Christology – Page 16 – What Does This Mean?

The Father and the Son: The Greatest Relationship of Them All

Encore Post: If you watch carefully, you may observe great beauty in unexpected places. An elderly couple, slowly walking hand-in-hand in the park is one such sight. Their marriage has grown through decades of life, thriving in times of great joy and unimaginable grief. If you have the privilege of speaking with them, asking about their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, you will have the sense that you are speaking to one individual, yet two persons. They complete each other’s sentences, think the same thoughts and share a lifetime of memories.

God the Father and God the Son have an eternal relationship. Their love is perfect and profound beyond our ability to understand. No one understands the Father better than the Son. They have been together since the beginning. The Father made the world through the Son. Because He loved us, the Father sent the Son to seek and save the lost. No one has seen the Father and would die if they did. But the Son has always been seen by God’s people and he makes the Father known. (John 1:18)

The Father and the Son share everything. The titles given the Father are given the Son. The Father is the only God, the First and the Last, the only Savior (Isaiah 44:6-8, Isaiah 43:11) The Son is God, (John 1:1) the First and the Last (Revelation 22:13) and the Savior (Luke 2:11). What the Father does, the Son does. (John 5:18-29) Together, and with the Holy Spirit, they are life itself.

So, the depth of his love for us is beyond our understanding. To redeem us, the Father did what he did not require of Abraham. He sacrificed his Son, his only Son, whom he loves, for our redemption. By his death on the cross, he won eternal life for us so that we might live with him forever.

The Bible Calls Jesus God

Encore Post: The Church knew from the start that Jesus was God. Yet both the Scripture and the Church from its earliest days confessed that there is only one God. They fearlessly proclaimed this truth when every culture around them believed anything but that there was just one God. They were even called Atheists because they didn’t believe in the Roman Gods or play the game of merging their religion with those around them.

The early church recognized that the New Testament clearly assumes Jesus is God. In some places, it calls him so point blank. (John 1:1, John 1:18, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:11 (Jesus Christ is Lord), Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1) He is identified as the Son of God and calls himself the Son of Man. Jesus is called Lord, calls himself Lord or implies he is Yahweh.

The New Testament also gives titles to Jesus that the Old Testament reserves for God alone. He is the Savior (Isaiah 45:21, Hosea 13:4, Luke 1:47, Acts 5:31) God is our shepherd (Psalm 23:1, Ezekiel 34:15) and Jesus is the shepherd (Hebrews 13:20) God is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6). Jesus is the first and the last. (Revelation 1:17) Other titles are also given to both God and to Jesus. These reinforced the conviction of the church that Jesus is both God and Lord.

The Eternal Son of the Father

Encore Post: Jesus has always been God’s Son and always will be God’s Son. “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity…” Martin Luther explains in the Small Catechism. “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds…” we confess in the Nicene Creed. It is why we sing in the ancient hymn Te Deum Laudamus, “you are the Everlasting Son of the Father.”

We can somewhat understand how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. But how he could be “begotten” by the Father in eternity — outside of time — without having a beginning makes no sense to us. Yet that is exactly how God describes the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

So far, so good. The problem comes when we try to understand how this can be. As we discussed in a previous post, we cannot fully understand God because we are creatures and he is our creator. It is a mystery — a riddle human logic cannot solve. The issue has to do with the quality of God (attribute) that he is eternal — that time does not exist for God. For human beings, everything has to do with the fact that time passes. We are conceived in our mother’s womb, grow, are born, become adults, grow old and die. Even though we we live forever, it is at best difficult to imagine life without a beginning and an end.

Yet God, in his wisdom, uses this language to help us understand the closest relationship in the universe — the eternal Father begets his eternal Son. (Psalm 2, John 1:18, 3:16-18, Hebrews 1) So, we also use this way to describe the Son and be content to understand him this way.

