Uncategorized – Page 36 – What Does This Mean?

Does Revelation 6:2 predict the coronavirus and masks?

I have to admit that this modern prophetic interpretation caught me by surprise. I quickly found several online discussion threads, which said exactly what I was asked in the same manner.

“Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.” [Revelation 6:1-2 ESV]

Generally, these are the claims.

1 – Corona is Latin for “crown,” therefore, coronavirus = “crown” virus.

2 – A bow, toxon in Greek (τόξον), is the root of toxic in English = a toxic “fake” virus.

3 – The base of bow from tikto (τίκτω) indicates fabric, like a mask. If you want to bypass the linguistic nerd stuff, skip ahead to the *.

First, corona is Latin for “crown.” The interpretation here requires the Greek, stephanos (στέφανος), to be translated in Latin, but only Latin, and only that word. Our understanding of corona as a Latin root term is broad in application. Coronas can be the outer atmosphere of a star, a radiating architectural feature, or even just a Mexican beer. Corona is also the name of the circle of clergy singing in the ancient mass around the altar, which is the root of choir. It is also the name of a class of viruses with radiating external structures. None of those uses predict or exclude another.

Second, toxon (τόξον) is Greek for “bow.” It is not the origin of toxic. Toxicon (τοξικόν) is the poison for an arrow, bellos (βέλος), to poison a target. Toxicon passes into Latin as toxicum (poison), which gives us toxic in English. Toxon is a New Testament hapax, a word used only once. But, we find the same word used throughout the Septuagint, the 3rd century BC Old Testament Greek translation. Rarely are toxon and bellos used together. One seems to be understood by way of the other.

Third, the base of bow from tikto (τίκτω) indicates fabric like a mask. Tikto (τίκτω) is a verb meaning: to beget, give birth to, bear, produce, or generate. The root, tik (τίκ-), seems to indicate production or fabrication leading to nouns like: builder, craft, or bow. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance was the only reference source I could find using the phrase, “’From the base of tikto; a bow (apparently as the simplest fabric) — bow.” This is mostly likely a typo or intended to be understood as formation, production, or fabrication.

This boils down to the way we look at the scriptures. In the Lutheran church, we look at the scriptures through exegesis (ex-e-JE-sus). We examine the text itself, its context in chapter, book, and the whole bible. We may also look at the historical context, if it’s useful. Most importantly, we let scripture interpret scripture.

This coronavirus application of Revelation 6:2 is process called eisegesis (ice-e-JE-sus). The method brings an idea into the scriptures, looking for a proof of it. It examines the text in isolation. And, it tends to make interpretive leaps from limited or incomplete information.

The four riders in Revelation are the first of the sets of seven expressions of tribulation indicating the triumphant return of the Lamb. It may help to think of the description in the apocalyptic literature of the Revelation of St. John like a four year-old trying to explain a trip to Disney World. With great speed, an ever-increasing intensity, the description circles back upon itself. Each telling adds to the detail of what’s already been explained. And, we get ever more confused about where we started and where we’re ending.

John starts in the divine service on Sunday morning. He tells us a fantastic description of the day to come. And he closes us out in the resurrection itself with the lamb in his Kingdom.

We gain context from the whole of what St. John is relating to us. “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” [Revelation 7:13-14 ESV] This is happening right now! All who have died in the faith for the 2000 years since Jesus’ ascension are coming out of the great tribulation. Today is no different. Tomorrow will likely be the same.

Today is the day of salvation, and the resurrection is soon!

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

The Ascension of our Lord

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The theme for this Ascension Day is this: I will be with you always.

When the wind blows in the night, it wakens the children. At first, sister and sister try to console one another. “It’ll be alright. It will go away soon.” But the more frightened one of the two usually won’t go back to sleep. No, the child will open the door, walk down the hallway, and knock on the door, and say, “Daddy, I’m scared.” And Dad gets up, opens the door, and holds his child. And they talk and the child gets back into bed, tucked in just right, and Dad says, “Do not be afraid, my child. I will be with you always.” Holding that promise, the frightened child goes back to sleep calmed and secure.

