June 2024 – Page 2 – What Does This Mean?

Sunday School: Noah’s Ark

Encore Post: After the Fall, sin spread to every corner of creation and infected it with evil. Two groups of people emerged among the sons of Adam and Eve. One group Moses called the Sons of God, those who clung to God according to faith, and the other the daughters of men, who lived according to their sinful desires. When the Sons of God began to marry the daughters of men, the trend of unfaithfulness to God grew in strength. God saw “that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” ( Genesis 6:5). But Noah found favor in God’s eyes.

The first time we read about the flood, we get the impression that Noah and his family were saved because they were saints in a world full of sinners. But this is not true. They were just as sinful at heart as their neighbors. The difference was that they “walked with God” (6:9) and were righteous by faith (Hebrews 11:7), trusting God to care for them and obeying His commands. Even when God decided to wipe out all the sin, he delayed while Noah as a prophet warned people and built the Ark. When the flood came, God preserved the lives of Noah and his family and breeding stock of all living creatures. He made a covenant with mankind through Noah never to destroy the entire world by flood again, sealing it with a rainbow as a reminder to him to spare them all.

The flood reminds Christians of baptism, in which our sins are drowned and we are safely carried to new life. Martin Luther’s “flood prayer,” which calls attention to God’s saving of Noah, has returned to the Baptism service in the latest Missouri Synod hymnal. The early church used the image of the Ark as a symbol for the church, which carries us to everlasting. In fact, the place in a church building where the people sit is called the nave, Latin for ship, because of that imagery.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Cain and Abel

Encore Post: After the Fall, God was still with Adam and Eve. He blessed them with many sons and daughters. We do not know the names of most of them. After some time, how long we do not know, God blessed Adam and Eve with a son, Cain. Martin Luther was convinced she thought he was the promised Messiah. Even if this is not true, she recognized he was a gift from God. “I have gotten a man (with the help of) the Lord.” (Genesis 4:1) Not long after, she gave birth to another son — Abel.

Adam and Eve, like many of us, put a lot of hope in our firstborn child. God, however, is not impressed with appearance, skill or birth order. He looks for what is in a person’s heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) In Genesis especially, God tends to favor the second born. Here that is Abel, who trusted God rather than Cain, who didn’t trust God so much.

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. This made Cain angry and jealous. God warned him not to give into these sinful thoughts. But Cain did not do so. Instead, he killed Abel, committing the first murder.

Cain thought he had silenced Abel. But no one can hide anything from God. Abel’s blood called out for vengeance. God cursed Cain to the life of a nomad, but protected him from the vengeance of others. The Scriptures are silent whether Cain ever repented, although he did not at first. We do know God never gave up on him.

Jesus named Abel as the first martyr, killed for his faith in God. Yet, as the hymn writer puts it:

Abel’s blood for vengeance
Pleaded to the skies;
But the blood of Jesus
For our pardon cries. (“Glory be to Jesus” Stanza 4)

Jesus also died an innocent death, but he did so willingly. He took the guilt of the murders of all the martyrs and all people to the cross, where God worked his vengeance on his only Son. Having paid the price of all sins once and for all, he rose from the dead to justify all who had faith in him.

The story of Cain and Abel is the beginning of a long, sad tale of evil, but it is not the last story. The Cross is God’s answer and one day Jesus will return so all can live happily ever after.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: Sin Enters the World

Encore Post: Everything was perfect in the Garden of Eden. Sin did not exist. There was no sickness, suffering, grief, or pain. Death did not exist. If nothing had happened, Adam and Eve would have lived in harmony with God, each other, and all creation. There was only one rule: do not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Into this perfect scene, Satan came in the form of a snake.

Satan tempted Eve with a lie. This is not surprising because he is a liar and the Father of Lies. “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4–5) The irony, of course, is they were already like God. And, in trying to become like God, they became not like God at all. They decided to become their own gods.

The church calls this the Original Sin. The effect was immediate. Instead of being turned outward to serve God and each other, the original sin changed their orientation. They were curved in on themselves, serving their desires above all else. They were separated from God and hid from him, as if you can hide from God. (which, of course, you cannot!) They transmitted this orientation to their children, and, through them to every human being (except one… but that’s later in the story of the Bible!) — including us.

