Uncategorized – Page 22 – What Does This Mean?

Only Lutherans Are Going to Heaven?

Do you think only Lutherans are going to heaven?

On the heels of my writing that the LCMS and those in our global fellowship are the only right teaching church, folks will hastily and uncharitably say things like, “I bet you think only Lutherans are going to heaven!” or “Pastor’s gonna be surprised that there aren’t only Lutherans in Heaven.”

Of course, that’s neither what I believe nor what I teach. We think of ourselves as smart and witty when popping off like that. “There you sit, like butter in sunshine,” encumbered in wit neither by speed nor sharpness. (Luther’s Works AE, Volume. 40, p. 252, © CPH, St. Louis, MO) It’s really just the rude and disrespectful talk over to which our sinful tongues are given. The eighth and fourth commandments warn us against such idle claptrap.

There will most certainly be Non-LCMS Lutherans in heaven. We trust here not in the false teachings of other Christian churches. Instead, we trust in the felicitous inconsistency. Luther coined the term, but we understand its use better from Francis Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics (Vol. I: p. 6, 72, 84, 87-91; Vol. II: p. 156 © 1950, CPH)

The felicitous inconsistency is a happy accident, a result differing from what false teaching is likely to deliver: unbelief and hell. The felicitous inconsistency is the teaching in Christianity that where the Word of God is heard, true faith may spring-up in contradiction of false teaching. This is no guarantee. It’s our hope and prayer that the Lord grants faith to those who hear and preserves them in that faith. This hope and prayer flies against the false teaching in heterodox churches. It isn’t a thing we ought to expect or into which we ought to place our trust.

Loving our family, friends, and neighbors requires us to encourage them away from false teachers and heterodox churches. Simply being in a “Christian” church is good, but it’s certainly not good enough. In love, we ought to want our loved ones to hear only right teaching. We should want the Word of God AND right teaching entering their ears and hearts together rather than simply hoping God will preserve them.

Even in orthodox churches like our LCMS churches, Jesus warning about wheat and tares still holds true (Matthew 13:24-30). There will still be unbelievers gathered with the faithful until the last day. Only then the Lord will finally sort us into the fire and into salvation. Fear not! If this worries you, that’s great news. The unbelieving tares don’t care about their salvation one bit. That’s not you.

All that being said, there will certainly be non-LCMS Lutherans in heaven. But, in heaven we will all finally be Lutheran. In heaven we will all finally trust in grace alone apart from works. We will never doubt the salvation won on the cross, delivered in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and sealed with us in the bodily resurrection. And, there will not be one unbeliever among us.

Hang tight, there’s more to be said about this felicitous inconsistency concerning the false teachers too. In Christ all will finally be one, just not quite yet.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
And
Mission Planting Pastoral team
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX

Worship as Reliance Upon Jesus

When you think of “Worship,” what do you see in your mind’s eye? What do you associate with the term? Do you see “pomp and circumstance”? Do you see a well ordered ritual activity? Do you see hymns and songs of praise? That is all fine and good. But none of that conveys what worship really is.

Worship is reliance, at least that is what Luther and the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church convey. It also is part of the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods,” implies that there is nothing or anyone else upon whom we ought to rely for the needs of body and soul or for the things which lead to everlasting life.

In the Old in particular we have a few instances were the Lord God wants Israel simply to be silent as He works to save them. Exodus 14:14 is a prime example. Israel need only to be silent while the Lord fights for them. Abraham and Sarah are also another example even earlier in the Pentateuch. In their situation, rather than relying solely on the Lord and waiting for Him to act. Sarai persuaded Abraham to take Hagar as a surrogate of sorts. Sarai sought to short-circuit the promise of God and bring it about in a quicker fashion. That is not relying on God. That is not proper worship of the Lord. To worship Him properly is to rely upon Him. What is proper worship is seen in the woman who seeks out Jesus when her daughter is oppressed by a demon. She relies on any word that Jesus speaks. She does not expect a full meal, but merely a bit of the crumbs of His mercy. She lives and breathes that come from the very Word of God made flesh. The woman worships Jesus as she relies upon Him to do what He has promised to do, which is to save her and her daughter from eternal death.