When a man loves a woman, he asks her on a date. And they get to know one another, spend time together, talk about their lives, and enjoy one another’s company. Inevitably, after the passage of time, the man finds that he cannot live without her. He finds that he cannot share her with any other. He loves her. And so, he heads to the jewelry store and buys a ring with all the money he has saved. And on one knee, he says to this woman, “I will be with you always.” And that is that, and they get engaged and soon to be married, and they have made promises and commitments to one another for as long as they live.

“I will be with you always.” These words cast out our fears, and these words bring us to tears. These words tell us we are never alone, and that some other person cares about us. These are not just the words of father to child or of a husband to a wife, these are the words that comfort us during our greatest sufferings and our greatest moments in life.

But even more, the God of heaven becomes man on earth, and God Himself Jesus Christ, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. And what is the promise? God with us. Far greater than a child’s comfort in the storm or a husband’s promise to his wife, God promised to be with us, to be born like us, to grow up like us, to be baptized like us, to be tempted like us, and even to suffer like us. Through every moment, every struggle, every suffering, every sin, and every moment, our Lord God is with us. There is no other god in this world than our God and Lord.

Quite often, we want to be left alone with our sins. I certainly don’t want you to know that about me. And every time, we find ourselves alone when our loved ones die. And the devil loves to tempt us to go through life alone, to deal with our problems alone, to make us feel like we are all alone.

And this is why Jesus has established His Church, so that He can tell you as He tells you today, “I am with you always.” And this is why Jesus has established His Church, that no matter what our family life is, no matter what our social life is, no matter who is missing or who we are missing, that I will be with you always and you will be with me always, and we will be here together always.

This is why we go to church, not for ourselves, but for those around us. I will never forget Stan and Vivian, Frank and Arlene, Marion, and Wanda. These were the elderly members that showed me how to be a Christian, and they showed me how to love one another. They weren’t at church to see what they could get out of it, but to train up a child in the way he should go, and now he’s a pastor in the Lord’s Church. They reminded me often, I will be with you…when you usher, when you acolyte, when you are confirmed and when you graduate. When I got married, they came to the wedding, when my parents were divorced, it was those examples of faith who I called for help.

For this is how the church works. What good is an eye if it has no ear? What good is a foot if it has no leg? What good is a heart if there is no head? Our Lord has knit us together as one body. If one part is missing, then the whole body suffers. If one part is sick, then the whole body is sick. If one part is alone, then it must be rejoined. The last words of Jesus must be the first words of His Church. “I will be with you always.”

This is important for me to say, for this is what my vows have said and this is what the Lord has commanded: I will be with you always. And this is important for you to say, to one another as often as you need, I will be with you always.

But I suppose this only goes so far. What if we can’t stand each other? What if we don’t care about one another? What if we are afraid or alone and unable to be comforted? What if we want to be the Church, but we just don’t know how?

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, promises you this: I will be with you always. And we may ask, But how is Jesus with us always, even now, even today? Jesus has told us. By baptizing and teaching. These are the ways that He is with us, by making us part of the family, part of the body, part of the Church. By teaching us like a father with his child in the darkness of the night. By telling us His promises more than once because maybe we didn’t hear it the first time. By explaining to us how much He loves us and how much He suffered for us.

When we were baptized, our Lord said unto us, “I will be with you always.” When we are taught the Scriptures and have learned what they say, then we can be sure and certain, that the Lord will be with you always. This is why we always say the salutation in every one of our services. I tell you, “The Lord be with you,” and He is. And you tell me, “And also with you.” And thus we are the Church together, walking together, believing together, never alone and never afraid of whatever the world may throw at us.

This promise of Christmas begun at the Incarnation is the final promise of our Lord when He ascended. His whole life declares to us that He is with us. And He has shown us how He is with us, in His Word and His Sacraments. This means even today, we have the Lord in our midst, not as a thought, but in His own Body and Blood. We have the Lord with us always because Jesus has promised it to be so.

