What Does This Mean?

Faith

[Seventh in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

Faith is one of those “church words” that everyone knows and uses, but finds hard to pin down. We use it to mean everything from a family of church bodies to a system of beliefs people hold to trusting in God to accepting that something is true but that we cannot prove. The Greek language uses one word for both faith and belief. (πιστεύω — pisteoo — to believe, πίστις; pistis; Faith) When the New Testament uses the word, it refers to both what we believe and our trust in God to keep his promises to save us.

When the Bible talks about faith in God (Saving Faith, Justifying Faith), it means trusting God to keep his promises, especially his promise to save us. This trust is not something we create by things we do. It is created in us when the Holy Spirit comes to us through the Gospel, Baptism, or the Lord’s Supper. (Romans 1:17, John 20:30-31, Ephesians 1:13, Romans 1:16-17) Our faith clings to Jesus, believing that his sufferings and death on the cross forgive our sins and give us everlasting life. This faith responds to the Grace given to us in God’s Word and the Sacraments. It thanks God for his mercy, praises him, and gives us the desire to serve God and our neighbors. (Much more on this later. For now, see Ephesians 2:10)

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Means of Grace

[Sixth in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

Now and then, the news is filled with excitement over lottery jackpots worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Long lines form at convenience stores as everyone wants to buy a ticket. For all but a handful of people, the only value of the ticket is entertainment. Yet the very lucky winner is very happy indeed. She has won a fortune! Yet her bank account hasn’t changed a penny. Until the money is deposited, nothing has changed — other than she discovers she has more cousins than she ever knew she had!

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have amazing riches in heaven. God loves us and gives us his grace. We are his children. Our sins are forgiven, and we will live forever. Yet without a way for these things to come to us, it is not yet applied to us. To give these gifts to us, God uses the Means of Grace.

The Means of Grace are visible means by which God the Holy Spirit gives the gifts Jesus earned by his death on the cross. He uses these to plant faith in our hearts and to strengthen and preserve it. Through them, we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. He uses this to enter our hearts and live there.

These means are the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and perhaps Absolution. Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and sometimes absolution are called sacraments.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

God’s Masks

[Fifth in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

Children love to play dress-up. They walk in their parent’s shoes, try on their clothes, put on costumes in their toy chest, or use other toys as masks. Adults sometimes do the same on Halloween or at a masked ball. Most often, actors will go to great lengths to look the part.

God also chooses to wear masks. Because he is absolutely holy, no sinner can stand in the presence of his full glory and live. (Exodus 33:20) So, God approaches people through priests, prophets, bushes, a donkey, and the person of the Son of God before he was born, in the person of Jesus. Most often, the Son of God is called the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, God appears to us in flesh and blood in Jesus. In him we know and see God. (John 1:18) Through him, we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Through him, we can approach God and call him Father. When God sees us now, he sees his sinless Son and calls us saints — Holy Ones. (Ephesians 1:4-6)

God also chooses to give gifts of grace, faith, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through his Word, read and preached to us, and through the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In theology, we call these the Means of Grace. We have no promise that he will come to us in any other way. In these means, we know without a doubt that God loves us.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

For Christ’s Sake

[Fourth in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

In the last post (So, Does God Hate Me?), I mentioned the mess that the sin of Adam and Eve made of the world. God intends to clean it up. But it isn’t easy. God is Holy and can’t just look the other way. Every sin must be paid for in full. Because we are all sinners from birth (Psalm 51:5), we must die and go to Hell forever. Even worse, we cannot make up for our sins by anything we can do or say. In fact, no one else can even offer to die in our place, since everyone sins. (Romans 5:12-21) Someone without sin must die to save us.

So, because he loves us, God sent his Son to die in our place. (John 3:16) That is why the Eternal Son was born a man, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Because Jesus is God, he never sinned, but remained faithful to His Heavenly Father. Because Jesus is a man, He could die for us. When He shed his blood on the cross, the price was paid for our sins and the sins of the whole world (Redemption). Our sins are forgiven, and God gives us his grace, adopts us as His own heirs, and reveals to us what He plans to do. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

One day, when the time is right, Jesus will return from heaven, raise us from the grave, restore our bodies to be like his and bring an end to sin, death and the power of the devil. On that day, he will remake Heaven and Earth, and we will live with him forever.

That is why we speak of the grace of God as something he gives us, for Christ’s sake.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

So, Does God Hate Me?

