What Does This Mean?

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

Sunday School: David and Saul

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.

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

One God in Three Persons

Encore Post: “In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” These words are very familiar to us — especially those of us who grew up in a Christian Church. They are ancient, too. Jesus gave them to his apostles just before he ascended into Heaven. (Matthew 28:19) As simple as they are, they contain a riddle — a mystery as theologians call it. The word “name” is singular, but three persons have that name. As we have seen before, this should not surprise us. God is our creator and we are his creatures. Sooner or later, we are not going to understand him. So, Christians have come to the conclusion that we should accept the way God describes himself in the Bible and not try to put it all together when we discover it doesn’t make sense to us.

The first thing we observe is that the Bible is very clear. There is only one God. Here Jews and Muslims agree. But the Scriptures are also clear. At every turn in the New Testament, Jesus is called God and the Holy Spirit is called God. The church from the second century on used the word Trinity to describe it. For Jews and Muslims, this is blasphemy.

So, we believe that God is one, but that three persons are God. With the Bible, reject any view that tries to solve the riddle by saying there are three gods, that one or another are not God or turns god into one being with three states. We are content to marvel at our Creator and love him as he is.

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

Grieving with Hope

1 Corinthians 15:17-22
Easter Vigil
April 8, 2023
Our Hope Lutheran Church

Text: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Intro: Christ is Risen! Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who by his death has destroyed death and by his rising again opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Tonight the church rejoices today because her Lord is risen. The gospel is never sweeter than in Easter week. But the Christian Church in heaven and earth also rejoices that her prayers are answered. Christ has risen and broken the seal of the grave forever. That gospel is all the sweeter because it is true comfort in a world without hope. When a Christian loved one dies, we grieve, but with the hope of the resurrection.

I. The gospel is more comforting than the common things told us when a loved one dies:

a. “She was a good person”
b. “He’s not suffering anymore”
c. “We’ll always remember her”
d. “Death is just a natural part of life”
e. “His accomplishments will live forever”
f. “You’ll have another life to get it right”

II. Real comfort comes in the Resurrection of Christ.

a. His cross is our cross, making us good in God’s sight.
b. His death destroys our enemies: sin, suffering, grief and death.
c. His empty tomb promises an empty grave for us.
d. We still grieve, but a grief that is comforted by hope.
e. So we gladly preach, Christ is Risen!

May God’s peace, which is greater than we can understand, set watch over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Christ is risen!

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

God and Sickness and Death

Sermon on Matthew 9:27–34
Monday in the Week of the Fourth Sunday in Lent
Kramer Chapel March 20, 2023

Text: “And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.” But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.””

Intro: The early days of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee were exciting. He announced that the Kingdom of the Heavens had come. He preached, taught, healed all manner of diseases. He was very different. He taught with authority, he forgave sins and cast out demons — even in the synagogue! The lame walked, lepers are cleansed and the deaf heard, and the dead are raised up. And now the blind would see and the mute speak! The people who had walked in the darkness, Galilee of the gentiles, had seen a great light! All these signs did their work — the blind men knew the Son of David when they saw him — and they as yet couldn’t see! Even we can’t miss the side point:

I. God hates sickness and death. — and he intends to do something about it!

a. He made a world without illness.
b. God suffers with us when we suffer.
c. The day will come when we will be completely whole.

II. Sickness is a result of sin and a sign that we will die.

a. Yet all people – including Christians – remain under the sentence of death
b. We try to avoid and recover from suffering, but only works for awhile.
c. We are attracted to promises of health and healing
d. Yet these are often frauds.

III. Jesus is the source of life and healing.

a. He was born into the midst of this suffering.
b. He died to bring an end to death, grief and pain.
c. He now brings healing in its time and place.
d. He brings resurrection at the end of our time or the end of time itself.

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

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

1 Corinthians 15:17-22 Easter Vigil April 8, 2023 Our Hope Lutheran Church

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

1 Corinthians 15:17-22
Easter Vigil
April 8, 2023
Our Hope Lutheran Church