The three readings for the 5th Sunday after Pentecosgt in Series B are Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 and Mark 6:1-13. Selected to preach about is 2 Cor. 12:7, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”

It’s one thing to be buffeted or tormented by Satan; it’s quite another thing to have that torment sent by God Himself! If one were to read only that phrase, we might guess that God might have sent such an evil to King Herod after he killed the innocents or perhaps to Saul before he became Paul or perhaps to Peter for denying the LORD three times. But no, this torment was of the devil sent by God to none other than Paul after his conversion. How could a gracious and loving God permit this to happen to one of His own?

Context for interpretation is everything. The previous verses explain how Paul was permitted to have a vision of Paradise that was not lawful for him to utter. Can you imagine how big a head Paul could get that God permitted him to see that which few others have witnessed. In light of that, Paul continues that lest he should think more highly of himself than he should, God permitted a thorn in the flesh to pester and torment him. Why? Though Paul had a great vision, a tremendous conversion and even raised a young man named Eutychus from the dead, he was unable to get rid of this thorn in the flesh. God’s gift of suffering kept Paul humble.

There are many who speculate what this “thorn” was. Perhaps a disease, or bad eyesight or–what I think–an imperfection in his speech that made it difficult for him to testify of the Christ Whom he loved. At any rate, even three requests to God to remove the thorn proved to be fruitless. And why? Because God wanted to make sure that Paul would not be “exalted above measure.” We saw what happened to King David when he began to think of himself too highly. Her name was Bathsheba. Would that he had had a thorn in the flesh to have reminded him of his weaknesses.

This is a clear L&G distinction as it reminds us of the true theologian of the Bible being a theologian of the cross. That theology is more than the revelation of what happened to Jesus on the cross; it also reveals what happens to believers who remain faithful in this sin fallen world. We also suffer but not as payment for sin since that was paid in full at the Golgotha cross. No, permitting our suffering to occur is God’s way of keeping our eyes focused on the cross of Christ and Jesus as our only hope and salvation.

While the world may question God about the kind of suffering that occurs; the believer may not be aware of the reason but is aware of the kind of God that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is. He is a God Who has compassion (suffering with us) to the point of the cross. In His humiliation you are exalted. And in your exaltation to the body of Christ, the Trinity is glorified. It is not a common sense religion but Christianity is a faith that possesses the true God that indeed surpasses all understanding. That is why we live by faith and not by sight!

The readings set apart for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost of Series B are Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15 and Mark 5:21-43. The passage to examine for a sermon is Mark 5:36, “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the rule of the synagogue, ‘Do not be afraid; only believe.”

Roman Catholic critics of the Reformation theme of “justification by grace through faith alone” insisted that there was no passage in the Bible that could be translated as “faith alone.” Their point was that faith did save but only if works were involved. So they teach that we are saved by faith plus works. The Reformers insisted that the context of Scripture makes it clear that faith and faith alone saved because not only does God get all the credit for our salvation but if our works were a part of our becoming saved, then we would partially merit our way to heaven and therefore it would not be by grace.

Jesus was asked by Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, to heal his little daughter. On the way to the house, a woman with a flow of blood for 12 years touched the garment of Jesus and was healed. Jesus said to her, “Your faith has made you well.” Notice that He did not say, “Your faith plus your wonderful works.” At that point the ruler of the synagogue was told that his daughter has died. Immediately Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid; only believe.”

The word “only” which can be translated also as “alone” is found in numerous passages. For example, in Romans 16:27 Paul speaks of God with these words, “To God only wise…” Clearly, the term separates the item from anything else. When Jesus urges Jairus to “only believe” or “have faith alone” Jesus is referring to the faith that has as its object His promise. The very fact that Jesus was going with Jarius to his house demonstrates that He was agreeing with Jairus to “come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.”

The object of Christian faith is always a promise from God. It is not sufficient to believe in the historical events of the Bible for even the devils and the Pharisees knew that Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead. What they do not trust is that His death and resurrection was for them. To say to someone “only believe” means to reject your sight and your experience and trust in the promise instead.

It is also clear that Jairus was a believer prior to his meeting Jesus. In fact, there are very few people (woman at the Samaritan well being an exception) that Jesus converted. Instead, in His ministry there were many believers whom Jesus persuaded that He was the fulfillment of their faith in the coming Messiah. Jairus was one of those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, believed Jesus to be the Messiah and that is why he asked Him to heal his daughter. When word came that the daughter had died, Jesus told Jairus that faith and faith alone was to be grasped.

As a believer, Jairus had a choice to trust his experience or the promise of Jesus. By the Holy Spirit he grasped the promise that Jesus would heal and therefore through faith alone followed Jesus to the house. The sermon can make the clear point that while perfect faith has been given to us in our heart by the Holy Spirit, our heads often get in the way of doubting or questioning God’s promises. The purpose of the sermon therefore is not only to get people to think like God but also to get their heads caught up with their hearts.

Moving onward through the season of Pentecost, the 3rd Sunday of Pentecost readings are Job 38:1-11; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 and Mark 4:35-41. The text selected to preach on is Mark 4:40 as Jesus says to His disciples, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

Both Mark 4 has the disciples and Job 38 has Job questioning God to answer why they are going through such tribulation. The discples are sinking in the lake and Job is replete with sufferings and tribulations. God’s answer is similar in both situations. He doesn’t provide an answer to their questions. Instead, the problem is the lack of faith in both the disciples and Job. What is meant by that?

