In Jesus, the Victory’s Won

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

“Jesus lives! The victory’s won! Death no longer can appall me; Jesus lives! Death’s reign is done! From the grave will Christ recall me. Brighter scenes will then commence; This shall be my confidence.”^[1] St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians,

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.^[2]

These verses from chapter 15 served as the theme text for our VBS this year. All week long our children learned that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; and that, in Christ, the victory is won.

In Christ, we have received the victory over sin, over death, over hell and all the powers of the devil. Apart from Christ, we were held, as it were, in the dark dungeon of death. We were bound and held tight by the chains of sin and doomed to die. But God, in His mercy, sent His Son to die for us. Through Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection, sin and death have been overcome. The bars of death and bonds of sin have been broken. We have received forgiveness of our sins and eternal salvation. Our theme this year, and a sentence we would do well to remember is this: In Jesus, the Victory is Won.

I.

Scripture talks about our life here on earth in many different ways. Sometimes it’s compared to race; Sometimes, to a journey. Sometimes, Scripture talks about our lives on this earth in terms of a battle. We are encouraged, for example, to put on the whole armor of God – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. These weapons are, of course, spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare against the devil and all his host. However, the spiritual warfare waged against us often carries over into the physical world. In our Bible lessons this week at VBS we learned about some real conflicts and worries that God’s people faced.

Our first two stories went this way. On the first day, we learned how God provided victory to Joshua and the Israelites by causing the walls of Jericho to crumble before them. They didn’t have to do anything, God’s mighty hand alone made the walls come tumbling down. On the second day, we learned about King Hezekiah. While he was king in Jerusalem, the evil king Sennacherib came to wage war. Sennacherib boasted about his own strength and mocked both God and His followers. Hezekiah was greatly afraid until God spoke through the prophet Isaiah that He would provide the victory. Shortly after, Sennacherib’s boasting proved empty when God defeated 185,000 Assyrian soldiers and sent Sennacherib away empty-handed. On the third day, we learned how God provided victory to Josiah and the people of Jerusalem by forgiving their sins against His Commandments.

In Scripture, God’s people faced many battles. Some were actual battles, like with Joshua and Hezekiah. Others faced spiritual battles, like Josiah against the false gods his people worshipped and St. Paul in his missionary work. We also face those same battles. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ across the world, and certainly throughout history, face actual physical danger as Satan wages war against God and His followers. But, we are not so far removed from that. For, just as Satan wages actual war against God’s people, he also fights against us. His weapons in this arena are more subtle: sin and the veil that is cast over all people, death.

In our daily lives, we battle and wage war against sin. We hear in Scripture that God has revealed to us how He desires to live – to love Him above all things and our neighbor as ourselves. These things are expressed to us in the Ten Commandments – to have no other gods, for example, and not murder. When we disobey these commandments, we sin. We also hear in Scripture that there is both a consequence and punishment for sin, and that’s death. The Holy Spirit spoke through St. Paul to the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.” Also, “Just as sin came into the world through the one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.”^[3] The Holy Spirit leaves very little wiggle room there. Try as we might to not sin, we will always fail. On our own, we will inevitably lose the battle against sin and we will die. Death is both the consequence of sin – when we sin we show we lack the glory of God – and God punishes sin with death. Because all men sin, all men die.

II.

And, as I said, the battle against sin and death is one that we cannot win. If it were up to us, the victory would be impossible to win. Therefore, God became man. God had mercy on us in our sinful state. He sent the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, to take upon Himself our flesh. He bore our sin on the cross and is the savior by His rising from the dead. When Jesus rose from the dead, He shattered the teeth of death and cancelled its sting. No longer does death loom over our heads waiting to dropped like a piano on an unaware pedestrian below. No longer can the devil scare and taunt us with sin and death, for, through Christ, the devil is defeated and the victory is forever won.