Martin Luther, St. Paul and Righteousness

We think of Martin Luther as a great reformer, a writer and a pastor. And he was all of these things. But his call was as a professor. His first lectures were on the Psalms, Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. To do these well, he spent many hours reading commentaries and the writings of the Church Fathers and the scholars of the Middle Ages. Once in awhile, he found himself not quite understanding a passage or a word. He spent months trying to understand some words. When he finally came to understand repentance, he described his excitement as if it unlocked all of Scripture for him.

Over Five Hundred years ago, as he was preparing to lecture on Romans, the great scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, published a Greek New Testament (1516) with Erasmus’ own Latin translation with it. It was then he came up against Romans 1:17: ” ‘For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed from faith for faith” Everything he read said this righteousness was the quality of God that moves him to condemn sinners. He just couldn’t understand how that was good news.

His friends urged him to lecture on the Psalms again, so he began teaching the book in March and April of 1519 — five hundred years ago. While he was working on his lectures in his tower study, he couldn’t get Romans 1 off of his mind. Then his eyes fell on the context: “The just shall live by his faith.” All of a sudden, it occured to him that the righteousness of God is not the holy nature of God, but it is God’s gift of righteousness that Christians receive by faith as a free gift for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was as if God had opened the gate of heaven for him. God’s righteousness is a gift God gives by his grace.

Luther has a way to go before he fully understood theology they way Lutherans do today. Yet God had revealed to him the central teaching of the faith. He would never forget his tower experience.

God’s Mission is to Seek and Save the Lost

What do you think of when you hear the word missions? Preachers hacking their way through the jungle? Doctors and nurses caring for the sick in India? People in white searches and ties knocking on doors? Yes, these romantic images are a part of the way God’s church has sought to bring the good news to those who have never heard it. (although reality rarely squared with the romance of the Mission Festival sermons!) But the truth is really seeking and saving the lost is not our work — it is God’s work.

Theologians call God’s mission the missio Dei — the mission of God. The word is from the Latin for “sending.” You already know one passage that describes that mission. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 — my translation) He sent his Son because he is not willing that anyone should perish (Ezekiel 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9), but that all be saved. (1 Timothy 2:4) He sent him to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:9-10) Like a shepherd, he seeks out his lost sheep. Like a woman who has lost a denarii, he sweeps out the house to find it. Like a Father whose son has forsaken him, he watches day and night for his return. (Luke 15) He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. (Matthew 20:27-28)

So, how do we fit in? First of all, he wants us to rejoice with him when he saves the lost. (Luke 15) But more than that, he invites us to join him in his mission. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” Jesus says to us. (John 20:21) He sends his Church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them. (Matthew 28:19-20) He chooses to work through us to accomplish his mission — not only around the world but where we live and work at the jobs he has called us to do.

Our Living Hope

Sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9
17th Sunday After Pentecost
September 16, 2018
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

Text: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 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. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (ESV)

Intro: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! No, it is not Easter or even Easter season, but given the text I’ve chosen this morning, I think we need to say it! I came to love this passage when visiting a member of my second parish in the hospital. She was one of those ladies that served in every office in the LWML, the church and the community. She had cancer and shared this passage was her favorite when she was ill. It reminds us of what is really important when the world closes in on us.

I. We are bothered now by all kinds of trials
A. Hurricanes, sickness, the evils of this world harass us.
B. Satan takes aim for us, trying to drive us to despair and unbelief.
C. What all this does to us is show us what is really important—our faith.
D. We have a something precious waiting for us – and this is our hope. He is risen!

II. Yet we have a living hope in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
A.After all, Jesus lived, suffered and died for our sins.
B. His death has destroyed the power of sin, suffering, grief and death.
C. All that we hope on here passes away – our hope is forever.
D. Because he rose, we will rise from the grave.
E. For this reason, we can rejoice in our sufferings.