God was not kidding when he warned Adam: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Everything was cut off from God, the author of life. From that moment, everything began to die: Adam, Eve, plants, animals, their children … even the air, the sea and the ground. Disease began to infect people. Everything became a struggle to survive. God summed it up: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)

Yet even on this, the darkest day, the first ray of the gospel shone. God himself gives the first prophecy of Christ, called by the Church the protevangelium, — the First Gospel. To Satan he said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” (Genesis 3:15) Jesus, the Descendant of Eve, will wound Satan by defeating him on the cross. While God held Adam responsible for the Fall. St. Paul explains that sin infected all people through this one man, Adam. However, the good news is that by the sacrifice of one man, Jesus Christ, sin is paid for and God’s forgiveness comes to all people. Yet much suffering was yet to come before his coming.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: God makes Adam and Eve

Encore Post: Moses tells the story of creation twice. Hebrew writers believed that if something is important, you repeat it, but cover different details each time. The first story tells us how God created most of the universe simply by speaking — and it came to be! The creation of Adam and Eve is much different. God gets down on His hands and knees and makes us with His own hands. He does this because we are much more important to Him.

When God said, Let us make man in our own image, He did not mean that we look like Him or that we are the only beings that make decisions like He does. God made Adam and Eve to be holy like He is. Sadly, by trying to be just like God (Genesis 3:5) Adam and Eve became less like Him. By the Cross, God once again makes us to be just like Him by making us to be just like Jesus. (Romans 8:28-29)

The creation of Adam and Eve reveals more about God and people than just that. God made Adam first and all alone. His first task was to name all the animals. Along the way, Adam noticed something was missing. There was no one just like him. God sums it up when he said, “I will make him a helper fit for him. ” So God made Eve from one of his ribs. With joy, Adam said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)

In doing this, God established marriage. From that day forward, a man and a woman will leave their parents and form a family, which, when God blesses, includes children. No other relationship prospers like this one, made and blessed by God. In it human beings come as close as they can come to reflecting the Holy Trinity. Two people, distinct and individual, become one. Although sin has damaged the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, still God blesses families where father and mother love each other and care for their children. Those who grow up in families do better than all other situations in which they might find themselves. God was right. It is very good indeed.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Sunday School: God Makes the World

Encore Post: There are two stories about creation in the beginning of Bible. The first one is an overview of how God made the world and everything in it. The second one tells the story of how God made Adam and Eve.

The first story has a rhythm to it. Every day we hear that “God said let … and it was so and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1) Every day ends: “evening and morning was the __ day.” God made everything in a very orderly fashion. First He made the land, sea and sky. Then He filled it with living creatures. On the sixth day, He made men and women in His own image. When God had finished creation, He called it very good.

The world is far from very good today. The sin of Adam and Eve brought sin, suffering, grief and death into the world. Yet the beauty and wonder of creation is still there. One day, Jesus will return and take away this curse once and for all. Then we all will see the work God has done and say with Him, it is very good.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Christians and Good Works

Encore Post: When the Bible speaks about good works, it really is not talking about the everyday things we think about when we mention good things people do. The good things people do are always colored with mixed motives. Maybe we did them so that people would sing our praises. Maybe we expected to get something from them, a reward, a trophy or a good deed in return. The Hindu idea called Karma is supposed to work that way. If you do good, good will be done to you. Sometimes the things we choose to do are our own ideas. All-night vigils, long fasts, pilgrimages and similar feats are very impressive, but God never actually asks us to do these things.

So, none of them save us or even especially please God — unless we do them because we have faith in God and want to thank him for his love and mercy towards us. Strictly speaking, non-Christians cannot do good works. All the things they do are motivated by the desire to get something out of it. Even Christians who love and trust God aren’t perfect when it comes to doing good with pure motives.

Truly good works, then, are the product of faith in Jesus Christ. Every thankful thought, grateful prayer of thanksgiving, things done because we love God, are good works. Even though a sinful thought or motive might tarnish them, because Christ earned our forgiveness on the cross, God does not count these sins against us, but sees only those things done because we love him.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Grace alone, Faith alone

Encore Post: You’ve seen plenty of ads on websites, TV, billboards, in stores and just about everywhere you go. You can lose thirty pounds if you just eat the new diet. You do not even have to exercise! If you buy that brand new sports car, you can hangout with beautiful women! That brand new pan will make you into a chef and you can clean it in no time! People who know better will tell you if it’s too good to be true — it is! There is no such thing as a free lunch! And most of the time, they’re right!

So, it’s not surprising that people think they need to do something — anything — to earn God’s mercy and eternal life. Every religion on earth is about what you have to do to win the love of their gods. Their gods bless those that do the most. Those that fail have at best a second or third place in their blessings.

Some Christians believe God expects them to do some good works to match the grace God gives them in order to be saved. This may be as simple as accepting Jesus as their savior, inviting him into their hearts. Others feel they must do certain rituals, confess all of their sins, speak in languages they don’t understand or give substantial money for God to bless them. They may even say that they are saved by grace, just not grace alone.