The children learned about this victory, the most important one in all history, on the final day of VBS. We read how Jesus willingly gave Himself into death for our sins and rose to give us new life. But, the victory of Jesus was present in our other stories, too. God forgave King Josiah and the people though the mercy shown in Christ. He saved Hezekiah from evil king Sennacherib not because Hezekiah and the people deserved it – for they did not love God above all things – but because of God’s own steadfast and eternal love for them. Same for Joshua. God didn’t tear down the walls of Jericho because His people were so good, but in keeping with His mercy and in remembrance of His promise to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Same for us. We also wage war against the sin that resides in our flesh, against the devil, and the power of death. On our own, it is an impossible battle. Often times, we don’t even know what stage of fighting we’re in, nor how serious it is, or that we’re even fighting at all. This deadly battle is revealed to us in Scripture, as is God’s mercy. In love, the Father sent the Son to wage war, to suffer, to die, and rise for us. In Christ, the victory is won. The victory over sin and death has been won. Death is swallowed up in victory. It has lost its sting forever. This victory is given us by God’s grace through faith. Through faith in Christ we are now more than conquerors. God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. And, He has helped us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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^[1] “Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won,” Lutheran Service Book, 490.

^[2] 1 Cor. 15:54-57, English Standard Version.

^[3] Rom. 6:23; 5:12.

The Lord is My Shepherd

Audio: Trinity III Sermon

Text: Luke 15:1-10

St. Peter wrote in his first epistle, “[Cast] all your anxieties on [the Lord], for He cares for you.” Likewise, St. Paul wrote in our epistle text, “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.” This past week at St. John we have hosted our annual Vacation Bible School. The title this year was “Barnyard Roundup: Jesus Gathers Us Together.” It was based on the verses of Psalm 23, and our readings this week perfectly capture that theme. Particularly, this morning we will be looking at our Gospel text, which contains some of the most beloved and comforting words in all Scripture.

In our Gospel Jesus pictures Himself to us as a shepherd. Though He’s in charge of a multitude of sheep, He does not hesitate to drop everything to seek and save the one sheep gone astray. When He finds it, rejoicing, He places it on His shoulders and gathers it back into the fold. Jesus also commends Himself to us in the parable of the Lost Coin. There a woman who has ten coins loses one. She drops everything, lights a lamp, and searches till she finds it. And, like the shepherd, she rejoices. So, we see, the Lord is our shepherd who seeks us out, who saves us, and gathers us through His Word.

I.

Our Gospel reading is building on a theme in Luke’s Gospel. One of my commentaries calls this section of Luke the Table Fellowship section. In this whole chunk of Luke, Jesus is reclining at table in the house of one of the head Pharisees. One of the key themes of this discussion is shared between Jesus and John the Baptist – a theme we usually take up in Advent – the importance of repentance in the life of a Christian. You know the words of John the Baptist’s ministry, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” It was the midst of that meal that Jesus spoke our text last week about the Great Banquet.

He told a parable about a man who gave a great banquet and invited many to come and feast. When the time was ready he sent his servant to gather those who had been invited. The way things worked back then, you would send out an initial invitation saying there’s a feast coming up. Then, when the feast had come, you would go and gather everyone up. But, when the servant went to do that, everyone turned him down. One claimed he bought a field and couldn’t come; another, oxen; another, newly married. The master then sent his servant to call people who had not been invited, first those in the city: the lame and crippled. These represent the tax collectors and “sinners” in our reading. Then, even those outside the city were compelled to come to the feast. These are those, like us, who were born outside God’s covenant people.

Here’s where we get to Luke 15. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him.” Jesus was teaching about repentance and faith. The tax collectors and sinners were hearing Jesus’ words in faith, confessing their sins and being forgiven. The Holy Spirit was working through the Word to create repentance and faith in them. They had learned to recognize their sin and believe in Jesus for their salvation. Meanwhile, the Pharisees were doing as they usually were. They were grumbling, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So, Jesus told them this parable.

II.    

He said,

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing…When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’

Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees and us to show us just how much He cares about us and what He does for us.

