Archive for May, 2009

We are about to begin the lengthy church season of Pentecost with the next Sunday and the festival of Pentecost. The 3 assigned readings are Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-21 and John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15. While most sermons will discuss the event of Pentecost as found in Acts 2, we choose to use the Old Testament verse of Ezekiel 37:10, “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

Unfortunately, the key teaching that resulted in the Reformation is no longer held in many evangelical congregations. That key teaching is that we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. What makes it even more sad is that most evangelicals do not realize that they no longer hold to this Biblical teaching as they continue to insist on a Decision theology. At first reading, one might conclude that Ezekiel 37 provides them with the ammunition they need. For obeying God’s command to speak to the dead bones, it appears that Ezekiel has the power not only to bring the bone togethers (verse 7); but also to have sinews and flesh come upon them and skin (verse and finally to give them breath (verse 10).

However, Scripture interprets Scripture. That means we look at the immediate context and then the wider context of the Bible to help interpret a particular passage. In this case we need go no further than the immediate context. While God indeed commands Ezekiel to say the words, God makes clear that it is He that is doing all the miraculous action. Verse 5 reveals God saying, “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.” Similar verses where God takes all the credit for bringing these dead bones to life are verses 6 and 12.

What we find here is something that many Christians have not fully grasped and that is the way God normally works to effect salvation. He does it through other means. He does His work by using the hands, legs and voices of His children Who repeat to the listeners what God has originally said to them. Because many Christians are unaware of God’s working through us, they do not regard Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments but only as signs or evidences we want to give to the world that we believe in Jesus and that we remember what He did on the cross.

The radical nature of the sermon is to shock the listener into realizing that it is not our responsibility to convert anyone. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, the holy Trinity has revealed that such work is done only when the Word of God is taught in its purity and the sacraments adminstered rightly. On the Day of Pentecost Peter and the others were the Ezekiels for God as the Holy Spirit worked through both the word preached and the sacrament of baptism administered. There is no hint in the entire Bible that God does not get all the credit for our salvation. Yet many are under the delusion that we can contribute to that salvation by making the right choice or doing the right work. The text from Ezekiel discredits such a notion as it plainly reveals that God and God alone saves.

For the 7th and last Sunday of the Easter season, the three assigned readings are Acts 1:12-26; 1 John 5:9-15 and John 17:11b-19. Chosen to preach about is 1 John 5:15, “And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

There really is no new false teaching going on since the time of the apostles. Instead, there is a variation of false teaching today from 2,000 years ago. Unfortunately, many of the laity are not trained to decipher false teaching today as a rehash of old heresies. For example, the Word/Faith movement today teaches that simply by having sufficient faith, you can ask God for anything and it will come to pass. Such false teachers might use 1 John 5:15 as evidence of that notion.

However, context is everything followed by a proper use of Law and Gospel. We call context inquiry “exegesis”. One need go no further than the previous verse to interpret properly what John is saying under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Verse 14 reads, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Now every verse of theology can be interpreted in one of two ways–the right way and the wrong way. Theologically speaking, the right way is the theology of the cross and the wrong way is the theology of self-glory.

The wrong way to understand verse 14 is to conclude that “if we ask anything not contrary to His will, He hears us” rather than “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” The first understanding would mean that as long as we are not asking for sin to take place, God’s answer will be “yes” to our request. However, the proper understanding is that as long as we are asking for that which He has promised us, His answer will be “yes” to our request.

A wrong understanding of this passage can lead the laity to think that they are not right with God because their prayers appear not to be answered. The Gospel is the good news that even when we do not ask for something which He has promised, He still answers to our advantage because of the cross of Jesus Christ. We are God’s children through faith and thus He never gives a snake when we ask for a fish or a stone when we ask for bread. A proper understanding of this passage then clarifies why at times God appears not to hear us because we don’t get what we specifically ask for. It’s not that God is not answering us; it’s that He is answering us in a way that is to our advantage because we are His children by grace, through faith on account of Jesus Christ.

For the 6th Sunday of Easter, the three readings assigned are Acts 10:34-48; 1 John 5:1-8 and John 15:9-17. Chosen to preach on is 1 John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.”

For a standing ovation Law and Gospel sermon, the first item we look for in the texts assigned for the Sunday is an apparent contradiction. And we find it in verse 2 of 1 John. The second step is to confuse the listener because of the tendency to read the Bible with the Old Adam rather than with the New Man. The question to ask this week in light of verse 2 is, “How do you know that you love the children of God.” Answer: “When we love God and keep His commandments.” Once more the listener is on the horns of a dilemma as the next question is asked, “Do you love God and keep His commandments?” If he answers “yes” it will seem that he is boasting of his works. If he answers “no” it will appear therefore that he does not love the children of God.

The problem is that the theologian of self-glory assumes that he has evidence of being saved because of the works done. And this verse appears to back this up. However, the theologian of the cross realizes that his assurance of salvation is objective, not subjective based on what he says, thinks or does. So how do we reconcile this verse with the theology of the cross?

