What Does This Mean?

A Sermon on 1 Samuel 17

Wednesday in the Second Week in Advent

December 13, 2023

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

          The theme is this: The King slays our enemies and saves us.

          There is one basic truth that is has applied in all civilizations: The King fights for us. The Pharoahs of Egypt led the armies out on chariots to take back the Israelites. Joshua led the people around Jericho until the walls came tumbling down. The Judges of old led the armies to victories over the Midianites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and all the other OT  -ites in the Scriptures.

          The King fights for us. Sennacherib led Assyria to take away the Northern Tribes and Nebuchadnezzar led Babylon to exile the Southern Tribes of Israel. Alexander the Great led his troops on conquests on multiple continents. Romans Caesars led armies clear into Britain to expand the empire.

          The King fights for us. This has been true even in our country because of the first President George Washington, who was a military commander first who became President later on. Even today we consider our political leader to be the Commander-in-Chief. If the King (or in our case President) does not control the army, then he does not control very much. The Executive Branch isn’t the Executive Branch, or is a government with no teeth.

          What is most surprising to us this evening is that the King does not fight for us. No, King Saul is afraid. The whole army is afraid. When the leader is afraid, then the followers become afraid. When the shepherd is afraid, then the sheep become afraid. When the world around us is afraid, then we too become afraid and worry. When the church becomes afraid, then we lose our hope and our faith and our trust in God the King.

          David knew about that very well. His sheep trusted him because he protected them from the lion and the bear. Like Joshua led God’s people walking around Jericho, David led his sheep out in the wilderness walking around in danger all the way. The shepherd fights for the sheep; the shepherd dies for his sheep.

          And so David fights for Israel. David is anointed, but he isn’t the king yet. No, but David knows what the real problem is. David understands this basic truth: God fights for him! Physical strength and height have defied the armies of the living God, but the living God will not be defeated. That is what David knows. That is what we know too.

          The King fights for us. God Himself fights for us. Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings all show us this promise and comfort. And so no, I am not going to preach the tired sermon “go slay your Goliaths” or “God will give you strength.” That works-righteousness message is not the point of the reading and it is not the point of the Bible. The point is that God fights for you.

          And this is most obvious to us in Matthew 4, the temptation of Jesus. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness. And the devil tempts and taunts Jesus out there in the wilderness. And there Jesus fasts for forty days just like the forty days that Goliath taunted the Israelites in our reading this evening. This Old Testament battle is just like the New Testament battle. And the God is the same God in both. And God wins both battles too!

          For the King Jesus fights for us. He slays our enemy the devil and saves us from him forever. How? The same way that we ought to resist temptation: through the Word of God. When the devil assails us, use the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to combat the evil one. And you will not win on your own power or faith, but Jesus fights for you!

          Jesus fought for us when He healed the demon-possessed men. This ought to be comforting for us too. God fights for us, and He alone has the power of both devil and demons. He has won the victory and slayed our enemies. We are saved from the powers of evil and the destruction of souls in hell.

          Jesus fights for you. He slayed your enemies and saved you. He forgave your sins, paying for them like a shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He forgave your sins, like a king cancelling a debt, like a king promising you an inheritance of grace and mercy and love and peace.

          This He applied to you like He did to the paralytic man. Our God is not a God who piles up sins and expects us to pay for it. No, our God is the only God who forgives sins and sets His people free. God fights for us! The Lord Jesus slays our enemies and saves us!

          Jesus fights for you! He defeated death when He rose from the grave on Easter Sunday. Surely we can see how David realized that he would have to die to defeat Goliath if he did all by himself, but he knew that God fights for Him. God had mercy on David and saved him from death. And we definitely believe that Jesus knew He would have to die to defeat death, that curse of Adam, so that we can live forever. And so the shepherd laid down His life for the sheep and died to show that He alone has the power and the victory over the grave.

