St. Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lombard Illinois Podcast. This podcast contains sermons from our worship services.
St. Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church
This man was speaking of OUR guilt, you know? Yes, his and the man who was nailed to the other cross.
But What If? 27There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30And the second 31and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32Afterward the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife." 34And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him." 39Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well." 40For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Luke 20 [ESV] Do you know how we like to say, "Yes, but…but, what if…?" Teachers put up with this all the time. God puts up with this from us all the time… …but what if?…We say this after hearing God's Word…don't we? …but…but, my relatives have come to town? Yes…your point is? Take them with you to church, or let them stay home if they won't. You be here. …but what if I have worked a real hard and long year and go on vacation to rest? The best rest is in the Lord's House. …but on holidays I need all the time I can get to prepare the feast…so we can eat on time. …So have snacks ready and eat later. ….yes, but then the game is on…. …so tape it, eat, then watch. Is it the holiday (the HOLY DAY) or the game that is being celebrated? Is it a day of excuses to sin? Come on, what else you got? You see, I can give you a counter answer to almost all of your "what if's" as any good teacher will, or simply answer that that situation you give will never happen in the real world. I can give you an answer because the Bible answers everything that is under the sun. There is nothing new. Yes, God has an answer for them all…and yes, God has heard all the possible reasons for not doing whatever He tells us to do. God says to have no other gods before Him. Other little gods, yes, as God knows we have them, but Our Lord comes first. What do I and He mean here? Go ahead and love other things, but according to the Commandments and in their proper order. God first, then family (wife, then children…husband, then children), then your neighbors, then your vocation, then your hobbies. Love, cherish and care…but not before…not above Him…not out of the order of creation—the way He made them all. Yes, but what if… What if my husband is a work-aholic? My children need me, and since he is not around much, why should I put…let him be first in my life…over them? You both need to repent. Yet each of you are still to do what God says. Despite the situation—even in the situation. What if … Yes? …but…the town does such a lousy job on the roads…and they sent my son over to Iraq and I don't think we should even be there…and look at gas prices…. Show me a coin. Whose image is on it? A president. So, render to the government—to the world—what is theirs, and to God what is His. Pay your taxes, yes, but also give to God what is due Him: YOU. Whose image is on you? Whose image has been once again placed on you? How were you formed and how were you re-formed? Adam was made in the image of God, but then took the "what if" against…and instead of…doing according to how he was made. So, the image of the devil was stamped on Adam…and Eve…and all of us. The world—I don't mean this planet, although effected, yes—but when the Bible talks about this world, it is in the image of the devil. Its ways and its wants. It—the devil—wants to also form the church into its image. He would like to form you again into his image. As a liar. A cheat. A thief. A user. An excuser—an excuser of sin. The devil wants you in the image of death—to die and stay dead. You see, he is the master of the "…but what if…" scenario. He gave Adam and Eve a crash course right in the garden. "But what if God is holding out on you…what if it is a better thing to know good and evil…and what if God really does not want you to be like Him…?" That is where this MO comes from. The devil. The devil tried to do this even to God. He tried the "what if" in heaven…what if he, the devil could replace God and run things for a change…what if that were better? Yet he failed. The Bible says that the devil and his angels that he took with him—a third—lost their former estate. Thrown out of heaven. Adam and Eve lost their former estate too—kicked out of the garden. Pain in childbirth, friction between husband and wife…and more weeds than edible plants from all that hard work. Then Brothers killing each other. It seems that the devil's "what if" was working here, on earth. It has been—working well in the sense that we all do it, but the results…well no good for us has come of it. Yet, we still wonder, "but what if it eventually will be good…" No, as we will be dead. Every one of us. Then the devil, with all his success here, thought he would get another chance at heaven. Yes, especially when the Son of God became man. He even tried to make Jesus into his image. He tempted Jesus. Then because Jesus wasn't taking the bait, he killed him. The devil failed. Using his own work against Him, Jesus was not re-imaged, but actually began the start of humanity's re-imaging. Jesus was not just reclaiming His own body, and life, but also ours…and the world—nature and the universe itself. All will have the full, undiminished, unaffected, untarnished image of God once again. Starting with Jesus the man…then continuing with a band of twelve which then became over 3,000 by the second chapter of Acts, then out into the whole world—all by baptism—Word and Water…and Spirit. Same as at the beginning of the world. The World made by God's Word, the Son, in Water and the Spirit which hovered over the deeps. Just read Genesis chapter 1. All is being remade again according to God's way…again…with Water and Word. You see, by baptism, we no longer have the image of the world. We get God's name, and wherever His name is placed, God is there—His image is there…He is there. A new creation starts there. We Get Jesus as our covering. Jesus is the exact image of God. When we see Jesus, we see God. When God sees us, He sees Jesus. We get—we have Jesus, His Spirit and His Father. We have been reborn…re-imaged…remade…regenerated in His image once again. The planet is next…out