The problem, of course, as we’ve discussed in other posts, is that we are not able to please God by what we do. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, we are dead in our sins. That is why it is such good news that Jesus already has paid the price for our salvation on the cross. Because he did this, God loves us, is gracious to us and gives us salvation as a gift — without strings attached. So it is by grace alone that we are saved. He even places the faith in our hearts that trusts this good news and cherishes this gift. It is this faith alone that saves us, for Christ’s sake alone. This precious truth is the very center of Christian teaching and the most important of all the insights of Martin Luther and the Reformation.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith

Fort Wayne, Indiana

What does it mean to be saved, anyway?

Encore Post: Puffy, white clouds. People all dressed in white, wearing feathery wings, going in and out of golden gates. All of them strumming on harps they carry everywhere. This image shows up in American culture often when the subject of eternal life. Is this really what salvation is all about?

Not at all. People do not become angels when they die. There is a lot of singing before God’s throne, but nowhere does the Bible say everyone will play the harp! The truth is, we do not know what being with God forever will look like. The Scripture uses many images. Jesus himself describes it as paradise and a great wedding feast that never ends. Other passages talk about a shining, gleaming city, full of mighty rivers. Life is described as very happy and as eternal rest. The images of a great judgement seat and a reward ceremony are also there. But salvation really is not about us — it is about living with God, seeing His face and being with Jesus.

The Bible describes the relationship between God and his people as a marriage. In Eden, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. When they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they traded another god for their creator. They were unfaithful to him. This broke the bond between God and his children. Jesus reconciled God to us by paying the price of our unfaithfulness. Salvation is all about our return home to live with God again — this time forever.

What this means for us is salvation begins now. When we were baptized, God adopted us as his children. He drowned our sinful self and a new life began in us. In this life, the old us fights back. We still sin a lot, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, we no longer have to sin. We can now do good deeds. Our relationship with God grows as we receive his gifts in worship, especially when we eat Christ’s Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper.

When we die, Christ takes our spirit to live with him, kept safe until the last day. When he returns, he will raise our body from the grave and we will be restored to life. Our new life will be like his. What it will be like we will not fully know until we get there. But what is sure is we will live with him forever. Sin and death will be no more and all suffering, grief and pain will be gone forever.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Hope

Encore Post: Hope is another one of those words that is hard to pin down. In everyday English, it means something like a wish that something we very much want to happen will come true. There is something about it that makes us doubt we will be so lucky.

In the Bible, hope is different. Hope is something you have no doubt will happen, so much so that you can build your life on it. In theological terms, the Christian hope is the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Because it is God himself who promises these blessings, we can count on it and live our lives knowing it will happen. This is how Christians can suffer and die rather than deny their faith in Christ. It is why the burial service calls it “the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection of the dead.”

Why is the Christian Hope so sure and certain? First of all, because God himself promises it in his Word. Second, because Jesus proved that these promises by dying and rising again from the dead. So, he can be trusted to keep his promises that where he is, we will be also. For us, hope becomes reality when we die. He comes to bring us to be with him forever. Exactly what happens then is a mystery.

But this is just the beginning of the blessings kept safe in Heaven for us. On the last day, Jesus will return in glory and he will bring us with him. He will raise our bodies from the grave and change us to be like him. We will then be gathered before the throne and our names read from the Book of Life. We will then live with him forever in Paradise, where there is no more sorrow, crying, grief or pain. God will make everything new. He will bring us to the great marriage feast of the Lamb, which will never end. This great hope gives us joy even in suffering, since we know it will pass away.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Salvation Guaranteed

Encore Post: When we hear God’s Word, the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. He also comes to live within us. This faith clings to God’s grace and his promise to save us for the sake of Jesus. In Holy Baptism, he places God’s seal on us. We belong to God as his heirs. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives is God’s down payment on the resurrection of the dead and eternal life with God in paradise.

What this means is we do not need to worry about whether we will go to Heaven when we die. We do not need to worry whether we did enough to earn a second chance from God. We do not need to worry about whether God chose to send us to hell before we were born. We do not need to worry whether we were sincere when we accepted Jesus as our savior or if we cannot remember whether we ever made a decision for Jesus at all. God has done everything to save us even before we were born.

God the Father loved us before he made the world. He chose us then to be His children and set things in motion to adopt us as his heirs. He sent God the Son to die for us. God the Son was born of the Virgin Mary, becoming God with us. Jesus lived a perfect life for our sake, obeying God’s Law and fulfilling it. Jesus then went to the cross, bearing our sins and paying the full penalty for our guilt. He suffered, died and rose again so that We might be declared “not guilty,” forgiven of our sins, and rise from the dead on the last day. God the Holy Spirit comes to us through the Gospel, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these Means of Grace, He created faith in our hearts, so that we trust in God’s promises and the sacrifice of Jesus to save us. He seals us with the name of the Holy Trinity and enters our hearts as a down payment on our salvation. So our salvation is guaranteed by God Himself, because everything depends on him.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith

Fort Wayne, Indiana