First, Jesus seeks us out. In the parable Jesus is the shepherd and we are the sheep. And like sheep, we are prone to wander. Not content to live within the fold of God, Adam and Eve began to wander, thinking grass would be greener in the field yonder. Ever since, we who have been born of flesh and blood also go astray. But, what does the shepherd do? He leaves the other ninety-nine in the care of faithful undershepherds, and drops everything to go and find the one lost sheep. This is what Christ did by emptying Himself of His eternal glory, which He shared with the Father and Spirit before all time, and taking on Himself our human flesh.

I read somewhere that when sheep get lost, once they realize they’re in an unfamiliar place, they will lay down and not move. Then, when the shepherd finds it, he has to physically pick it up and carry it, because otherwise it ain’t going anywhere. I wonder if that isn’t a good description of us, the sheep. As we walk through this valley of shadow, we do wander. We wander into all sorts of sins, physical, mental, and spiritual. And, sometimes we hunker down. We get lost in our sins and we forget that we’re sinning. Or, rather, we choose to persist in our sin. That is, until Christ finds us.

How does He search for us and find us? He seeks us out through the preaching of the Word. He works through the preaching of the Law to show us our sin and then He calls to us through the Gospel saying, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He sends pastors to share His saving Word and to administer the sacraments, so that the Gospel may have free course to create and sustain faith throughout the world. Then through Holy Baptism He puts us on His shoulders. In Baptism we are united to His death for our sins and the forgiveness that He won on the cross is given to us through that sacred washing. Just like the lost sheep may kick and fight at first when the shepherd picks it up, so the Old Adam in us kicks and screams within us as it is drowned in the water and the Word.

Through the preaching of the Word and in Holy Baptism, Christ seeks us out and saves us. He finds us and, rejoicing, puts us on His shoulders. Then, on His shoulders, He gathers us back to His flock – the Church. And, actually, that was theme of VBS this week – Jesus, our Good Shepherd, gathers us together. As Scripture says, all we like sheep had gone astray, yet He, in love, sought us. He took on flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. He died on the cross and rose from the dead so that we might live with Him (our shepherd) in His kingdom (the Church).

III.

The second parable in our Gospel is the parable of the Lost Coin, and has much in common with the first parable. In it a woman loses a coin. The number is lowered from one hundred sheep to ten coins, to two sons later. Jesus lowers the number to show us how important each individual lost sheep, coin, and son is to Him. After losing the coin, the woman lights a lamp and searches diligently until she finds it. When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her, since she had found the coin that she had lost.

If we keep in mind that the parable goes with the parable of the Lost Sheep and is about how Christ seeks out, saves, and gather each individual lost sheep, then we might also be able to talk about what it means to be found, saved, and gathered by Christ into the Church. King David sings in the psalms that the Word of God is a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. Christ Himself is the light that shines in the darkness and He has given the lamp of His Word to His bride, the Church. Like the woman in the parable, we are called to shine the lamp of God’s Word into the dark places of the world to find the lost coin.

Our temptation is always to be like the Pharisees and scribes. The Old Adam in us wants us to point and scoff at tax collectors and “sinners;” but then we would be blind to the fact that we are all chief of sinners. We all like sheep have gone astray and need to found by Christ. And so we are. We confess in the Creed that we have been called by the Gospel. Through the preaching of the Word, Christ has sought us out. He sends His Word into all the earth to find each lost sheep. Then, through Baptism He places His lost sheep on His shoulders and gathers them into His fold. Having been gathered into His fold, we also seek to save the lost, sharing with them the hope and comfort that the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not want.

Because He First Loved Us

Text: 1 John 4:7-21

This week was St. John’s vacation Bible School. The title was Camp Discovery: Jesus at Work through Us. Each day the children learned about the work of Christ through His Word and Sacraments. They learned that Jesus gives them courage and wisdom, that He saves them through faith and then leads them to share His love by serving others. The theme verse for the week and our text today is from 1 John 4, “We love because he first loved us.”[1]

This text was the Epistle reading for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, but it is profitable for us for it to come up again today. In 1 John 4, the apostle exhorts his beloved fellow Christians to test the spirits, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Those that confess that Jesus has come in the flesh are from God, and those that don’t are not of God. They may rage against us, but St. John assures us, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”^[2] Therefore, since those who have faith in Jesus overcome the world, the apostle then exhorts us as to what sort of people we have been called to be.

I.

St. John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”^[3] Before we can begin talking about anything, we must start with the source of our life: our Triune God. Last week on Trinity Sunday we took a few minutes to confess our faith in the One God in Three Persons. We believe from Scripture that God exists eternally as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today we learn what is the epitome, the essence of God Himself: love.

John writes that love is from God because God is love. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always appear that way. That’s not because God isn’t always love, but because our sinful nature drives us to see things differently. Instead of seeing the love of God in Christ Jesus, many people only see the God of the Bible as one of hate and Law. This is due largely to the sinful condition we are all in that reacts scornfully against any attempts to curb its evil desires. But often it’s also because we as Christians abuse God’s Law. Instead of learning from Christ that He is the fulfillment of the Law and that the whole goal of the Law is love, we remake the Law in our own image. We turn the Law from a mirror that shows us all our sins and need for salvation, we take it and turn it into a set of rules that one must follow to be a good member of the church. The Law becomes a maze for human rats to follow to get cheese at the end. Thus, we fail to live in love.

Thankfully, our failure to live in love does not undo the fact that God is love. Scripture says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”^[4] But wait a second, I haven’t said anything about not loving God, right? But that’s exactly the point: our failure to live in love towards our neighbor is a failure to love God. Ever since the Fall our natural inclination is to love ourselves more than God and our neighbor. None of us by nature possesses the ability to truly love as love itself was created.

Our failure to love is what prompted God to send His only begotten Son. In this is love, not that we loved first, but that He first loved us and sent Christ to bear the guilt of our sin. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God bore our sins, our constant failure to love, in His body on the cross. He suffered the ultimate punishment for us. He died for you. God is love, even the perfect model of sacrificial love.

II.

St. John writes, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”^[5] What he means is that, if God has loved us so much as to look past the guilt of our constant sinning by sending His only Son to die for us, thus we also ought to love one another. The Bible says that as we abide in Christ and His Word, He abides in us and His love is perfected in us. The children learned this week in VBS that the main goal of the love of Christ that dwells within us is that we serve others and share the saving work of Jesus Christ with those in need.

If you’ve ever gone to a wedding, you’ve probably heard the familiar words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Maybe you had them at your own wedding. Paul writes of perfect love saying, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”^[6] This is a long description of the life to which all Christians have been called. But, if we’re honest, it doesn’t sound much like us. We might be able to check off a couple of the boxes here and there, but never are we able to live perfectly in the love that Christ has shown us and has called us to. At the bottom, all our problems are the result of our sinful failure to live in Christian love.

The theme verse for VBS this year is 1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.” There’s two parts to that sentence: our love, and Christ’s love. We already know that more often than not, our love is poor or non-existent. We fail to serve others, we gossip and slander; we’re inactive and apathetic; instead of building others up, we puff ourselves up. But Jesus is none of those things. He is God, He is perfect love. He is patient and kind, bearing with us when we fail to love. He does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude; He does not shame us when we sin. He is not irritable or resentful, but always willing to freely forgive.

Therefore, we love. We love because He first loved us. Christ knew our weaknesses and the punishment we deserve for our sinfulness. He knew that we, all too often, fail to love. And so, He loved us. He loved us even to the point of death, death on the cross. There He won for us the free forgiveness of all our sins. Now He freely gives us that forgiveness through the preaching of His Word, through the renewal of the Holy Baptism, and in the supper of His own Body and Blood. By these things we are strengthened for lives of service in love towards Him and one another. We love because He first loved us.

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[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Jn. 4:19.

^[2] 1 Jn 4:4.

^[3] 1 Jn 4:7–10.

^[4] 1 Jn 4:10.

^[5] 1 Jn. 4:11.

^[6] 1 Cor. 13:4–7.