That is why Jesus is adamant when He cries out to those who are weak to come to him so they would have rest. He cries out that He is the bread of life. He is the one that one drinks from in order to have life. He wants you to rely upon Him for your very life!

Since He has accomplished your salvation, receive it from Him. Seek out His absolution. Seek the preaching of His Word. Pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread,” and mean it. To rely upon Him for mercy is to trust Him and His promises. To trust Him is to worship Him. Jesus always delivers what we need for both body and life. Hence, we too can and should see relying upon Jesus as worship of Him.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Is Lutheran The Only Right Church?

I frequently get some version of this question, “Do you really think the Lutheran Church* is the only right church?” (*the LCMS and those Lutherans in our global fellowship)

Yes, I do. And, you ought to thank the Lord if your pastor isn’t some unfaithful, vow-breaking squish, who believes one thing and says another. Summer is the season of installations and ordinations in the LCMS. Nearly every weekend from mid-June through August, there will be such an event at an LCMS congregation. The Vows taken by your pastor and the others like him are these:

“Do you believe and confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice? Yes, I believe and confess the canonical Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” (LSB Agenda, p. 165)

What does this mean? This means that the Christian faith must never embrace what scripture condemns and never condemn what scripture extolls. There are a good number of Christian churches and pastors falling outside of this first vow. Anyone denying infant Baptism or infant faith, denies scripture’s plain teaching. Anyone denying Baptismal regeneration, denies the scriptures. Anyone denying the forgiveness of sins and the true, bodily presence of Jesus in Holy Communion, denies the Word of God. Anyone engaged in the ordination of women into the Holy Ministry, despises the Word of God. Anyone teaching the re-sacrifice of Jesus in the mass, rejects the scriptures. This list is far from exhaustive.

“Do you believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, as faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and do you reject all the errors which they condemn? Yes, I believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds because they are in accord with the Word of God. I also reject all the errors they condemn.” (ibid.)

What does this mean? All heresies rejected in the creeds, we reject. In current terms, that means things like the constant, popular, gnostic view of death. Death is not a release of the soul from the body. Death is the unnatural, violent separation of soul from body. Death is not the final destination. The resurrection of all flesh and the restoration of soul and body together on the last day is the completion of all things promised to Baptized Christians. Also, the creeds may not be rejected by Christians, as some do (Joel Osteen, many Baptists, et al).

“Do you confess the unaltered Augsburg Confession to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church? And do you confess that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord—as these are contained in the Book of Concord—are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith? Yes, I make these confessions my own because they are in accord with the Word of God.” (LSB Agenda, p. 166)

What does this mean? This is where the rubber meets the road. The Lutheran Confessions are correct in their entirely. Lutheran Pastors vow this BECAUSE they are the right exposition of and in accord with the Word of God. As stated above, we can identify errors in other Christian confessions. In my short 47 years upon the Earth, I have neither discovered an error in our confessions, nor been shown one. If I or any other Lutheran pastor were convinced of such an error, we would be bound by the first vow to the scriptures alone to fight ceaselessly and publicly against the error, or leave the Lutheran Confession.

“Do you promise that you will perform the duties of your office in accordance with these Confessions, and that all your preaching and teaching and your administrations of the sacraments will be in conformity with Holy Scripture and with these Confessions? Yes, I promise, with the help of God.” (ibid.)

What does this mean? All Lutheran pastors are bound by these vows to conform themselves to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions of the Unaltered Book of Concord (1580 AD). We must condemn what they condemn and extoll what they extoll. There is no wiggle room or lateral movement. Lutheran pastors are or are not faithful.

Christians teaching a different confession are in error.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
And
Mission Planting Pastoral team
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX

How Lutherans See Worship

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

Sunday School: Solomon Builds the Temple

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

Sermon on Baptizing Infants

A Thirty-Five year old sermon outline I found going through my papers:

Baptism of Wesley and Lucas Smith
Sermon on Mark 10:13-16
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
October 9th, 1988
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Winamac, Indiana

Text: “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them, and He blessed them.”

