Archive for January, 2010

The three readings selected for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany are Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19); 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 and Luke 4:31-44. Selected to analyze from a L&G perpsective is 1 Corinthians 12:4, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself; is not puffed up…”

This passage is a splendid example of how difficult it is to preach consistently Law and Gospel sermons. Using theological language, this passage is in the context of sanctification, not justification. That is, the passage has to deal with how the Christian behaves not how he becomes a child of God. In fact, keeping in mind the context of Corinthians, this passage is the behavior only of a child of God. It is truly a waste of time to preach this to unbelievers, if, for no other reason, is the fact that this passage is speaking of the fruit of the Holy Spirit which only a believer can receive properly.

If the sermon simply reveals what true love is, it’s kinda like having a recipe for cookies but only writing about how good they taste, not what are the ingredients or how they are to be put together and baked. Paul has spent a lot of time prior to chapter 13 talking about nothing other than Christ crucified (verse 2:2). To put it another way, the final product cannot be created until the individual ingredients are well known. You can’t preach sanctification until you exhaust justification.

There are three uses of the Law; the first concerned with the government while the second and third with the Church. The second accuses each of us of failing to meet God’s requirements. However, these passages in chapter 13 are not used to accuse someone of falling short of the glory of God. Instead, they are to be viewed as an answer to the question of believers who ask, “What pleases you God?” Simply preaching about what love is will not produce that love anymore than talking about how a person can fly like a bird will result in such flying.

The third use of the Law is information to the believer who sincerely wants to do the will of God out of a free and unbound will. That is, knowing that there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s favor or keep our salvation, we are now free to do good works without any compulsion or necessity to do so. For when you will gain nothing in your salvation by doing a good work, you are truly free to do them unlike others in every other religion in the world who have to do good works in order to be saved.

The analogy to bring forth is again the behavior of children. What a difference it is to a child to have to obey parents in order to be fed, clothed and housed in contrast to even the disobedient child who receives these gifts from loving parents. That the parents love the child spontaneously covers a multitude of sins. That God’s love for each of us resulted in Christ’s death on the cross indeed covers a mulititude of our sins.

Preaching about loving one another is not an exercise of explanation but rather a proclamation of the reality of what already is in place. For you and I who know and practice sin are incapable of doing even one good work, yet we now have a Savior Who took upon Himself our sin and exchanged it with His righteousness and salvation. Proper preaching of this chapter on love is not to answer the question of what we are to do to get right with God. Instead, chapter 13 is an answer to those who already have been declared right with God who now want to know what is pleasing in His sight. It’s not sanctification first and then justification; it’s justification first and then sanctification.

+ Quotation: All religions must be tolerated
+ Why? So every man can get to heaven his own way.
+ Dissecting religious quotations from a Law and Gospel point of view
+ Marketing distinguishes between information – knowledge – wisdom
+ Law and Gospel distinguishes between reading the Bible – interpretation – application

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+ Justification
+ How wanting to be justified is behind most motivation
+ What brings happiness
+ How God interprets happiness different than does natural man

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By joining, you receive one free Ebook as well as other benefits and bonuses. To get a detailed list of these, please to go www.lawgospel.com and click the Membership link to find out more. As an aside, this would be a wonderful gift for your pastor as it will provide him with materials from a Law and Gospel perspective that cannot be found elsewhere.

For the third Sunday in Epiphany (Series C readings), the three assigned passages are Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:13-31a and Luke 4:16-30. Chosen for the sermon text is Luke 4:21, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

What has Jesus being rejected in Nazareth have to do with hearers of this event today? The purpose of every sermon is to get people to think as God does. God’s plan is that every passage of Scripture is to be used to move people to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and therefore freely receive spiritual life. This reading is chosen as part of the season of Epiphany so somehow it manifests and discloses the true nature of Jesus Christ. After Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61, He concludes that what Isaiah is speaking of is finally fulfilled today.

What Jesus quotes is the passage about the One Who has come to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, free the captives and so on. The first response of the people is to marvel at the gracious words He used in explaining the text. What gracious words? Once more we need to get into the shoes of the Palestinian hearers who had been taught by Judaism that you earned God’s grace by following the Law and particularly the ceremonial law. Whatever Jesus said, it must have been in line with the rest of the Gospel promises that Isaiah is talking about a salvation that is freely given by God Himself.

For more information on this passage you can listen to the Law and Gospel radio programs on Monday, January 18 and Tuesday January 18. To access these programs as well as receive other benefits, please read the blog article entitled, “Law and Gospel Membership Site.”

Reading chapters 60 and 61 of Isaiah will quickly reveal that the Savior Who is coming is God Himself. By Jesus proclaiming that this passage is fulfilled today, He is revealing and manifesting Himself not only as the promised Messiah but as God Himself. It is most ironic that though He will not do a miracle as He did in Capernaum, He ends up doing a miracle by simply “passing through the midst of them” (verse 30) when they attempt to “throw Him down over the cliff.”

Part of the gracious revelation that Jesus does speak of is how the Gentiles (those in the town of Capernaum, the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian) are also incorporated into this new kingdom which the Messiah is ushering in. This is radical theology and must have been shocking to those listening to His sermon. For such gracious words had rarely been taught in the way that Jesus explains them. To become a child of God through no effort of your own and without any contribution to the process was totally out of sync with the teachings of the new religion called Judaism. (For more info on Judaism, check elsewhere on this blog by using the “Search” mechanism above.)

The application of this message is that the gracious words spoken by Jesus to His own hometown folks are also addressed to us today. We, who are accused by the Law of attempting to get right with God by our church attendance, offerings and good works need also to be condemned for such manipulation of God. For those outside the faith, there will be anger directed toward Jesus even today that our own works, words and thoughts have no bearing as to whether or not we are saved. Instead, the Holy Spirit takes the same words spoken by the Word Himself and creates a new heart and new spirit.

We therefore rely (trust) on the gracious promsies of the Gospel to be saved rather than the efforts we attempt to do in order to get reconciled with God. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the God/Man, God is already reconciled to the whole world. Through the preaching of the pure Word of God and the proper administration of the holy sacraments, man becomes reconciled to God. Now that is a gracious message to a world burdened as it is today in so many ways.

A:
+ Nehemiah 8:10
+ What does reading the Law make people weep?
+ How does God still the sorrow on our part?

B:
+ Hymn of the Day
+ O Christ, Our True and Only Light
+ Helping children to memorize hymns

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+ Jesus rejected at Nazareth
+ Luke 4:18-30
+ How to get across the meaning of this for children
+ Concordia Publishing House Sunday School lesson

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+ Theme: What is the Robe of Righteousness?
+ Jesus rejected at Nazareth
+ Luke 4:16-30
+ Jesus prreaches on Isaiah 61
+ Come to heal the brokenhearted

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+ Open Mike Friday
+ Caller: Brian asking about evidential apologetics
+ Caller: James asking about Jeremiah 35:18-19
+ Conversation about the GOOD NEWS Issue 35 on Prophecy

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+ The latest issue of GOOD NEWS magazine, #35
+ Subject: Prophecy
+ Prophecy is not to figure out what we are to do to bring in God’s kingdom
+ Prophecy is to manifest Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, God Himself
+ We are not to be focused on the land “Israel”
+ Genesis 3:15 is the root prophecy with 2 promises
+ One promise is that the Messiah will crush the head of Satan
+ Another promise is that there will be continual warfare between Satan and believers

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