into the universe even—everything. So, God has all the "what if's"—every contingency—even ones we have not thought of or ever will—He has got them covered. What if? What if nothing! We are to act now according to how we have been remade…like Jesus…to please His Father…where there are no, "what if's" any longer. There just are none in Jesus. Never! Even if we cannot see the how, it is covered. We are covered. So, we can, then, render to God, what is God's: You. Do so. All of you and yours. Your time, your things, your spouse and children even. Your life even. He who hates his life in this world, Jesus says, will keep it. He who loves it, will lose it. What image do you like best? Stop letting them change you into their image…the way they do things! Stop letting people try and change the image of the church then! We don't vote for choice in the name of freedom. We vote to keep God's commandments. We don't change church and our services just because that is what the world likes. It wants us to reflect them—their image, but we must reflect God's. It wants the church to use marketing and packaging to tempt and lure. It wants us to dress and be like them—to lure and seduce and tempt. All this is the image of sin, death and the devil. The church and its people have the image of Christ—it must or it is not the church. God's image is of life, not the dead. He lives and we live and move and have our being in Him. He is the author and perfecter of our lives. You only live because He says so. You only have because He says so. He gives life to all those who despair of their own. Face the result of your sin—your death. Face the fact that the soul who sins dies and leaves all that he has to someone else. Face that picture. Face that image. Then turn and embrace instead the image God gave you—His. God is the only one who can change that death mask into a face that lives…that reflects Him. He sent Jesus for this very reason. Jesus is the resurrection. He is the way, the truth and the Life. All those who believe in Him, who eat of His flesh and drink of His blood have life in them. These carry His life giving being—God Himself—the very image of God, Jesus, in their very bodies. Whose image do you have? Theirs or His? Those without Jesus' reflection die… …with no if's, no but's, about it. So don't confuse yourselves, or others, with "but what if's." As if…we could stump God. As if we could find wiggle room out of what He expects. As if there are loop holes. As if there were any other way. No, None! He alone provides the way out. Jesus. He alone provides life. Jesus. Yet, He not only gives wiggle room—to live and breath freely in—He brings us to His wide open fields—where we can and will be at play…in the house of the Lord…forever. Jesus came and did this for us,
Do You? Luke 18: 1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.' " 6And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"Luke 18-18 [ESV] Do you? Yes, I guess all of us do at times. We do think God is like the crusty, angry, old judge in Jesus' story. He is not, but because of our sin and the result of it—our great need, we think of Him in this way. For this reason we always think of Him last when we are in need. We try to solve it ourselves. Yes, we would rather—then, you see, we would rather not be dependent on Him. Even though we are…for everything. Sun, rain, and crops. But the very core of the sinful flesh says that it is better if we could not have to be…that if we can do it all ourselves, we will. We are desperate to. Not that that is possible. Not that that will ever happen. So, do you? Do we, His elect…His chosen people—chosen By His Word in Water a few days after we were born—for most of us anyway—do we bring everything to God in prayer…as the hymn says…as we are told to do? Are you dependent on Him? Be so. You see, Jesus is giving us permission. Even if our evil hearts were to be right about God—that His is uncaring—it is not even close to being true—but even if somehow life, the devil, the world and our own flesh have convinced us that this is the case—even… …even then by our constant prayer He will answer. He says so. Read the Gospel text. So do it. Ask. Ask and it will be given to you…pressed down and overflowing with His goodness to you. Yes, you say, but we don't see that…any of that…even when we have prayed. We have seen the opposite. My mother died of cancer. The twin towers fell in New York. That bridge in Minneapolis… Yes, but who says—dares to say—that this is not a just and good answer? You can't see it? We don't, but justice says sins get punished. Good against real evil. God against sin and sinners. Yet, for us… all of that still does not matter…because He will answer, rescue, save despite all the long list many have against Him—with even that—with each of those on that list. It will be fixed and taken care of. Jesus has, and will, is, in fact doing so right now. Jesus is judging sin, paying for sin, dying for sin…and thus procuring our release…healing the very universe. That is an answer. That is THE answer that answers everything. That—He is—the best answer to prayer. All things will work for the good of those called by God. This is His purpose. This is justice met. This is all we need. Everything is in that—in Jesus coming to earth, living a perfect life for us and dying for all sin, then rising again so that we will too. Prayer answered. Depend on it. Yet, that is not all. He still answers prayer here and now. Even the small stuff… He delivers out of danger, heals sickness, keeps buildings from falling and even helps get you a job, a house a car…a wife and children…cattle, crops…all things. Truly! And you and I don't even know the least of it. We have no idea how many tight spots He and His sent angles have gotten us out of. Or how many times we have not been punished for our sins. Those many times we have escaped death, missed horrible accidents because He said NO! And all this even when we had not asked. Ah,
I remember an art teacher telling me that at the start of his teaching career, he tried to get his students to understand perspective. You know—getting 2-dimentional pictures to look 3-D. He said he failed at first, until he figured out that they did not even know the need for presepective in their pictures. No one notices…not until they try.