Baptism is for little children too.
a. Little children have a place in the heart of Jesus.
b. Above everything else, infants are people who trust.
c. God is the one who acts in baptism.
d. Baptism begins the life of faith in the heart of the Christian.
We sometimes keep children from coming to Jesus.
a. We adults are temped to make a career of telling children what they cannot do, because it is easier for us that way.
b. When we do bring children to baptism, we sometimes do not follow through on our promises to God to raise them as Christians.
c. We often undermine a child’s trust by our “experience” and by our failures.
d. We must take our responsibility to raise our children seriously, for He will call us to account.
Yet God calls children own in Baptism.
a. In baptism, God children as His own.
b. In the waters of Baptism, they are united to Jesus in His death and resurrection.
c. God has promised to care for them by His Spirit and keep them in the faith.
d. From these assurances, we draw the strength to bring our children to Jesus.
e. In all this, we can look forward to the day we are together with him forever.

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

Laborers Enter the Harvest Field

When Jesus looked out over the people to whom he ministered, it moved him deeply. They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherds. He called on them to pray that the Lord of the Harvest send workers into the harvest field of souls. (Matthew 9:35-38) During the last few months and years, Lutheran congregations throughout North America have been doing just that — praying that God would send them faithful shepherds. In April, God answered many of those prayers. He called pastors to serve them. This month, he began to send them into the harvest field of souls. Four seminaries, two in the United States and two in Canada, helped future pastors complete their education with integrity and graduate. Now, as has happened for over a century and three quarters, these pastors make their way to the flocks placed in their care. Pray for safe travel and wisdom to use the gifts given them to care for Christ’s sheep.

Soon an even more ancient rite will take place in about one hundred places around that continent. Called ordination, these new pastors will be recognized by the Church as men sent by God to care for his people. As their fathers in the ministry did for them, other pastors, mostly from neighboring congregations, will place their hands on the new pastor, thereby designating the new pastor as ministers of the word and sacraments. In an unbroken line stretching back through two thousand years to the day Jesus breathed on the Apostles the Holy Spirit and the church of Antioch laid hands on St. Paul, one generation entrusts to the next to take up the yoke of Christ. In symbol of this, a red stole will be placed on the shoulder of the new pastor.

At an ordination and installations in every new field of service these new pastors will enter into the course of the ministry. The people of God, normally those for whom the pastor is called to care, will hear the new pastors makes solemn vows to God, to his Church and to the people he is to serve. He promises to teach according to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, to live a life according to God’s word and other things. The people of God promise to pray for him, care for him and to obey him when he teaches and preaches in harmony of God’s word. Together they witness to the world in word and deed to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. They proclaim the gospel so that many will respond in faith and become God’s children, too. Continue to pray for them, for the work has only begun.

Yet in many places, there is no pastor to bring God’s gifts to his people or shortly will be without a pastor. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, therefore, that he would send laborers into the harvest field of souls.

©2020, 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

Behold, My Sheep, I Will Search You Out

A New Hymn!

This hymn text is based upon Ezekiel 34:11-16; Ezekiel 36:22-23, 26-28; Ezekiel 37:1-2, 7-8, 10-13; and Job 19:26-27. It’s certainly also suitable for Psalm 23 or another shepherd text. Check back for a video link in a few weeks.

I presented this hymn at the 2nd Annual Church Music Beautification Conference at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool on April 22nd of 2023.

Ezekiel 34:11-16 is the assigned text for The 3^rd Sunday of Easter in the one-year lectionary, The Last Sunday of the Church Year in the three-year series A, and proper 19 in the three year series C. Ezekiel 36:22-28 is the assigned text for the seventh Sunday of Easter in the one-year lectionary. Ezekiel 37:1-14 is the assigned text for the second Sunday of Easter in the one-year lectionary, the fifth Sunday of Lent in the three-year series A, and Pentecost Day in the three-year series B. Job 19:23-27 is the assigned text for Easter Day in the one-year lectionary, Easter Sunrise in the three year series C, and the service of graveside committal. Psalm 23 is the assigned psalm for the third Sunday of Easter in the one-year lectionary, Easter Day in all three years of the three-year series, proper 23 in the three-year series A, and proper 11 in the three-year series B.

