to save those who recognize they cannot help themselves. Yahweh created us to be holy & He longs to restore you & me to that status. For that reason, the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the very Son of God, took on human flesh & blood so that He could be crucified & then be raised from the dead in flesh & blood. On Easter morning Jesus became the firstborn of a new human race, one that is undefiled by sin. Jesus is the firstborn of that new chosen race. All who trust in Him will join Him at the final resurrection as perfect & holy children of God. There our bodies will no longer suffer any of the effects of sin. No more fear, no more worry, no more suffering at the hands of Satan & those who follow Him. There will be no more confusion, stumbling or ignorance. The lawlessness & corruption of our day & time will be gone. People will love, honor & respect each other, & they will no longer be disobedient & arrogant. In our churches today, Christians are not being directly persecuted as they were in Peter’s day. We aren’t being thrown into the lion’s den nor are we being slaughtered in the football stadiums. Our persecution takes a more subtle form. We are being persecuted by all the people who were raised in the faith but have abandoned it for more interesting pursuits. This morning, as Jan & I were getting ready, at 7:30 am I could hear baseball practice begin across the road from our home. In many families, sports have taken the place of God. That may sound rather harsh only because all of us have become so accustomed to it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is for our benefit, but many don’t see it that way. Do non sporting family events take precedence over the 3rd commandment? Those examples aren’t as obvious, but many family gatherings today preclude attending church. When weddings are on a Saturday, often there’s a brunch on Sunday morning that takes the place of being in God’s house. That kind of persecution of our faith may seem harmless, but Satan’s intent behind it is anything but harmless. Peter’s letter is meant to encourage us in spite of the attacks upon our 3rd commandment faith. We fail, but we are not defeated. We sin, but we are not damned. We are abandoned in our churches on Sunday morning, yet we are not alone. We may be ridiculed for making our faith a priority, yet we will not be put to shame. The Holy Spirit laid out God’s vision not just in Peter’s letter, but way back in Deuteronomy 7: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession. The Lord did not set His affection on you & choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you & kept the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a mighty hand & redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (7:6-8) When Yahweh speaks, things happen. When He calls us a chosen race, that is what we become. Children of God are unique in this world, with our own culture that transcends all human cultures. We have our own language that transcends all human languages. We have our own light that transcends all the darkness that exists in this world. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the dawn of God’s new creation. As Peter wrote, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10 ESV) When Yahweh speaks, things happen. He has set us apart from a world overshadowed by the doom of eternal death. We see that today in the confusion, stumbling & madness of the unbelievers. Let us call them out of the darkness & into the marvelous light of Christ. Amen. Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race, ye ransomed from the fall, hail Him who saves you by His grace & crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace & crown Him Lord of all. Amen. LSB 549:3. |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
May 2026
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