Author: Robert Smith

Second Sunday in Advent
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

‌‌Text: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.””‌

Introduction: It had been over four hundred years since Malachi, the last prophet before John, spoke. Malachi had predicted that God would send the prophet Elijah to purify his people for the coming Messiah. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of that greatest prophet. But the people just didn’t get it. He was not the Messiah, but the one who revealed the Messiah.‌

I. John the Baptist was the Last and Greatest Prophet

‌A. He was a Son of Aaron, heralded in the temple, born to the barren, living like Elijah, maybe even son of David…

‌B. They thought he was a kind of Super David.

‌C. He was instead God’s witness, the last and greatest Old Testament prophet, the one to point to Emmanuel – God with us.

‌D. He showed us where God is – on the cross.

‌II. In the midst of our troubles, we ask, “Where is God?”

‌A. Yes, our world is filled with sorrow, death, disaster, persecution, sin and disease.

‌B. Pagans tell us God is not there or is not at all interested in us or that we have angered Him.

‌C. Often they try to appease or bribe their gods or fix the problems with their own wits.

‌D. We are tempted to join them and ask, “Where is God?” looking in all the wrong places.

‌III. Emmanuel is by our side, with His good gifts and Spirit.

‌A. Even though we don’t see Him, He’s by our side on the battlefield, with His good gifts and Spirit.

‌B. Emmanuel saw our suffering and was moved with compassion.

‌C. He became flesh and lived with us.

D. He took it all to the Cross where He paid for it and broke its power forever.

‌E. Today, He is still with us and one day will bring it all evil to an end.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: Zechariah should have known better. He was a Levite and a priest with decades of experience. He was steeped in the Torah, the Psalms and the Prophets. He knew that God has a habit of giving children to the barren — including Abraham and Hannah, the mother of the great Samuel: prophet, priest and judge. When an angel appears to you — you listen. And here the angel of God’s presence, Gabriel, stood before him when he offered to God the prayer of God’s people. He promised a super-natural birth and gave a name to his one and only son, whom he would love. Yet he doubted and was kept from speaking until the birth. His words, “his name is John” would be his first words after that. In his song, which we sing in the Matins worship service, he prophesied the role of his child, the last and greatest of the prophets. John the herald of the Messiah would be the capstone of the Old Testament.

John the Baptist had all the credentials to be the Messiah. His Father was a priest, descended from Aaron. His mother was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so perhaps descended from King David. An angel in God’s temple announced John’s birth while his father was offering the prayers of the people to God.

Both of his parents were very old, like Abraham and Sarah, and barren, like Hannah, mother of Samuel. God named him John (Gods gift). In the same way, He named Isaac and changed Jacob’s name to Israel.

The angel announced that John would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets. So John would qualify to be prophet, priest and king. Yet from the very start, he and his parents understood that John was not the Messiah, but the one who would reveal him to the world and prepare the way for him. Jesus called him the greatest prophet. (Matthew 11:9-14) John the Baptist closed the Old Testament. He was the first witness to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: Mary of Nazareth, mother of Jesus, goes by many titles in the Christian Church. The Scripture given her two of these: “Blessed” (Luke 1:28, 48) and “Virgin” (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23;; Luke 1:26-27) To these the church has added “Saint” (Holy One) and “Mother of God” (θεοτόκος in Greek — literally the God Bearer). The last title sounds very strange to the ears of Protestants, who rightly reject the cult of Mary that continues in the Roman Catholic Church today. They worry that calling Mary Mother of God makes her a part of the Godhead, when she is, in fact, a Christian just like us. Yet the title was given to emphasize that the Son of God was truly born, lived, suffered and died for our sins.

Just as the nature of God as one God in three persons is a doctrine that is beyond human understanding, the nature of Jesus Christ is also impossible to understand. So, what the Bible teaches us about the nature of our Lord seems to be filled with statements that contradict each other. Yet they all are true because it is God himself who teaches them in Holy Scripture. Like the doctrines of the Trinity, discussions during the first five centuries of church history helped Christianity sharpen its understanding of the person of Jesus.