We need not go far in the text. For John reveals that our Savior Jesus came by water and by blood. That could mean that he was born of a woman in the flesh. Or, as some would contend and I agree, the water and the blood refer to that which happened on the cross when He died. Water and blood came forth after the spear was thrust into His body.

But how about us? Where is our objective evidence that we also are part of the family of God? Verses 7 and 8 reveal that while in heaven those who bear witness to us are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, here on earth God has given us the Spirit through the waters of baptism and the blood of the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is our assurance that we have been made a part of the family of God with our sins forgiven and the Holy Spirit making our bodies His temple. And the Lord’s Supper assures us that we remain in the one, true faith by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

When verse 2 speaks of us loving God and keeping His commandments, this is not from our point of view but from God’s. Remember, the goal of every Bible study and sermon is to get the listener to think like God. Since we are baptized into the body of Christ, we receive the benefits of His robe of righteousness. From God’s point of view, we indeed are loving Him and keeping His commandments when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of our sins. That for us demonstrates the true relationship with have with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and assures us of eternal life.

The chosen text from the three readings for the 5th Sunday of Easter demonstrates the danger of using only an English translation. The three readings are Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-21 and John 15:1-8. The text is John 15:8, “In this is my Father glorified that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples.”

The first step in sermon preparation is to find the verse that a layman will think is a contradiction of the Christian faith. With this text, first read it and then ask this question, “How do you become a disciple of Jesus?” The answer will be, “By bringing forth very much fruit.” Second question: “And do you bring forth very much fruit?” Now it doesn’t matter whether they answer “yes” or “no” because they will discover how inappropriate either answer is. If they answer “yes” you can demonstrate to them that they are Pharisees. And if they answer “no” you can say therefore that they will not become a disciple of Jesus and therefore they will go to hell!

The problem, of course, is the English translation which in this case is from Douay Rehms, a Roman Catholic translation developed at the time of the Reformation to offset the Lutheran theology. Clearly, when it can, this translation is biased toward faith plus works. However, even the King James version is unclear with, “that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disicples.” The New King James: “so you will be My disciples” again gives the impression that we bear much fruit and then in the future we will be considered by God to be His disciples.

Listen in order to the ESV, NAS and NIV: “that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples,” “that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” and finally, “that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” In the context of the entire Scripture, this last version of the NIV is the most clear that bearing much fruit is not the cause of becoming a disciple of Jesus but rather is the evidence that you are already a disciple of Jesus.

This L&G distinction maintains the context of the passage in which Jesus says clearly that He is the vine, we are the branches and “without Me you can do nothing.” Good works therefore clearly follow faith and are not the cause of faith. For we are indeed saved by grace, through faith on account of Jesus Christ alone.

For the 4th Sunday of Easter the three assigned readings are Acts 4:1-12; 1 John 3:16-24 and John 10:11-18. Chosen to preach on is 1 John 3:22: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”

On the radio program “Law and Gospel” (www.kfuo.org on the AM side) we have been analyzing criticisms of the Christian faith and even Martin Luther. For those who desire to criticize our faith, it appears that this verse might be plenty of ammunition against the view that we are saved by grace, through faith, on account of Jesus Christ. For 1 John 3:22 is translated as “because we keep his commandments.” How can you interpret this verse in any other way than the reason that God blesses us and answers our prayers is “because we keep His commandments.”

However, on the radio program we demonstrate that English translations are often superficial and deceptive because of the difficulty of finding one word in English that accurately defines the Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin or Greek used in the original manuscripts. It appears on first reading that the cause of God blessing us is that “we keep His commandments.” Is this not a religion of legalism in which God declares who is acceptable to Him on the basis of works?

The key to solving contradictions takes place either by looking at the context or by translating properly. While almost all English Bibles translate the Greek word “oti” with “because” it also can be translated as “since.” At first glance there appears not to be much of a difference until the distinction is made. The translation “because” gives the impression that our works are the “cause” of God blessing us. However, the translation “since” gives the impression that in light of a condition that now exists, God blesses us. The condition that exists is not the cause of our being blessed but rather that which God recognizes as being present.

For example, a son receives an inheritance from his father “because” or “since” his name and address and social security number reveal that he is the son of that father. However, he did nothing to become the son; the real cause of his receiving an inheritance is the fact that he was either begotten or adopted into the family. So also, while God does recognize that we keep His commandments, such obedience is not credited to us but to the Holy Spirit who brings forth fruit of faith. The “keeping of the commandments” is in light not only of our being forgiven but also of our being dressed in the robe of righteousness.

To put it clearly, God, Who has declared us righteous in His sight because of the gift of salvation, now gives to us whatever we ask. When we ask that which He has promised, He, of course, delivers it but when we ask for that which He has not promised, we add “if it be your will” and He still answers “Yes, I will do it according to My will.” For the things that we do are “pleasing in His sight” only in Christ as we receive the twin gifts of the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness.