October 2019 – Page 2 – What Does This Mean?

Preach the Word

Encore Post: The pastoral ministry is all about feeding Christ’s sheep. Jesus and his Church have given pastors the privilege of distributing the means of grace publicly. Pastors preach God’s Word and the administer his sacraments as God’s representatives and in the name of the church. (See Augsburg Confession 5) We can believe that, when a pastor does these things according to God’s Word, it is God himself speaking to us, baptizing us and giving us the body and blood of Jesus himself with the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Of all these acts, the one a pastor does most often is preaching.

The New Testament uses several words for preaching, almost all tied to what a herald does. The main word used is κηρύσσω (Kerusso) — to announce, make known, proclaim. (2 Timothy 4:2) Preaching is all about delivering a message from God. That message is mainly the good news of salvation won for us by Jesus on the cross. But it also extends to the whole counsel of God.

Pastors preach not only on Sunday morning during a worship service, but also anytime someone needs to hear from God’s word. It may be urging them to repentance, or may be assuring them that God forgives them for the sake of Jesus Christ. During a worship service, a sermon is much more formal than that. Most often a sermon takes the message in a passage read earlier, it explains those truths to God’s people, and urges them to believe these words. It is not about teaching, presenting all kinds of facts to be remembered. It is not entertainment, helping people to escape from their day-to-day lives just for a little while.

Preaching is all about changing the lives of those who hear the message. It does not do so because of the pastors skill, his inspiring insights, or how hilarious is jokes are. The point of a sermon is to bring the message that God put it in the scriptures to people. It’s all about changing lives, and strengthening the faith of those who hear. You may remember the words of a talented speaker for a long time. But a sermon is God’s gift to you. It contains the Gospel, which gives you his grace. It is the very words of eternal life.

Pastors are Called by God

Encore Post: At the beginning of the first century, disciples chose their Rabbis. To a certain extent, we choose our jobs today. The pastoral ministry is different. While a man may seek the office of the Holy Ministry, he is called by God to serve in this way. This is where the term vocation originally comes from. It is based on the Latin word for a calling.

In a sense, this is no different than the way God operated in the Scriptures. He chose every one of the prophets and apostles. The difference in those times is he did so directly. Today pastors are called by God through the congregation the pastor will serve or by a representative they choose. When a congregation calls a man and he becomes convinced after much prayer that the call is from God, he becomes their pastor.

Because it is God who calls (Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 12:28 ), a pastor is not an employee of his congregation, to be hired and fired at will. Only when a pastor is unfaithful to his call to teach according to God’s word or lives an immoral life may he be removed. At the same token, it is not for him to choose when or who to serve. Only when a congregation is no longer faithful to God’s word, he receives another call from God to summon him to a new place or health makes him unable to serve may he conclude his ministry.

His office is to be the face and hands of God to care for the sheep placed in his fold. He is also their face and hands, to bring the gifts God gives to them and to others. He preaches the good news, baptizes, celebrates the Lord’s Supper and forgives the sins of those who repent. In doing so, he lays down his life, as did Jesus, so that the lost sheep will be found and the whole flock in his care brought safely to eternal life.

Jesus Establishes the Holy Ministry

Encore Post: “As the father has sent me so I send you,” said Jesus. (John 20:20-23) The Father sent Jesus not to be served but to serve and to give his life for ransom for many.(Mark 10:43-45) He sent his son to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) Jesus then, in turn, sent his disciples to continue his ministry.

In every generation, Jesus calls men to seek out those who do not have faith in Christ, to offer the forgiveness of sins life and salvation, and to make them a part of God’s Kingdom. These men are his ambassadors, proclaiming the good news of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:19-21) Through this ministry, faith is created and sustained in the lives of God’s people.

The scriptures call these men pastors, preachers, elders, bishops, and many other things. We call this ministry the office of the holy ministry, the office of the public ministry, the pastoral ministry, and other similar things. Because many Christians use the word minister for anyone who serves in the church, Lutheran pastors prefer to be called “pastor,” which means “shepherd.” We also use adjectives with the word ministry to identify it as the office of word and sacrament

A Mustard Seed Size Faith

Encore Post: Mustard seeds were important to people where Jesus lived. Mustard seeds were the smallest crop that farmers planted, but grew into a tree as large as 10 feet tall. The seed of this kind of mustard plant was black. Farmers ground the seed to make a spice and to use the oil in them. Birds loved to eat these seeds and would often come to eat the seeds and build nests in their branches.

Jesus compared the mustard seed to the Kingdom of God. The kingdom starts small, but grows very big, so that many people can become part of it. The kingdom doesn’t seem to be important, but it will change everything for the good. When we share the Good News of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness he won for us on the cross, the Holy Spirit uses it like a seed, to plant faith in hearts and cause it to grow there. Soon the kingdom of God blooms there and spreads.

Sunday School #32: Cain and Abel

After the Fall, Adam and Eve followed God’s plan to have children. The Bible does not tell us how many God blessed them with, but they had many during their hundreds of years of life. Because they were made directly by God, their health held up much better than it does for us. Moses does tell us about three sons: Cain, Abel and Seth. When Cain is born, Eve named him the usual naming formula: “I have received a man– the Lord.” Martin Luther and many theologians think Eve believed Cain was to be the Messiah that God promised them after the Fall. (Genesis 3:15) Others see it as Eve thanking God for giving her a child and not taking credit for the birth herself.

Abel grew up to be a shepherd and Cain a farmer. Both Abel and Cain brought offerings to God. Cain gave some of his crops to God because he felt he had to. Abel gave the very best of the very best of his flock because he loved God. God accepted both gifts, but favored Abel’s over Cain’s because Abel gave his gift by faith, while Cain offered his as a work.

Cain was jealous. God warned him to let it go and to work on being a better person. Jealously has a way of feeding our sinful nature. In this case, Cain grew angry with his brother Abel and killed him. This first murder fed the decline of society into the evil that resulted in God’s decision to destroy them all — except Noah and his family.

Nevertheless, God loved him and showed him mercy. He put a mark on him to protect him from death. He got married and had children that shaped the world.

Friedrich Wyneken Defends Confessional Lutheran Theology

Friedrich Wyneken was not always a strong voice for Lutheran theology. Like many of his contemporaries, he joined the German Awakening in his college years. At the University of Halle, Friedrich found a mentor in Augustus Tholuck. Through his influence, Wyneken became an “awakened” and “believing” Christian.

Upon graduation, Wyneken served as a private instructor in the home of Consistorial Counselor von Henfstengel at Leesum, a town near Bremen. This experience had made him into a strong, convinced Pietist, full of zeal for the Lord and “a fanatic full of fire to oppose strict churchliness.”

Friedrich slowly began to change when the Methodist Church’s mission to Germans came to Ft. Wayne. The German Methodists maintained that German Lutherans were heathen in need of conversion to the Christian Faith. Already in late 1839, Wyneken was complaining that the Methodists were taking advantage of the lack of Lutheran pastors by luring Lutherans into their congregations.

Beginning in 1841, Wyneken had increasingly harsh things to say
about Methodism. On 25 April, he begun a heated exchange of words with Wilhelm Nast, a leading Methodist missionary to Germans. Responding to the Methodist Pastor’s attack on Friedrich Schmidt in the Nast’s newspaper Christlichen Apologeten, Wyneken accused the whole Methodist movement of deliberately causing division within Christianity and of systematically attempting to convert Lutherans to their new denomination.

Having much time to think during a voyage to Germany, where he campaigned to raise money and recruit pastors for America, he became convinced that a return to Lutheran theology and practice was in order. Through the efforts of Wilhelm Löhe and other confessional leaders, he completed his adoption of truly Lutheran theology and tradition.

When Friedrich returned to Indiana, he proceeded to abandon practices which diluted Lutheran theology or practice, minimized the differences between Lutherans and other denominations or allowed reformed pastors to enter Lutheran pulpits. He energetically opposed both Methodist and Reformed theologies.

More than a few in Wyneken’s flocks were confused or angered by the change in their shepherd’s teaching and practice. The reformed members withdrew to form their own parish. Wyneken also came under attack from the Methodists, who asked, “Why Have You Become an Apostate?” and from pastors within his own Synod of the West, who accused him of being an “Old Lutheran” and a Jesuit in Lutheran clothing.

Since few of his members had even been exposed to truly Lutheran theology, Wyneken needed to clear the air. 175 years ago, in October of 1844, the Synod of the West convened in Fort Wayne. The embattled pastor invited his members to bring charges against him to the body. In a two hour apologetic, Wyneken defended his teachings and practice from the Lutheran Confessions. He won over most of those present. His congregation no longer doubted Wyneken the Confessor and his Synod sent him the General Synod of 1845 as their delegate. While in the midst of this defense, Wyneken received a copy of the first issue of Der Lutheraner, C. F. W. Walther’s magazine. “Thank God!,” he exclaimed, “There are still Lutherans here in America.”

About Being Born Again

Often our Evangelical brothers and sisters will call themselves “Born Again Christians.” They will often ask, “Have you been born again?” Lutherans will respond, “Why, yes, I’ve been baptized.” This answer is not satisfactory to them. The problem is not that we disagree on what being born again is all about. The difficulty is we have radically different ideas on how we get there.

For Evangelicals, there are a series of things a person needs to do before God will give you new birth. You need to realize you are a sinner. Your need to repent of your sin. You need to invite Jesus into your heart. It is only then that God will give you new birth.

Of course, Lutherans believe there is absolutely nothing we do before God gives us new birth. In fact, many of us were baptized as infants where there was nothing we could do to prepare the ground. (Of course, Evangelicals violently disagree with infant baptism, but that is another post!) We insist that we cannot do anything at all before God gives us new birth — that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ’s death on the cross alone.

To see which is correct, it helps to look at the two passages which use words translated into English as born again.

The first passage is in among the most beloved chapters in the Bible — John 3. In verse 3-7, Jesus tells Nicodemus, one of the most respected Pharisees of his day, that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God … unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.” Here Jesus tells us that you cannot be saved if you are not born again. He then explains that one is born again by Holy Baptism. Why is this the case? Because if you are born sinful (“of the flesh”) you cannot be born again. Holy Baptism comes with the Holy Spirit which gives you new life.

The second passage is 1 Peter 1. Here St. Peter tells us that ” According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ” (Verses 3-5) Here we see that it is God who causes us to be born again and the power comes from the resurrection of Jesus. Later he tells us that we are born again from imperishable seed — God’s word.

From these passages, then, it is clear that we are born again by God’s work alone when he unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus in baptism and when we hear his word proclaimed to us. It is after we are born again that we fully appreciate our sinful state, repent of our sin and dedicate our lives, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to serve him alone.

The Faith of Children

Encore Post: Evangelicals reject infant baptism is they think faith is all about understanding and agreeing to a series of teachings about God, Jesus in particular, and how we are saved. Since infants and young children have little ability to understand things intellectually. For Lutherans and the Holy Scriptures, faith is not an exercise of our reason, but a trust in God’s promises.

The problem with understanding faith this way is that even adults do not always have an ability to think, and, when they do, may still reject the Gospel. Lutheran theologians point out that we do not think when we sleep or in a coma. Sometimes disease can take from us our mind in old age or brain trauma. Yet such adults are not considered by anyone to have lost their faith.

On the contrary, Jesus and the Apostles tell us children do have faith. In fact, Jesus praises their ability to trust God. (Matthew 18:2-6, Mark 10:13-16) John the Baptist and Timothy believed in the womb (Luke 1:41-44, 2 Timothy 3:15) So, faith is all about trusting in God to save us and children are the most trusting of all people. Jesus does not urge children to become more like adults when it comes to faith. He urges adults to become more like children.