Behold, My Sheep, I Will Search You Out

1 Behold, My sheep, I’ll search you out,
Rescue on day of clouds;
Though through the darkness, scattered out,
From global nations, proud;
I Myself will make you lie down,
Gathering from the crowd

2 You, O My sheep, I’ll shepherd you,
On mountain heights to feed;
Good grazing land, ravines through too,
Satisfied without greed;
Strengthened, the weak and injured, bound,
Fed fully freed from need.

3 Thus says the Lord, the God of all,
My name has been profaned.
Yoked with the pagans, since the fall,
You have my anger gained.
But, in My faithfulness ‘gainst gall,
You will be unashamed.

4 Thus says the Lord, the God of all,
I will remove the stone,
Where your heart is, instead will fall,
Flesh in its place alone,
My law, this flesh will love it all,
I’ll bring you to your home.

5 Though your bones lie in valley, dry,
In your own flesh, you’ll stand;
Before My throne, in kingdom, high,
In congregation, grand;
Restored in flesh, Me in your eye,
All this by My command.

6 On the last day, your Graves, I’ll break,
People resting in faith,
By Jesus blood and for His sake,
My children, you, I make.
Thus You will know, I am the Lord,
I’ve spoken these words great.

TRUMPET BLAST; 86 86 86
Text, Tune, and Setting: Jason M. Kaspar, b. 1976;
Text: © 2023, Jason M. Kaspar;
Tune and Setting: © 2014, Jason M. Kaspar

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
and
Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX

The Eighth Day

In a previous post, We talked about the significance of the sixth and seventh days, the day of preparation and the Sabbath, reinforcing the calculus of Jesus death and resurrection on the third day. The third day is also the eighth day. In Christianity, we make a big deal out of the eighth day as the day of resurrection. It’s the day of the proof of our salvation. Jesus paid for our sins through His death on the cross on Friday, the sixth day. His resurrection on the first day of the week, the eighth day, proves His victory over death and the grave.

1st Century Christians quickly began gathering together on the first day of the week. The shift from the Sabbath, seventh day to the first day, the eighth day, reflected our understanding from faith in a promise yet to be revealed to a promise of salvation delivered in Christ. The Resurrection happens on the “first day of the week.” (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:1-6; Luke 24:1-7; John 20:1-18). We now call the first day of the week Sunday. That’s also the eighth day.

This less than exhaustive look at Old Testament eighth day theology reveals quite of few of these. The fall and protoevangelion (first Gospel), can be understood as eighth day events. We fall way, corrupting creation. And, God promises to restore us by the seed of the Woman. (Genesis 3)

God’s covenant with Abraham was sealed by eighth day activity too. As a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham’s offspring. Circumcision was to be performed on the eighth day. (Genesis 17:9-13) It’s prob’ly no accident that the Lord puts the sign of His promise on the eighth day. It’s as if we’re to be on the lookout for an eighth day event sometime soon.

Even the critters of the Jews are reflecting eighth day significance. The firstborn of all livestock are to be given to the Lord. Care to guess which day? Seven days with its mother, and it’s given to the Lord on the eighth day. (Exodus 22:29-30)

When Aaron and His sons or ordained for service in the tabernacle. The atonement for them and the altar is appointed for seven days. Beginning on the eighth day, they may serve in the tabernacle the offering for the sins of the people. (Exodus 29:35-37)

There are several rites within the Jewish Levitical code, which peculiar eighth day events. Leprosy was determined by two seven-day seclusions. (Leviticus 13:4-6) The cleansing of lepers revolves around the eighth day. (Leviticus 14) The feast of booths begins and ends with a sabbath convocation. The second on is called the eighth day. (Leviticus 23:36, 39)

Ezekiel prophesied in his vision of the new temple and the return of the glory of the Lord. The altar is to be erected and consecrated to the Lord. Seven days are appoint for the atonement of the altar. On the eighth day and following, the Lord will accept sacrifices for the people. (Ezekiel 43:18-27)

In the New Testament, Baptism becomes the fulfillment of the eighth day promise of circumcision. “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:11-14)

The eighth day is the day of Christianity. It’s the day of resurrection. It’s the day of new birth in Jesus. The eighth day is now and not yet. Forgiven in Christ by grace through faith given in Baptism, we await the fulfillment on the last day, the final eight day.

