St. Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lombard Illinois Podcast. This podcast contains sermons from our worship services.
St. Timothy Evangelical Lutheran Church
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.”
The Greek philosophers spoke of vine-dressing as a way of describing training in philosophy. Popular philosophy in the first century was preoccupied with living a virtuous life. Good philosophy was supposed to remove vice from your soul in the same way that a vinedresser would remove useless growth. Teachers must exhort people toward virtue in the same way that one might tend to a young plant. Only such virtue would lead to joy. For us Christians, our faith is no mere philosophical system. This is the Truth and it will lead us not only to virtue but also to true joy.
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