Luther was a slave to sin and he knew it. So, he went into the monastery to try and beat it out of himself—literally. With a whip. With fasting. With praying eight times a day.
I have often wondered how many people think these Words—lots of what the Bible says—were meant ONLY for those whom they were written to. That they don't really apply to us today.
Be Honest And Say It Like It Is Luke 12:49–56
In Christ we are arrayed like one who has not toiled, woven, spun…sown, adorned or even picked out what we are covered with.
This preacher though—King Solomon…is speaking God's Word here…to His people—and to the church of both Old and New…to us.
We can divide people into two groups. The ones that are IN and the WANA-BE's. But that of course is from our view of things. What some call the natural order. The way we would make it all work—survival of the fittest and all that.
And so, though this… being in Him…He made us into fishers of men. Sinners to help bring back sinners from exile…to lead sinners away from idols to worship the One True God…
You know when, in the Lord's Prayer, we ask our Father to deliver us from evil? The King James has "evil one" instead.
Do You Know Who Is Visiting Us Today 11 Afterward he was on his way to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd were traveling with him. 12 Just as he neared the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the town was also with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said, "Don't weep." 14 Then he came up and touched the open coffin, and the pallbearers stopped. And he said, "Young man, I tell you, get up!" 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us," and "God has visited his people." 17 This report about him went throughout Judea and all the vicinity. Luke 7:11–17 I want to start by emphasizing part of verse sixteen—"God has visited His people" What would go through your mind if you were to have a patrol car pull in front of your house and two officers come up to knock on your door? How about your boss walking into your office and closing the door behind him? There is a line in an old song that talks about the taxman com'in a'knock'in. In war time the last thing parents—or wives—want to see is that unmarked car pull-up and a couple of well-dressed military men get out and ring the doorbell. All of these visits are ominous. Many consider a visit from God to be like this. Even the gentle Jesus, as some portray Him… only to be. Why? Why would Jesus coming for a visit be ominous? Because He never leaves things as they were. Jesus revealed sin in the heart, when many only look to outward action… like many of the religious sort… So…how religious are you? What did Jesus do when He visited the so-called pious? He called them out. He called them nicely painted graves, full of dead men's bones. He took time to make a whip and threw some of them, out of His Father's house for doing what they called church business there. How many in our day, consider prosperity, growth, and numbers to be marks of a good Church? Are we moneychangers? Does this place become somewhere to show social position—or religiousness… rather than a sanctuary for refugees of a real spiritual war? This spiritual war we are in not only kills the soul, but the body as well. If it were not so, the young man in our text would not have died. The church is supposed to be a place to find help—a place to call out in our need, in prayer.It is not a place to show how much we—to show anything off…anything other than our sin—to admit our condition— TO HIM… And this … SO AS TO BE FORGIVEN. Yet DO WE compare—our car to the one you pull in next to in the church lot…. Do you wonder about those people in the pew in front of you? Why are THEY here? And MY kids…never, of course, made THAT kind of noise when they were in church! Did you know that Jesus cursed a fig tree because it did not produce fruit. So, can we show Him all the great fruit stored away to our merit? Now, do you know what He expects of you? He says that it is not just a matter of our doing wrong. It's that we do not even do what is right. Simple, common stuff is left undone—day in and day out—hour-to-hour. Do you want Him making a list? How detailed can He get with that? Minute-by-minute… or how about second-by-second? How uncaring, lazy and selfish have we been? All those things left undone! Do you know that this is really the same as hating, stealing, and killing. This is what we are about. Yes, by leaving these things undone, we do these other. Depraved indifference is a crime… "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." So, Jesus coming to visit… means the truth about us and these… no covering up when He is around…. He points to the corruption and sin of the heart—FIRST.
This has all to do with that fact that the first shall be last, and the last first. It has to do with not just presuming and taking the place of honor, but rather sitting far down the table…
This is a very familiar passage of Scripture—our Gospel lesson. Most of us know it by heart—John 3:16, but is it too familiar?
Family Honor: A Twelve-Year Old's Perspective Luke 2:41-52
What We Have Now Since the First Advent in the Church
In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it. Isaiah 2:2
Our Generation 24 "But in those days, after that tribulation: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; 25 the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 He will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.28 "Learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, recognize[a] that he[b] is near—at the door. 30 "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.32 "Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son —but only the Father. 33 "Watch! Be alert![c] For you don't know when the time is coming. 34 "It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his servants, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. 35 Therefore be alert, since you don't know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. 36 Otherwise, when he comes suddenly he might find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!" Mark 13:24-31
7 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don't your disciples live[b] according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?” 6 He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips,but their heart is far from me.7 They worship me in vain,teaching as doctrines human commands. 8 Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” 9 He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God's command in order to set up your tradition! 10 For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 11 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban'” (that is, an offering devoted to God), 12 “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.” 14 Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don't you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy,[j] slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” Mark 7:1-23 (CSB)
From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don't want to go away too, do you?”
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
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