What is true for us now, what is true in this world, will be true for us then, will be true in the world to come, that the Lord our God is with us, even to the end of the age, and ever and ever. Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
First Lutheran Church
Phillipsburg, Kansas

New Regular Blog Author: Rev. James Peterson

I’m delighted to introduce our newest regular author, Rev. James Peterson. You can learn more about him at his bio page: https://whatdoesthismean.blog/meet-rev-james-peterson/ It may be a little while before his first post appears, but I thought I’d announce his coming so you all can watch for it.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Nicene Creed: Dealing with the Docetists

As I said in the previous post there were people already during the days of John the Apostle claiming that Jesus did not really come in the flesh. They are called Docetists. There were two different camps under this umbrella term. In one camp, Marcionism, Jesus was considered to be so divine that there was no way He could have had a human body. His body was a phantasm or something more like a celestial substance. It could not be human flesh.

Under the same name but coming from a different angle were those people who believed that Jesus was a man and that Christ was a complete separate entity. Christ entered Jesus body at the baptism at the Jordan river and subsequently left Jesus’s body at the cross. In both instances you see the problem, neither camp had a scriptural and orthodox view of Jesus. Both groups attempted to use their own reason to make sense of God becoming man. However, we cannot comprehend the mystery that is the Incarnation of the Son of God.

Docetism was soundly rejected at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The Creed does not try to explain but rather goes into why the Incarnation took place. The Son of God became man for us and our salvation.

Without God becoming Man, and I mean fully man, there would be no salvation for humanity. Church Father Athanasius put it concerning the Incarnation and our salvation: “That which was not assumed is not redeemed.” Jesus had to be fully man or else His sacrifice for us at the cross would be for not. Jesus had to be fully man if we are to have forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with Him in His Kingdom.

With Docetism’s insistence that Jesus was not fully man, they remove the one thing that brings peace the troubled conscience. We could not say that, “God died for me.” We could not say, “This is Jesus’ blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” The teachings of Docetism are contrary to Scripture. Even Jesus confronts the heresy when He says after He rose from the dead and ate the fish in front of His disciples.

However, Satan still is able to twist and prod people to believe the wrong thing about Jesus. But thanks be to God that the Apostles and defenders of the faith like Athanasius during the days of the Council of Nicaea stood steadfast in the proclamation of Scripture, soundly rejecting the false teaching of Docetism, confessing what Scripture says about the Incarnation of the Word of God and why He came in the flesh.

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

Nicene Creed: Dealing with the Arians

Had there not been controversies surrounding the Person of Jesus Christ, we likely would not have the Nicene Creed or the Athanasian Creed, for that matter. However, we see that already that even in the time of the Apostles, there were misunderstandings about Jesus that led the church to believe in a Jesus that was different from the Scriptural Witness. John, in his Epistles writes of some people who denied Jesus having come in the flesh and others denied Jesus was the Son of God.

As I said in the very first post about the Nicene Creed, The Apostles’ Creed, though correct, could be said by many of these types of people. Words and meaning could be manipulated leading many astray. This became very apparent in the days of Arius, who held to a view that Jesus was a creature and not the “very God of very God, begotten, not made, being one substance with the Father.”

There needed to be a preciseness concerning the words chosen to confess the Scriptural understanding of the Lord Jesus. They had to stay with what Scripture said about Him, or utilize words that conveyed the same meaning. To combat against Arius’ teaching and a host of other’s the Orthodox Christian church fathers went on to write the 2nd article in such a way that would not allow for a follower of Arius to confess it. Arius and his followers would say Jesus a son of God, made but not begotten. Arius would say, “There was a time when the Son was not.” The argument came from Proverbs 8, where personified Wisdom speaks, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.” That sounds as if Wisdom is a created being, being the first thing created. The problem with this approach is that we should never take one verse of Scripture and interpret it without looking at other verses concerning the same idea. John, for instance, in the first chapter of His Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus, also in the Gospel of John says, “Before Abraham was I am.”