Is Jesus reprimanding the disciples that they should have known that the sea would be calmed? If that were so, would it be a sin for us to be worried if we were on a boat sinking into the water? What would this say about those who were on the Titanic? The answer as to what Jesus meant is found in understanding the object of faith. It is not that God promises that everything will work out as we desire. Instead, the object of faith are the promises that He provides. Then is Jesus in error to reprimand the disciples for a lack of faith?

No. Instead, Jesus is remembering the promises of the Old Testament writing that foretold how the Messiah would die. From Psalm 22 He would be pierced in hands and feet; from Isaiah 53 He would be whipped, etc. etc. In other words, the disciples should have realized that Jesus would not die by drowning in the middle of a lake. Their trust in the promises of God as found in the Old Testament were indeed weak. The disciples’ faith was not trusting that the One Who was asleep in the boat was also the One Who had created the entire world. He would have no problem with a storm.

That same Jesus would now take on the storm of our sin and the curse of the Law. He would defeat not Poseidon or Neptune as gods of the sea but Satan as god of this world. And He would do so not by putting nails into Satan but by receiving nails into His flesh. In that way, the curse of the Law is removed from us and replaced with the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness. And for those with faith, we are comforted by the Good News of that Gospel.

For the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, the three readings are Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:1-17 and Mark 4:26-34. Chosen to preach on is 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

It’s too bad that this passage wasn’t for last Sunday which was Trinity Sunday. Why? Because on Trinity Sunday most churches confess the Athanasian Creed which ends with this verse. I once read a church periodical that stated it was wrong for the Athanasian Creed to speak about being judged by works because it contradicted the Christian faith. The pastor who wrote this as well as the editor of the publication was ignorant of the fact that what the Athanasian Creed says is actually a quote from this passage of 2 Cor. 5:10.

Yet how do we understand this passage in light of other verses such as Ephesians 2 which speaks of being saved by grace through faith not by works? How on the one hand can God reveal such a gracious salvation in which works do not count and yet speak of works as the item He is looking for on the great Day of Judgment? The answer is not only the distinctions between Law and Gospel but also the context. First, let’s examine L&G.

The Law is properly preached when the commands of God first demand absolute past, present and future perfection and then reveal that such perfection is impossible for a human being to achieve even with all the help of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel therefore can be defined as fulfilling what we as human beings are unable to do. It is NOT that works are unimportant in God’s eyes. It is just that they make no difference as to whether or not you go to heaven. They are properly understood in taking place after one is fully saved.

The context of 2 Corinthians 5 backs this up. Verse 5 states that it is God Who prepares us; verse 15 reveals He died for all and verse 17 indicates that the believer is a new creation. What does this mean? It means that while good works have no place in our becoming or remaining saved, they are proper responses to the salvation gracious bestowed upon us. In fact, it is impossible to have true faith and not do fruit of the Holy Spirit from God’s point of view. Thus, on Judgment Day, the unbeliever will have no fruit of the Holy Spirit while the believer will have many fruit of the Spirit; most of which he is unware.

Yes, in the body filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit received in our Pentecost baptism, the Christian believers are confident that their sins of commission have been covered by the forgiveness of sin and their sins of omission have been covered by the robe of righteousness of our only Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a message that the entire world needs to hear.

For Holy Trinity Sunday the 3 proposed readings are Isaiah 6:1-8; Acts 2:14a, 22-36 and John 3:1-17. Chosen to preach on is Isaiah 6:7, “And he touched my mouth with it, and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.’”

The theme for the sermon is what does it mean to be born again. The phrase comes from the Gospel reading in which Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is amazing how so many Christians do not get the fundamental connection of the analogy of being born again. And that connection is that just as you had nothing to do with your being born originally, so also you had nothing to do in having been born again.

Yet so many Christians when asked when they were born again will say something like, “It happened on May 19, 1984 when I asked Jesus into my heart.” That kind of answer does not even fit with the analogy of adoption let alone being born! But why do so many Christians insist on cooperating with their justification? There are two reasons. The first is the reason they give and that is to protect God. How so? Because in their minds, the question of why some are saved and others are not is answered by suggesting that some choose faith and others don’t. It appears that they are unaware that having faith is as difficult as falling in love. You don’t do it; something is done to you.

The second reason for such false teaching is the old Adam (the devil within us) who can’t stand the idea of giving God all the credit for salvation. Therefore, the attempt to define being born again as something I do with the help of the Holy Spirit once more rejects the Gospel that the Holy Trinity gets all the credit for our being created, redeemed and sanctified. Even Christians hearing the sermon who disagree with inviting Christ into the heart still have views that are close to that notion. For example, they actually imagine that they will be more blessed or God will love them more or they will be maintaining their salvation if they attend church regularly, read the Bible often and pray.

The Law is preached to demonstrate that each listener falls far from the glory of God specifically by attempting to assume that we should be considered somewhat glorious because of our contribution to salvation. Of course, works then become a sign that we are saved or at least an attempt on our part to make sure that we stay saved. In either case we add to the cross our works which results in subtracting from the cross of Christ.

Note well, that Isaiah’s being born again came about because of the coal from the altar touching his lips. That connection which points to the cross of Christ is all that is necessary for our iniquity to be taken away and our sin purged. We indeed are saved by grace through faith alone.

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.