During the last few centuries of the Roman Empire, the Greek philosophy of Plato shaped its culture. Plato believed that the spiritual world was good and the physical world evil. Therefore it was impossible for God, who is everything pure, to pollute himself by becoming human. The could imagine the Word of God, the Logos, adopting a human body in order to impart wisdom to humans, but not to become a man. Various heresies had the Son of God living in a human body, but not becoming man, as the Bible teaches. They could bring themselves to calling the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of the human nature, the Mother of Christ, for short. But never the nature of Jesus as God.

The church realized that the result would be two Christs, not one. They came to the conclusion that there was one, unique being in Jesus Christ. He is the God-Man — one person with two natures. What the Scripture teaches about the human nature of Jesus, then, it teaches about his nature as God as well. So, then, since the person of Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, she should be called the Mother of God.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore post: Some days, our world can be quite unpleasant. Sickness, pain, suffering, grief and death are often a part of our life. Wars and rumors of wars shout at us from every television, computer and cell phone. One person shooting another, collapse of bridges, decay of our morals and rule of law, tornados, hurricanes, ice storms — everything seems out to get us. So it is no wonder we worry about when it will all end. When and how will our days come to an end? When will the end of the world come? What’s next for all of us?

In theology, this subject is known as Eschatology. The word comes from the Greek word ἔ̣σχατον (Last, final; last things) and means the study of last things. It covers both the last things for you and me (the end of our time) and the last things for the world (the end of all things) Because God is the cause of both end of things, there is much we cannot and will not understand. We should expect this: God is our creator and we are creatures. Although we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, adopted as his children in Holy Baptism, have a New Adam or New Eve living within us, we still struggle with our Old Adam or Eve. So, anything that involves him or describes him will be beyond our understanding. Death, heaven and hell, the Second Coming of Christ — all these things — are filled with such subjects.

So, as we consider such things, there are some things to keep in mind. First, is God knows all this. Second, God does not leave us to figure it all out. He sent his prophets, evangelists and apostles through whom he spoke to us. They recorded these words in Holy Scripture. These words are trustworthy above all things. He tells us in it what we can know about last things. Sometimes these things don’t fit together according to human logic. When truths seem contradictory, we believe both are true, trusting in the God who loves us and gives us both truths to comfort us and lead us to everlasting life.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2022 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: Shortly after she joined her son Constantine’s Roman imperial household, she came to faith in Christ. Her son commissioned her to tour the holy lands and identify places connected with the life and ministry of Jesus. From 326-328 AD, she toured Syria and Palestine at the empire’s expense, interviewing residents and Christian leaders to learn what she could. Almost all the sites on modern tours were identified by her. She had churches built on the location of the birth of Jesus and his ascension.

On the spot traditionally believed to be his tomb, a pagan Roman emperor had a temple built to Jupiter. Helena had it demolished and excavated. According to tradition, on September 14th, there she found the remains of the cross on which Christ died. At the command of Constantine, a basilica was constructed that by and large remains to this day. It was dedicated on September 14th. From that day forward, the Christian Church has celebrated September 14 as Holy Cross Day.

Lutherans favor this minor festival because it calls attention to the means of our salvation. On the cross, the wisdom of God defeats all the wisdom of human beings. Our modern scientism insists something is not real unless it can be measured. You have to be able to see it, touch it, taste it, hear it or smell it — directly or by instruments we can sense. So a God who is invisible cannot be real. Our contemporary focus on feelings makes us the center of the universe. My truth is real for me, your truth is true for you. My feelings are king. If I am convinced I am female although I am objectively male, no one may contradict me. A God who makes me and redeems me offends me. Our spirituality, which makes only abstract, mystical thoughts valid, is offended by the idea that God who made the world would become man, much less die for us. The idea that we have anything to be forgiven is itself foolish.

Yet God’s wisdom is wiser than the wisdom of humanity. God is not the watchmaker, who made the world, wound it up and lets it do its work. He is not a high God who leaves the world to its own devices. God loved us, got down on his hands and knees to fashion us from the dust and breathe life into us. Knowing we would sin and be lost forever left on our own, he chose us to be his and rigged things so that we would be saved. In the person of Jesus Christ, he became a man, lived the perfect life he demands in our place, suffered and died to pay for our sins and rose again so that one day he will call us from our graves to live forever.