The great church Father Athanasius took great pains to defend the Orthodox and Scriptural position of the Lord Jesus Christ being the very Son of God as well as the Son of Mary. Athanasius and his fellow brothers in arms utilized the word homoousias (same substance with the Father) against what Arius liked (homoiousias, similar substance, but not the same substance). The term homoousias is not found in the Scriptures but it conveys the point of Jesus’ eternality with the Father as presented to us in John 1, for instance.

The 2nd Article of the Creed then lays down the line of the position of the Orthodox and Scriptural confession and says to the followers of Arius, “You cannot confess a different view of the relationship between the Son and Father, and call yourself Orthodox.”

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

The Father’s Love, the Son’s Love and Our Love

Sermon on John 15:9-17
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Our Hope Lutheran Church
9 May 2021

Text: “I loved you the same way the Father has loved me. Stay in my love. When you guard my commandments, you will stay in my love, just as I have guarded my Father’s commandments and stay in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. My commandment is that you love one another the same way that I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends when you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (my translation)

Intro: Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death has destroyed death and by his rising opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Today we thank God for our mothers, who bore us, gave birth to us and who raised us. We thank God also for aunts, sisters, and grandmothers, babysitters, teachers, and teachers of the faith. They chose to love us and care for us and gave their lives for us so that we might live. They reflect the love that God has for us in very real ways.

The love of the Father and the Son is the source of Christ’s love for us.
1. The Father loves the Son and declares that he is the beloved Son.
1. He sends his Son into the world to redeem us.
1. Because the Father love the Son, the Son loves us and lays down his life for us.
Stay in God’s love.
1. Like a mother’s love, God’s love for us even before we were born.
1. It is an unconditional love; God loves us no matter what we do or what happens.
1. Because God loves us, we have nothing to fear.
We often love ourselves more than we love others.
1. We look out for ourselves first.
1. We offer our love with strings attached.
1. We wonder if will take advantage of us if we love them.
1. We can only truly love when we stay in God’s love.
Jesus’ love is the greatest of all; He laid down His live for His friends.
1. We were doomed to die eternally for our sins.
1. Jesus died in our place, breaking its power over us.
1. Because He loves us, we are free to love others.
1. On the last day, His love will change everything forever.

Ask Like a Beggar

Dear saints, after his death, a small slip of paper was found in Luther’s pockets. It had two simple phrases on it: We are beggars, this is true.

As we say in the catechism, this is most certainly true. This is the essence of Christianity. The Christian faith begins, continues, and ends with you and me kneeling before God as beggars. This is because we have nothing of value to offer Him. We can only receive. Yet we are not only beggars. We are beggars upon whom our Lord has loved and shown mercy. He lifts us from our knees, and we are embraced with His steadfast and never-ending love. And while we know this from all of Scripture, it is especially evident in St. John’s Upper Room discourse in chapters 13-17. This is where we continue today, the third of five weeks in the Upper Room.

In this discourse, Jesus makes three explicit references to prayer, and the discourse ends with what we commonly call the High Priestly Prayer. In chapter 14 Jesus says, “whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” In chapter 15 we hear “if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” And in our lesson, “whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

Linking the statements together, we get something to the effect of “Ask anything of my Father in my name, and whatever it is, it is going to be done for you.” This is a gracious and unconditional promise for us to hear. We can ask of our Lord anything and know that He will answer.

But before your imagination gets carried away, I need to spoil your dreams. Jesus has been speaking for His entire ministry in figures of speech. You see this in His parables and many of His sayings. Some examples of this are when Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” or, “My time has not yet come,” or, “on that day.” And yet today we hear, “The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. Later Jesus says, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered….”