          So I say to you this basic truth: The King Jesus has slain your enemies and saved you forever. Jesus has won a greater victory than David at Socoh, than David defeating Goliath. Jesus has won a greater victory than the temptation in the wilderness. Jesus has won for us because Jesus has fought for us. Our enemies sin, death, and the devil have no power over us. We the sheep do not need to be afraid.

          For the King of Kings has gone out and fought the battles and won. The King of Kings has led the army out like all the kings of old and now we live in His glory. The King of Kings, Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, has slain our enemies and saved us forever as His holy people.

          In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John Lutheran Church
Curtis, Nebraska

©2024 James Peterson. 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

Sermon on 2 Samuel 7

Wednesday in the Week of the Third Sunday in Advent

December 20, 2023

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

          The theme is this: The Lord will make a house for His people to dwell in.

          It’s pious to want to build a church. After 500 years of the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant carried on foot in the midst of the people, David wanted to make a temple. David wanted to build a church. In truth, David wanted God to have a house to dwell in.

          It was not because David wanted to put God in a box. And it was not so that the priests could stop marching the holy things all over the desert in the Middle East. David wanted to build a church so that everybody knew exactly where God was. He wanted a house for God where all of God’s people could gather for worship.

          It’s pious to want to build a church. In 1909, Immanuel Lutheran Church was built in Wells Canyon. In 1911, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was built in Moorefield. In 1913, Ebenezer Lutheran Church was built north of Curtis. In 1927, St. John’s Lutheran Church was built in White. In 1929, Zion Lutheran Church was built in Wellfleet. Five Lutheran churches were built in 20 years. Our ancestors believed like David that God should have a house. And like Nathan says this evening, “The Lord was with them” in that task.

          It’s pious to want to build a church. St. John’s was built first in 1948, and then again in 1968 and remains for us right now. Seventy-five years our church has existed in this community. God dwells here. God’s Word is taught here. God’s Sacraments are administered here. Like Nathan says, “The Lord is with us” in this place.

          And what God says to Nathan and to David is worth noting. That while God’s people left Egypt, and while they wandered in the wilderness, and while they walked around Jericho, God did not live in a house. God was with them wherever they went.

          And He is with us wherever we go too. God is still with us in Wells Canyon and Moorefield and Curtis and White and Wellfleet. He is with us at school and at work and at home. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

          But God’s Church is not built by buildings, but in human hearts. God’s Church is not built for Him to dwell here, but God has promised to build a house to live with Him forever. We build our churches for God while we dwell here below, but the builder of heaven is God. And His home will be our home. That is where He dwells and that is where we too shall be.

          For the house of God is not built of cedar. The house of God is built on God’s promises. That is why the Lord says this evening,

I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. He made a shepherd into a king. He makes farmers into Lutherans. He makes workers into Christians. Or as Jesus says it, I will make you fishers of men. The Lord calls us out of our communities and into His house. The Lord calls us away from our work and into His rest. The Lord calls us like David from the pastures to the still waters of baptism. He becomes our Shepherd, and we become His sheep.

And He promises us this: I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. Again the Lord makes this promise. I have been with you and I am with you and I will be with you. He was with us in all the other tabernacles built around this county, but even now He remains with us in our current building. This Lord who was with the people of Israel, who was with David and Nathan, has been with the people of St. John’s here in Curtis. And He is with us as we celebrate these seventy-five years of ministry. And He will continue to be with for the next seventy-five years too.

And God promises us this: I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. That name is not St. John’s or Curtis. That great name is Jesus. For the Son of David is David’s Lord. Jesus is the name we praise and bless and believe and receive. It was important for David to realize that His kingdom and His name would eventually fall and become history. Even the houses of God have come and gone. But the church in all times and places has been founded on the name of Jesus and that is what lasts forever, that is what makes the difference, and that is the kingdom that shall have no end.