So it is that we preach Christ crucified and glory in it, because it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
  Fort Wayne, Indiana 

©2020 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

1 — Lutheran theology teaches that worship is Divine Service (In German, Gottesdienst). God comes to us to give us his gifts: He puts his name on us (Invocation), forgives our sins in confession and absolution. He creates and strengthens our trust in him to keep his promises in the reading, reciting, preaching of his word in sermons and song. He gives us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in the Lord’s Supper, where he gives us his body with bread to eat and his blood with wine to drink. We respond in thanksgiving with our praise, offerings and the dedication of our lives to his service.

2 — Because God is absolutely holy and we are sinners, we cannot stand in his presence and live. So, because he loves us, while we are still living in a sinful world, God comes to us wearing masks. He became man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Before his birth, he appeared in the form of the Angel of the Lord. He spoke to us through his prophets. He gives his grace through means — His Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and absolution. He uses the voice and the hands of men he calls to be Pastors to draw us to him, to sustain our faith and escort us to the hands of the angels who will carry us on our last day to be with Jesus forever. In Divine Worship, he literally comes to us, especially in the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper, where he is really present to gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

In ancient times, temples were built as places where people could make sacrifices to their gods to win a favor, to convince a god to leave them alone or to obtain the power they wanted to get an edge over fate or their enemies. Most pagan temples contain a golden image of the god or goddess to which the worshipper bowed down or made a sacrifice.

Often priests would communicate with the god for the worshipper, obtain a prediction of the future for them, or engage in ceremonies that would act like magic While God’s temple was similar in shape and style to Phoenician temples, its purpose was quite different Here God Himself lived in the form of the Shekinah Glory — the pillar of cloud that followed the people of Israel during the Exodus. His people would make sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins — sacrifices that point to the sacrifice of God’s Own Son. People did not come to the temple to bribe God, but to strengthen their relationship to Him.

Yet that sacrifice was still in the future. God was separated from His people because of sin. Only priests could enter the temple itself. Everyone else stood outside. Even the priests could not ordinarily enter God’s presence in the Holy of Holies — only the High Priest entered once a year. For the rest of the year, a thick curtain separated the world from its God.

When Jesus completed the final sacrifice on the cross, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. God now lives with His people. In our churches, therefore, there is no barrier between the altar and the pews. God comes to be with us and lives with us each week. He gives us the forgiveness of sins in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He feeds us with His Word. Now the gifts of God come to us first and without strings attached. Our gifts now are given with thanksgiving, so that God may use them to bless others. In a real sense, though, our churches are not temples. Our hearts our God’s temple. Churches are places we gather with God and each other.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: David was a good man. He was a soldier who defended his king and his country. The people loved him and loved King Saul because of him. Prince Jonathan was his best friend. Princess Michal loved him and married him.

Yet King Saul was jealous of him. Like most kings, he was afraid of anyone that might take his kingdom from him. Because Saul saw David as a threat, he missed out on the good things a loyal and talented son-in-law could bring him. So Saul tried to kill David. Jonathan and Michal warn David and help him escape Saul’s grasp. The future king seeks out Samuel and together they hide in the wild areas near Bethlehem. For awhile, he hid in various Philistine cities and eventually returned to caves near Bethlehem. Members of his family and four hundred fighting men gathered with him there.

Soon Saul would send an army to look for David and eventually led them. They played a cat-and-mouse game for some time. Twice David snuck into Saul’s camp and took a personal item from him. Each time he would display the item to Saul in the morning to prove his loyalty. Eventually, Saul gave up the effort to catch David and went after the Philistines. Saul, Jonathan and most of Saul’s sons died in battle with them.

David would have been justified to take the throne from Saul. No one would blame him if he killed Saul. But David loved God and Saul. He remained loyal until the day Saul and Jonathan died. Even when he had chances to kill Saul, he spared the king. After their death, he assumed the throne of Israel. For the rest of his life, he protected the disabled son of Jonathan.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries tocosmithb@gmail.com.