[Third in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

So, does God hate me and you? He has plenty of reasons to do so. When God made the world, it was perfect, without sin, evil, sickness, or death. He made us male and female in His image (Genesis 1:26). He blessed us and called all He made “very good” (Genesis 1:31). But our first parents, Adam and Eve, believed Satan’s lie that they could become more like God by disobeying His command. (Genesis 3:4-6) This first sin (Original Sin), brought sin, sorrow, grief and death into the world. Since then, all men and women descended from them, including us, have been born as sinners. From the moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb, our every thought has been polluted by sin and evil. (Genesis 6:5, Genesis 8:21, Matthew 15:19) So, God has every right to hate us.

Thank God that He is a gracious and merciful God (Psalm 103:8). In fact, St. Paul tells us that God loved us before He made the world. He picked us out to be made holy (Sanctified) and blameless (Justified) and rigged events so that we might be adopted as His sons through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (Predestination). (Ephesians 1:3-6) So, God does not hate His children. He has always loved us. This attitude towards us is what we mean by the word “Grace“. God is gracious to us because His Son was born of the Virgin Mary at just the right time in history, lived a perfect life for our sake, suffered, died on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins, rose again from the dead (Resurrection), and ascended into Heaven so that we might live with Him forever. (Eternal Life)

So, grace is not some kind of substance that is given to us a little bit at a time or some kind of magical power that gives us a do-over. It is that God loves us and is bound and determined to save us — and does.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

How Do We Know What God Thinks About Me?

[Second in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

Once in a while, you have a bad day. You know the kind. Your alarm doesn’t wake you for work. The traffic lights are all against you on the way to work. You get there late and spend the whole day apologizing. Your car gets a flat tire on your way home. You might begin to wonder if you did something to get God angry at you. This feeling is even stronger when you suffer from disasters — when you or your loved ones suffer from serious illnesses; when violent weather wipes out your home, your neighborhood, or even your city; when evil people steal your property, wound or kill those you love; or when you are dying and the doctors can’t make you well.

You are not alone. Everyone feels this way from time to time — even people who do not have faith in Christ. The world around us teaches us that there is a God; he is all-powerful, and that he has rules for us to live by. It also teaches us that he will punish us for breaking these rules and that someday we will die. This Natural knowledge of God is imperfect, though. It does not tell us what God really thinks of us, and how we can keep him from punishing us. We need God to reveal Himself to us so we can know the answer to that question.

Thank God that He, in His love and mercy, does this for us in two basic ways. He Himself became a man in Christ Jesus (John 3:16, Philippians 2:1-11). When we find it hard or impossible to know what God is like, we look at Jesus. (John 1:18) Second, God Himself has spoken to us through prophets and other authors in the Holy Scriptures, the books contained in the Bible. (Hebrews 1:1)

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Formal and Material Principles

[First in a series of posts on Ephesians 1 & 2]

Encore Post:

It sometimes happens at a wedding reception, a dinner party, or other social event. You are sitting near someone you’ve never met before. During the polite small talk, you learn your new friend belongs to a church you’ve never heard of before. If you are curious, you might ask about it. After learning a few surface details, you move on to another topic. When you get home, you are quite confused and cannot figure out how it all fits together. You’re not alone. Unless you have some place to begin to make sense of it all, it is easy to get lost when talking about what a church believes — including your own!

The teachings of a religion are almost always connected to one another. A pastor, priest, or other religious leader can begin at virtually any teaching and explain all the rest of what they believe in terms of it. If you look at several formal books of theology — especially systematic theologies — you will notice they begin at different places. Some begin by discussing God and His attributes (in theological language); others begin with definitions and other concepts needed to understand what Christians believe (prolegomena). Some begin with Christ; still others take up salvation first. Where they start can tell you a lot about who they are in and of itself.

When I’ve spoken to others about what Lutheran Christians believe, I’ve found it useful to begin with the Formal and Material Principles of Lutheranism. A formal principle is the source that a faith turns to as its ultimate authority on what to teach and how to live. A material principle is what a faith is made of — the central principle that explains everything else that it teaches.

For Lutherans, the only source and authority for what a Christian should believe is the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, alone. Our Material principle is all about God’s grace and how Christ earned for us salvation. The disadvantage of beginning here is that it starts without explaining sin, how people got lost in the first place, who God is and what he’s like, and many other truths. The advantage is it majors in the majors.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Friedrich Wyneken’s Far-Flung Parish

Encore Post:

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County and preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what would become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. He spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.

Wyneken made a northern journey just after the first of the year. His horse went lame again, and he was left along the way. The missionary completed the journey to Benton on foot. There he baptized nine and formed a congregation. He continued on to Goshen, where he baptized a child and stayed overnight. Although he became ill in Goshen, Wyneken continued on to Elkhart, where he was expected. There he was able to preach, conduct a confessional service, commune eighteen and baptize six. His illness worsened and forced the missionary to remain in bed two days.
Since he promised to preach to a small settlement ten miles from Wolf Lake, Wyneken had to turn back for Fort Wayne.