What else? Rather than us building a house for God, next we hear that God will build a house for us, heaven itself. I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. Houses built by us will last for awhile, but eventually they are torn down and something new is built over the top of it. But God’s house will never be torn down. God’s house will be for His people the Church, that we will dwell with Him. That wasn’t what David was expecting, but that is what God was promising. That heaven is better than tabernacle and temple and church. Heaven will not rot or rust. God the builder has prepared a place for us where we will be disturbed no more.

For God says, Violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. In heaven there is peace. With God there is peace. There is violence in our world and it only seems to be increasing. There is war and bloodshed and sin and rebellion. But that will all come to an end by God’s will, and God Himself will protect us forever in heaven, where no violence will ever occur. The lion will dwell with the lamb and child shall be safe by the adder’s den. And you will even be able to get along with so-and-so. For the house that God makes, there are plenty of rooms and there will be so much worship. The house that God makes cannot be attacked or destroyed. God dwells in peace and we too will dwell in His peace.

It’s pious to want to build a church. And God will continue to build us up. Built on the promises of God, St. John’s is in good hands, God’s hands. What are the promises? He brings us out of the world and into His house. He is with us wherever we go. He has given us the great name Jesus who saved us. He is preparing heaven as our house to dwell with Him. And there will be peace among us forever and ever.

I remind you of God’s words this evening, Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John Lutheran Church
Curtis, Nebraska

©2024 James Peterson. 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

Second Sunday in Advent
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana

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

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

I. John the Baptist was the Last and Greatest Prophet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‌C. He became flesh and lived with us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blog Post Series

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

Encore Post: Every year we Christians are inundated with claims that December 25th isn’t the right day for Christmas, that Christianity co-opted pagan festival dates as their own, that all of the church calendar was a marketing scheme to pull pagans into different celebrations and convert them. These claims are not true. They are manufactured to sow doubt.

December 25th is a very accurate date for celebrating Christ’s birth. Christians initially celebrated the birth of Jesus on the same day as the Easter Triduum. (Triduum means three days, namely Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter). This stemmed from an early church practice of recognizing a saint’s death date as the same date of their birth. The ancients seemed to like the symmetry of it.

When Christianity began to recognize Christ’s birth as a different day, the dates in December popped up quite quickly. Hippolytus of Rome argued for December 25th, in the early 200s AD. St. John Chrysostom seems to have closed additional discussion, declaring December 25th the right date in the 300s AD. There is a reasonable amount of data that supports the claim.

Zechariah served in the temple with his kinsmen, the sons of Abijah. They served in the 8th month of the Jewish year. Nissan, the 1st month, falls between early March and early April, and identifies the moveable feast of Easter. The 8th month falls between mid-October and mid-November.

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense… And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” (Luke 1:8-9, 23-25)

After these days, Elizabeth conceived. We’ll assume an earlier date within the window, as the church fathers likely did. So, Elizabeth conceives around October 25th. Now, we leap forward to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy and find this in the text.

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Luke 1:35-40)

Mary conceives around March 25th. Then she visits Elizabeth, who is in the sixth month. John the Baptizer will be born around June 25th. Six months more will bring us to the next event.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:6-8)

Jesus’s birth on December 25th is a thoroughly reasonable estimate. Early Christians’ selection of the date of Jesus’s birth seems to have been primarily influenced by the scriptures and some simple mathematics. Now, the date may not be entirely accurate. There are around 30 days of wiggle room in the start of the calculation. But, December 25th is the right time of year. It’s at least very close to the right day, if not exactly correct, which is also possible.

While a different day could be plausible, I’d suggest that a theoretical discussion is fruitless. A claim against December 25th needs to pass three bars. Name a day. Without a particular day in place of December 25th, the discussion is moot. Having named a day, back it up in the calendar calculations. If the alternate day suggested doesn’t fit the calendar math, we’re not getting anywhere. With a day in mind and calendar back-up, cite the opinions of Church fathers. The fathers were less than a quarter of the time away from events of Christ’s life compared to us. Without the backing of more Church fathers than the Christmas Day we know, it’s just and argument for argument’s sake.