Jesus moves from that day to the hour which is coming. This is another repeated theme in the Gospel according to St. John. In chapter two, Jesus tells His mother that His hour is not yet come. In chapter seven He is teaching in the Temple and His opponents seek to arrest Him. But they fail to do so because His hour had not yet come. After the Triumphant Entry, some Greeks desire to see Jesus. And when Phillip brings this news to our Lord, He declares, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

The hour which Jesus speaks about is his crucifixion. In that hour, Jesus tells the disciples that two things will happen. First, He will no longer speak in figures. And second, they will be scattered. Let’s take the second part first. In that hour, they will be scattered. Jesus will be alone. Jesus again references and anticipates the cross. What He says will happen does. He is abandoned by the disciples. They are scattered. And Peter denies Jesus three times. And despite Jesus saying I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace, I’d doubt there was any peace to be had that weekend. Rather, tribulation was in full force. And while they didn’t see it yet, Jesus had indeed overcome the world.

Jesus also begins speaking clearly rather than in figures of speech. And so, what is Jesus telling us? He is telling us that anything we pray in accord with our Father’s will, our prayer will be heard and answered. It will be given to you. Your Heavenly Father knows and desires what is best for you. If you ask for and fish, he will not give you a snake. And, to stay with Jesus’ figurative language in his Sermon on the Mount, if you ask for a stone, he will give you the bread you need.

Today is also known as Rogate. It means, “Ask,” or “Pray.” What Jesus is asking us to do today is to pray. Historically this Sunday has been associated with planting season. It makes sense, for we depend on God for everything that goes into us receiving our daily bread. When I think of the weather we have seen since arriving, flooding and drought, hot and bitter cold, it shows us that we really do depend on our Heavenly Father for all we need in body and soul. It is true whether we simply eat and use the fruit of the fields or if we make our living through working and reaping it. So, as a new planting season begins, what shall we do? We pray. We go to Him on your knees, like a beggar, telling Him everything that is on your mind.

Just think of the Psalms. They cover just about every prayer or petition you can think of. They contain confession, plea, desire, anger. They even recount to God what He has done for the writer, for Israel, or for the world. They remember what God has done and proclaim His goodness as requests are made that His goodness continue. It makes sense. We have a relationship with God. He wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to tell Him what is on our minds and what we are feeling.

He already knows these things. In fact, He knows what we are thinking and feeling better than we do. But like a mother who asks their child how their day was at school, He wants us to tell Him.

For this reason, Jesus invites us to “Ask.” Ask your Heavenly Father, and you will receive. Ask and your joy, like a beggar receiving a free meal or a warm place to stay, will be made full. For your Father loves to hear what his dear children have to say. He loves to answer your prayer. What a great and generous promise we have! God listens to and answers our prayer. And so, we ask that He grant our prayer: that we may think those things that are right and by His merciful guiding accomplish them. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

What are the red words in the hymnal doing there?

The things we noticed after a prolonged absence are interesting. Now that we are using our hymnals again after the recent unpleasantness of the plague, we will no doubt see elements within them that we didn’t notice before. The red words in the hymnal are one of those items.

These are not to be confused with the red letters that appear in some of our bibles. In the latter part of the 20th century, it became popular to make the words of Jesus appear red in the printing of some bibles. This probably rose out of the historical-critical method of viewing the scriptures. This view held that some words of the scriptures are more important than others. But that’s a discussion for another time.

The red text in your hymnal are instructions for us in conducting worship. These red texts are called rubrics. In academics a rubric is an explanatory note or a listing of expectations in completion of an assignment or project. The academic usage comes out of for the liturgical usage.

The copyists of liturgical texts would use a method of underlining or writing in and contrasting color like red to set off instructions or notations within a text. This practice was used in various ways. The days assigned to observe the various feasts and festivals and saints’ days were often indicated with red in the calendars or listing of readings. This gave rise to the expression “red-letter day.”

Within the worship service, and in our hymnal, we find instructions for conduct in red text which is often also italicized. Even the bulletins we generate out of the online format of Lutheran Service Builder produces rubrics. Since the font rendering is monochromatic, we don’t get the red but the italics remain.