Upon his return, Wyneken found a letter relieving him of his position as a missionary of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. During the eventful period from September 10th to the end of his commission on January 11th, he organized three congregations, preached fifty-eight times, baptized sixty-eight children and two adults, confirmed one, communed one hundred and eighty, married one couple, and buried one person. He collected contributions totaling $16.50.

Settling down to serve two parishes in Northeast Indiana did not stop Wyneken, full of zeal, from preaching, teaching, and organizing congregations whenever he had the time. When time permitted, he would respond to requests to visit other settlements on weekdays and preach there.

The circuit rider felt he could not organize these stations into congregations because most of them lacked either sufficient catechesis or piety and because he simply could not properly care for them. It broke his heart to have to ignore the many pleas to come and prepare children for confirmation and to meet many desperate needs. He could see whole villages sinking back into paganism. On his longer trips, sometimes four to six weeks from home, Wyneken had to depart settlement after settlement, sick with the knowledge that not even a survey missionary would minister in these places for the next few years

He could only promise to return from time to time and tell them of his many letters to Germany, begging for help.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Friedrich Wyneken Returns to Fort Wayne

Encore Post:

Friedrich Wyneken continued to travel north along the Michigan Road. At Logansport, he turned east on the Wabash-Erie Canal, passing through Peru and Huntington. He returned to Fort Wayne on the 16th of November 1838 and preached at that place on the 18th of November. After a six-week journey, traversing the northern third of Indiana and a portion of South-Central Michigan, Wyneken found a letter from the Executive Committee of the Mission Society awaiting him at Fort Wayne.

The epistle gave the missionary permission to accept the call of Jesse Hoover’s congregations, but only on the condition that he remain a missionary as well. His recent experiences made it quite evident that no one man could do justice to both calls. He dashed off a letter to Executive Committee, giving a brief report of his labors and requesting resident pastors for Lima, for the Elkhart area, for Bremen on the Yellow River and the Lafayette region. None were available.

Wyneken suggested that perhaps preachers might be found at the fall meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium or in the meeting of the General Synod. He recommended that such men also be able to work in English. In this epistle, Wyneken also asked to be released from their service as a missionary. He suggested that his former shipmate, C. Wolf, be called to succeed him as survey missionary. He included a promise to visit settlements within a sixty mile radius of Fort Wayne, as time and obligations permitted. Wolf declined the call and another candidate, Emmanuel Frey, was prevented from serving by illness.

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County, preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what was to become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. So he spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Wyneken Heads South to the Wabash

Encore post:

In very bad weather, on the 17th of October 1838, Wyneken traveled west to Bertrand and Niles, Michigan, along the present route of US 12. There he met several families, but was unable to assemble a congregation for worship. Finding himself once again on the Michigan Road, Wyneken returned via South Bend to Harris Prairie and Elkhart. He preached to them on the 21st, forming two congregations, one located in each place. Striking out across country along the present route of Indiana State Highway 331, he stopped briefly in Mishawaka to baptize a child. Continuing on his way, he reached the town of Bremen, a settlement on the north branch of the Yellow River. Almost all of the people of the town were ill with cholera, yet the circuit rider preached to one of the largest congregations he was to assemble on his first missionary journey.

Wyneken returned to the Michigan Road, traveling through Logansport to the
Wabash River. He could not locate the German Lutherans he had been told lived along the future route of the canal. Few of the people he encountered there were even willing to take information to their neighbors. Riding on to the southwest along the river, he entered the town of Delphi on a Sunday afternoon. Prospects for a worship service appeared slight. Finding only a handful of people who could speak German, he asked if there were Germans living in the area. He was informed that these settlers “belonged to no church.” Not a man to be easily discouraged, Wyneken made the rounds of the taverns, argued heatedly with the men he found there, finally dragging enough of them out of the bars to gather together a sizable congregation for an evening worship service. After lecturing them well into the night, Wyneken convinced them to gather in prayer on future Sundays, rather than desecrate the sabbath in the saloons.

The missionary continued on to Lafayette, where he had no success in gathering a congregation for worship. Following the Wild Cat River, he rode on to a settlement a few miles away. Here he discovered that six congregations existed in the Lafayette neighborhood, making it ideal for a resident pastor. After a futile attempt to find a congregation reported to be at the middle fork of the Wild Cat, Wyneken followed the Wabash River into Fountain County. There he encountered a road running along the present route of US 136 and Indiana 32. Taking this trail, he passed through Crawfordsville and Lebanon, before meeting the Michigan Road and turning north. There he preached to a congregation visited by Eusebius Henkel of Lebanon at the Sugar Creek in Clinton County.

Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog

The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Pastor Emeritus
Fort Wayne, Indiana