The House that Wisdom Built

The book of Proverbs has a unique role in the history of doctrine in the Church, especially the Greek word for Wisdom (σοφός). The Greek word is feminine in the rules of language, and so when Wisdom is personified throughout the book of Proverbs such as Proverbs 8 and 9, people are sometimes uneasy to ascribe this to Jesus. But Jesus is the Wisdom or Torah of God in the flesh, and He has built the house, and he is the one who calls out for all to come to his feast.

We have our reading from Proverbs matched up with our final reading from John 6, the great discourse where Jesus calls himself “the bread of life.” In our reading from John 6 we see Jesus tell all who would hear, “whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Wisdom in Proverbs 9, effectively says the same thing. “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

Wisdom speaks like Jesus speaks. We are called to walk in His ways. Jesus Himself says He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. That is where true life is, and we get that life through the bread that Jesus/Wisdom feeds us.

Following His his call we go to His House, the Church, which he has built and onward to the table which He has prepared and eat of the bread he has made, and drink of the wine he has mixed in our presence that we might have life and walk in His way to the glory of the Lord’s name forevermore.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

A Shepherd for Christ’s Sheep

Sermon on Matthew 9:35-38
The Ordination of Michael Brent Keller
July 29, 2018
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, South Dakota

Introduction: Last fall you said goodbye to Pastor Pay. You began pray to the Lord that he send to you a faithful shepherd. Today he has answered your prayers. Pastor Keller begins his Ministry here today. Brent, you have been praying for a chance to help people—really help them. And God has given you that opportunity. Here is is the harvest, ready to be brought in. At your side are a wonderful gathering of God’s people. It would be good to see them as Jesus does… he has compassion for them because:

I. We are harassed and helpless

A. The world sends conflicting messages that lure us away from God.
B. Our sinful desires cause us to seek the things we think will please us.
C. The devil uses both to extinguish our trust in God.
D. Tragedies big and small wound us, crush us and wear us down.

II. He came to seek and to save.
A. Jesus became a man to seek and save the lost
B. As the Good Shepherd, he laid down his life for his sheep.
C. Through his word and the Sacraments, he still gathers his sheep, binds up the wounds and leads them home.

III. He sends pastors – and you
A. He does this by sending you pastor Keller to lead you, feed you and make you clean.
B. He sends you, Brent, to tend this flock.
C. Together he sends you all to gather the souls now ready to harvest.

The Many Meanings of Ministry

Ministry is all about service. In fact, the word for ministry is a Latin translation of the Greek word διακονία (diakonia), which means personal service. Ancient Greeks use several words for service: δουλεύω (douleuo), to serve because you are a slave, λατρεύω (latreuo), to work for a wage, λειτουργία (leitourgia), public service and θεραπεύω (therapeuo), to serve willingly, to care for, especially the sick.

For the Greeks, almost all service was viewed as demeaning. Jesus turned that around. Jesus said that he came to serve, not to be served, so Christians must serve each other. (Matthew 20:26-28) The church took this charge to heart. They called themselves servants and slaves of Jesus. (Acts 4:29, Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1, Revelation 1:1) They came to reason that if Jesus loved us, we should love each other.

The New Testament came to use the Greek words for service in two ways. In general, it came to stand for the preaching of the word and the sharing of the sacraments by Christians in every way. In its narrow use, it refers to the work of pastors.

To carry out ministry, Jesus created the office of the Pastoral Ministry and the Apostles created the deaconate to support them. In posts to follow, we’ll explore the Office of the ministry.

Reading Ephesians in the Summer

If you have been reading this blog awhile, you may remember my comments on the structure of the Church Year in liturgical churches, especially the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Our long Pentecost season allows continuous reading of books of the Bible — in some cases whole books. In the three year lectionary, we will be doing this with the book of Ephesians beginning this Sunday.

As it turns out, I did a running commentary of Ephesians 1 & 2 at the beginning of this year. If you want to read this series of posts, start with “So, Does God Hate Me?”. At the bottom of each post, select the link for the next “Material Principle” post. If you find your curiousity peaked, drop Pastor Hercamp and I a comment on the blog itself. We would be happy to write a post to answer a question or explore a topic.