Rubrics come in two forms. Some rubrics are spoken in an optional style. “A hymn of invocation may be sung.” It may surprise us to learn that the opening and closing hymns are both optional practices. Not every congregation, in every place observes these optional rubrics.

Other rubrics are stated in the absolute. “During Advent and Lent, the hymn of praise is omitted.” These absolute rubrics are given so we will understand those elements of the service that should always be done in a particular way.

In addition to those forms, some rubrics function to provide options. “The Creed may be confessed here or after the sermon.” The Creed, hymn of the day, sermon, offertory, offering, and prayers can follow the exact order above. Or, they may observe an order that is less familiar to us like we may find in Divine Service, setting one or two. The may function of this rubric doesn’t leave an option to omit. But, it does allow for variations in sequence.

Rubrics can also serve to redirect the flow of the service. Prior to the Service of the Sacrament we find a rubric indicating a variation in the conclusion of the service. “If there is no Communion, the service concludes with the Lord’s prayer, a concluding collect, and the benediction.” The service as written allows for the diminishing practice of alternating Sunday communion. That rubric gives us direction for how to proceed.

Probably the most important function for rubrics removes the necessity for verbal instruction or metadiscourse within the Divine Service. I’ll leave you with the wise advice of a former pastor of mine, which he heard from another, which he heard from another, which he heard from another, ad infinitum.

Do the red. Say the black.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX

Ascending to Send

Dear saints, we continue this morning in the Upper Room the night that Jesus is arrested. Our Lord spends chapter 16 preparing His disciples for His arrest and crucifixion. Last week, He told them of the sorrow that they will feel, but also how that sorrow will soon be replaced with joy. This morning reveals the reason sorrow will be replaced with joy.

“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” When the disciples see their Teacher arrested and flee in fear, they will be sorrowful. The sorrow will continue to increase as they see His trial, conviction, and crucifixion. Sorrow and fear continue to grow on the Sabbath as they fear the Jews may come after them next. But even when presented with the testimony and witness of the Resurrection, that fear and sorrow remain. This is evident as they are huddled in a locked room on the evening of the Resurrection.

But then our Lord is suddenly among them. Their fear and sorrow are quickly turned to joy with the phrase, “Peace be to you.” It was certainly for their advantage that Jesus went away. It was imperative that He did. For if He does not go that away, that is, if He does not die, then the disciples and every other man, woman, and child remain under the burden of their sin.

For the next forty days, Jesus continues to teach, encourage, and prepare His apostles for their ministry. Part of that preparation is for His Ascension. He must leave them again. But this time that leaving will be only a physical leaving. He will remain with them in spirit and, even more, send the Helper to them. He will send the Holy Spirit. And as you know, the Holy Spirit is manifested at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Equipped with all that Jesus teaches them and with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the apostles go out and preach the Gospel in joy. And they retain their joy even when they are thrown out of the synagogues, arrested and beaten for their preaching, and martyred for being a Christian.

The reason they can do all this is that Jesus keeps His word. He goes to the Father and sends the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit guides them in all truth. He speaks what He hears Jesus speak. He declares to them what shall come. And He will glorify our Lord by declaring what is Jesus’ and declaring it to them.

As the Spirit comes, He begins to convict the world. He begins to reprove and rebuke the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The work of the Holy Spirit is to expose us to ourselves. God already knows us better than we do. He knows our faults, even the ones we don’t know we have. And so, the Spirit comes to enlighten us.

But notice that this convicting is of the world. We are indeed convicted of our own sin as the Spirit shows us where we have failed to keep God’s Law. And because he keeps us in the true faith, we are led to repentance. We realize we have no righteousness of our own and look to Christ for our righteousness. We rejoice and sing because we have been judged righteous because of the blood of Christ shed for us. We, by the grace of God, have faith and salvation.

But the world does not. The world believes it can dictate what is and is not sin. The world believes it is righteous based on what it does or doesn’t do, think, or say. The world thinks it is clear of any judgment because of its own righteousness. It is a ‘righteousness’ that changes with the cultural tides. This is what the Holy Spirit comes to reprove and rebuke. He comes to show the world that this is not the case.