Dear Christians, let us prepare our hearts and rejoice at our Savior’s birth.

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

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

In speaking of a song or a book, we might say, “well, it’s Christian.”  Or, we might say of a potential spouse for our child, “at least they are a Christian.”  Perhaps we might glorify a church down the road, in a neighboring town, or a neighboring county, “it’s a Christian church.”  We speak as if there’s a thing, visibly, tangibly Christian without more specificity.

Dear Christians, there is no generic “Christian” church, teaching, or publishing source for books or songs.  Every church, teaching, or published work produced by Christendom flows from a sectarian root.  [Sectarian – member or adherent of a sect or division within a larger, generic whole].  Since no later than 1054 A.D., there is no unified, generic Christian whole.  In that year, the six patriarchs of the Eastern Christian church and the Patriarch (Pope) of Rome parted ways.

There were certainly schisms before that too.  Since that day though, the history of Christianity is schism.  Even within the Eastern Orthodox church, Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians and their governments will have nothing to do with each other.  We would be hard pressed to discern a difference from outside.  Even in the Roman tradition we see divisions between Eastern rite and Western rite Catholics; between pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II parishioners and priests.

Still, American non-Catholic Christians have grown nose-blind to the reality that we “protestants” are not the same either.  Even within Martin Luther’s lifetime the radical reformers rejected images, vestments, hymnody, and the sacraments.  Both Luther and the Lutheran reformers who followed him charted an initially narrow path between Rome and the Reformed Christians.

Cue the Jeff Foxworthy meme commonly shared in October and November: “If your Roman Catholic friends think you’re a Baptist, and your Baptist friends think you’re Catholic, you might be a Lutheran.”  Comedically, that meme draws attention to a glaring sectarianism within Christianity.  This may or may not be a good thing.  But, it is unavoidable.  On this side of the eschaton, we will not see a unified Christianity.  [Eschaton – end of the world, last things, end of days]

Flashing forward into the current age, all “Christian” churches come from a sectarian root.  The root does indeed matter.  A Pentecostal rooted church will look for divine revelation apart from the Scriptures and a concurrent experience of the divine to back it up.  A Calvinist Reformed rooted church will reject Jesus’ atoning death for the sins of all.  A Baptist rooted church will reject Baptismal regeneration, infant faith, the verbal absolution, and the bodily presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Each of those groups may produce a church calling itself “Christian.”  We should always ask, “what kind of Christian do you mean?”  Their position on the sacraments, speaking in tongues, the atonement, and the like will identify their sectarian root.

It’s good to be honest.  We are better neighbors to each other when our churches say what they are and from whence they come.  “Who are you and who’s your daddy?”  We all have God as our Father.  Still, our Earthly Fathers color our beliefs and teachings as grown folks.

Each town, city, and county in this nation is littered with confusingly named churches.  Whether it’s a Christian Fellowship, Cross Community Center, just Christian Church, Point of Grace Church, or any place claiming nondenominationality, know that’s just not so.  The church has a root from which they spring.  Their intent maybe to be welcoming or inclusive.  The result is a sheep-stealing mess that doesn’t say what it is.

When you see books, bible studies, and songs published by Zondervan, Eerdmans, Moody, IVP, Vladimir Press, CPH, Tyndale, Lifeway, or Ave Maria, know that they have a firmly held theological position.  The books, studies, and music they publish must fit that theological ethos.

When you engage with Christians of other sorts, know that they fervently hold beliefs contrary to your own.  In Christian love, you ought to be trying to convince them of their error.  They will certainly be doing the same with you, if they have love for you.  The scriptures are clear in their teachings.  We have the pure doctrine from the Word of God right here in the Lutheran Church.

Until the day when the Lord returns, hold fast to what you have learned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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