We surround ourselves with eight-sided figures. Our baptismal fonts are often eight sided. The quadifoils surrounding gospel moments and characters in stained glass and vestments are even eight sided comprised of four arcs and four angles. The old European coffins were eight sided with six edges, a top, and a bottom. Church columns were often eight-sided. Other architectural features in the church may also assume an octagonal catechesis. They are a constant reminder of the promise of new birth, forgiveness, restoration, and resurrection to immortal life in Christ.

Jesus was raised on the eighth day.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
and
Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX

On The Third Day

Modernists and restorationists often struggle with commonly accepted matters in the Christian faith. Often, we spill ink on the bodily presence of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper or the forgiveness and faith delivered in baptismal waters by God. But, for today, let’s look at the three days in the tomb.

Ancient Jewish timekeeping works in two important ways. The first is an inclusive reckoning. There was no concept of 4.3 days in their understanding. Part of a day is a day in this view. Second, their days didn’t begin or end as ours do. Our modern, western timekeeping reckons a day from morning through evening and into the night. Theirs reckoned a day from nightfall, thought the watches of the night, the hours of the day, and ending with nightfall again. “…There was evening and there was morning, the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days.” (Genesis 1:5, 8,13, 19, 23, 31)

Jesus’s prediction of His death reinforces this idea. He speaks of the third day as movement through. Death occurs on the first day, and resurrection on the third day. He speaks of days inclusively. The death needn’t happen before the first day, nor the resurrection after the third day, even just by a few moments. That would be five days by this reckoning. “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matthew 16:21) The inclusive view is consistent through the predictions elsewhere. (Matthew 17:22-23; 20:17-19; Luke 9:21-22; & John 2:19)

The outlier expressions “after three days” (Mark 9:31 & 10:34) and “three days and nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40) are best understood within the context of preponderance of the texts. Inclusive language prevails. So, the other three examples are likely idiomatic in some way, not literal.

Speaking of the literal, Jesus literally died on Friday. He died about the ninth hour. (Matthew 24:50; Mark 15:34-37; & Luke 23:46) In Jewish timekeeping, there are 12 equal hours of the watches of the night from nightfall to dawn and 12 equal hours of daylight from dawn to the end of the day at nightfall. The sixth hour is noon. The ninth hour would be about three p.m. by our reckoning. That’s just before the calendar switches to Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh day.

Jesus was taken off the cross and buried “when evening came” “on the day of preparation” (Matthew 27:57-62; Mark 15:42-43; Luke 23:52-54; & John 19:42). This indicates the close of the day before nightfall. The day of preparation is the day preceding the Sabbath. “On the sixth day [Friday], when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. …See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” (Exodus 16:5, 29)

We can say Jesus died on the sixth day, Friday, before nightfall with great certainty thanks to St. John. “since it was the day of preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. …But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” (John 19:31, 33)

The seventh day, Saturday, is the day of rest and the end of the week. The Resurrection happens on the “first day of the week.” (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:1-6; Luke 24:1-7; & John 20:1-18). We now call the first day of the week Sunday. The resurrection happened before dawn, in the watches of the night, on the first day of the week.

So, the bible clearly teaches us that Jesus died and was buried on Friday, before the calendar date flipped. He rose from the dead on Sunday, in wee hours before dawn, after the calendar date flipped. We received this both from the preponderance of evidence in expression and in the actual accounting of days and times. He lay in the tomb between about 26-36 hours. But, that span is exactly what He said, “on the third day.” Speaking to Jews in a Jewish manner of days and times. It was indeed nothing other than the third day as they would have understood it.

Christ is Risen!

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
and
Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX

Baptism of Wesley and Lucas SmithSermon on Mark 10:13-16 Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost October 9th, 1988St. Luke Lutheran ChurchWinamac, Indiana

A New Hymn!

Behold, My Sheep, I Will Search You Out

Baptism of Wesley and Lucas Smith
Sermon on Mark 10:13-16
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
October 9th, 1988
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Winamac, Indiana