Yet we can narrow the work of the Spirit even further regarding the conviction of the world toward sin. The specific conviction the Spirit brings against sin is that the world does not believe in Jesus. Of all the sins possible, this is the worst. It is the chief sin and trumps all others. No matter how heinous a life someone lives, no matter what evil they have done, it is unbelief that tops it off. Remember what our Lord says to Nicodemus in the night: “He who believes in him (in Jesus) is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

The purpose John has in writing his gospel account is so people would read it, hear it, and believe in Jesus as their Savior. When you or anyone else hears the Word of God, it is the Spirit who works through it. When someone believes and is convicted, it is the work of the Spirit ensuring that the Word does not return to the Lord without accomplishing what it set out to do. So also, when the Word is rejected and unbelief tragically continues, it is the Spirit who judges that unbelief and unrighteousness.

Jesus is risen and He is ascended. His righteousness is laid upon all who call upon him and trust in him as Lord and Savior. Here the world is convicted concerning righteousness because it is only Christ who is righteous. The world, persisting in sin and unbelief, is unable to possess any true righteousness, no matter what good deeds they do in the eyes of men.

Finally, the Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Satan is defeated. It is not that he was truly the ruler, but that he had acted as if he was, representing himself as the world’s ruler. That much of the world is under his influence shows the power he has despite his defeat. But this is the work of one already defeated and condemned. He knows he’s lost, so he’s trying to take as many as he can with him.

But you, dear Christian, are not of the world. It is why the world hates you. You are different. You are not under a judgment of condemnation but have been judged and declared righteous. You are not under sin and the penalty of unbelief but have been given the greatest gift possible: faith and life in Jesus Christ.

Know today that the Spirit of truth has come and is still here. He continues to guide us into all truth, which includes correcting us when we sin and lose our way, bringing us again to the Lord in repentance. And he does this for you because Jesus went away for a little while. After all, Jesus was crucified for you. He does this because our Lord ascended to the right hand of the Father where he rules and reigns. So, let us sing to the Lord, for he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. Amen.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

What is the meaning of IXOYE?

IXOYE is a misspelled attempt replicate the Greek word, ichthus. IXOYE and ichthus are effectively the same thing. Ichthus simply means fish. The significance of the fish in Christian iconographic vocabulary of the fish is both biblically sensible imagery and traditional storytelling.

We’ll often see it on the back of a car: the chrome two lined fish icon, a fish and a cross, or a fish with letters shoved inside. Here are a few examples. These have also been used for jewelry themes, key chains, Bible covers, in the like. These gained popularity in American Christianity beginning in the 1970s as part of a broader attempt to reach back to ancient Christianity.

Christian tradition holds that the simple two line ichthus was used by ancient Christians during persecution. And there are even Children’s Games based upon that. But, that line of traditional storytelling has very little basis in history.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) said specifically that Christians should engrave their seals with a fish. Glyphs in Christian sites throughout the ancient Roman world seemed to indicate that Christians were aware of the fish and it’s use as a Christian symbol long before that.

All of that is well and good, but the question remains: what does it mean anyway? For the most part the use of the fish and the letters of ichthus as we understand them come to us in the form of an ancient acronym. The phrase “Jesus Christ God’s Son, savior” (Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ) spells out fish in Greek (ΙΧΘΥΣ). The capital letter forms of the letters in the word fish, iota, chi, theta, upsilon, and sigma, look a little bit like the English letters: IXOYE.

That was a very long way to get to the simple answer. It means Jesus. And as Christians we put the name of Jesus on us and our children at his command in our baptism, which washes away sin gives faith. We also put the name of Jesus our clothing, on the walls of our homes, on the walls of our sanctuaries, and before our eyes throughout life. From the forms of art we use lambs come across is, fish, and a host of other symbols to accomplish this effect in our lives.

Blessèd be the Son of God, Jesus, our savior.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX