May the true God be glorified for His goodness

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity Sunday

Romans 11:33-36  +  John 3:1-15

Last week, on American Idol, there was a performance of a song entitled, “The Goodness of God.” It received high praise from Christians around the country. They were so astounded that ABC would allow such a “powerful worship song” to be broadcast. “God was truly glorified” by this performance, they said.

But, which god was glorified by it? If you listen to the song, it’s a lot of repetition about the goodness of “god,” without ever narrowing down which god they were singing about, and without mentioning anything that this god has done that was so “good.” The fact is, any believer in any god could sway and sing along to that song. Any listeners in the audience could imagine that they’ve had a real encounter with God, while having learned nothing about the true God. They can go on living in their sins, believing that God is so “good” that He supports their sinful lifestyle.

Now, some will object, “There is only one God.” That’s a true statement. But what some people mean by that is that anyone who claims to worship any God is worshiping the one God. They think all paths of worship lead to the true God, no matter which beliefs about Him a person holds. Each religion, in their opinion, is just as good as the next. But they’re dead wrong. As we confessed today in the Athanasian Creed, together with the catholic, that is, the common Christian Church: “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold to the catholic faith; anyone who does not hold to it whole and undefiled will, without any doubt, perish eternally.” And then we went on, in the same Creed, to explain what the catholic faith is. To summarize, we worship the one God in “threeness,” that is, in Trinity. And we worship the Trinity of God in unity. The Trinity is a reference to the three Persons whom we worship—not three Gods, but three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). We worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one God. And we worship the one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s it. And I urge you to take your Service Insert home today and read through that Creed a few times. It’s the clearest explanation of the Trinity that I can think of. We don’t have to fully understand our God, but this is how we have to know Him, because, if we know God differently than this, then we don’t actually know the one true God at all.

Now, long before Jesus spelled out the threeness of the one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Old Testament Scriptures also revealed it. In Psalm 110, for example, “The Lord said to” David’s “Lord.” That is, the Lord who is the Father said to the Lord who is the Son. And the Son said about Himself in Isaiah 61, “The Spirit, of the Lord God, is upon Me.” Did Israel notice it? Apparently not. But it was there. It was there to be more fully revealed by Jesus, the One who came down from heaven, who came from the Father’s bosom to reveal God to us.

Jesus reveals the one God who is three Persons to us perfectly well in today’s Gospel from John 3, where all three Persons are mentioned. And they’re mentioned as having, each one, a vital role in our salvation. We’re told that Nicodemus, one of the Jewish rulers, came to Jesus at night (as quietly as possible) with his question. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing, unless God is with him. Nicodemus isn’t yet a believer, but he’s heard some of Jesus’ teaching and seen some of Jesus’ miracles. And so he concludes that Jesus must have come from God. He doesn’t realize just how right he is. He thinks Jesus has come from God like the prophets came from God, as men who were sent by God. The truth is much deeper. The rest of us human beings only begin to exist when we’re conceived in our mothers’ wombs. But the Person of the Son of God existed already in the beginning with God the Father. He is the “only begotten” of the Father, born of the Father in eternity as light is born of the sun, and then, later, in time, sent by the Father into the world as a man. As Jesus says later on, No one has ascended into heaven, except for the one who came down from heaven, namely, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. Or possibly, “who was in heaven,” that is, before He became flesh. Either way, Jesus “came from God” into the world, a reference to His relationship to the Holy Trinity.

But notice what Jesus does next. As the Son who has come from God the Father, Jesus immediately points Nicodemus to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Truly, truly I tell you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus thought he knew God. And, to the extent that he believed in the God of the Old Testament, he did know God. But he needed to know God better than that. He needed to know God as the Father, and as the Son whom the Father sent into the world to save the world from sin, and also as the Holy Spirit who gives new life to those who have been born in sin. Truly, truly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The only way to see, to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus says, is to be born again. Because your first birth was only a birth into the world, not a birth into God’s heavenly family. The flesh that we’ve inherited from our parents, and they from theirs, isn’t clean, isn’t pretty, isn’t innocent. It’s wicked, twisted, corrupt, and devoid of the Spirit of God. By nature, all people are hostile to God—to the true God, I mean. Most people love the idea of “god.” Man has always sought to worship and to curry the favor of a god or gods, but not the one true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But worshiping a generic god isn’t good enough. You have to be remade, become an entirely new person, and that new life can’t come from you, as little as a baby can give life to him or herself. It has to come from above. It has to come from God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells us: Those who have been born of the flesh have to be born also of the Spirit. “Water and the Spirit,” a reference to one of the primary tools the Holy Spirit uses to give that new life and new birth, Holy Baptism, which is, as St. Paul calls it, a washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit, and “the washing of water by the Word.” The Spirit is the one who works faith in our hearts through the Word, as it’s preached by itself and as it’s connected to water in Holy Baptism. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. But just because the Spirit also gives new life through the Word alone doesn’t mean Baptism is less important or is optional. The very Word through which the Spirit works faith calls us to Baptism, points us to Baptism, and attaches promises to Baptism: the promise of the forgiveness of sins and salvation, the promise of being clothed with Christ and made children of God, the promise of resurrection to a new spiritual life now, and the promise of a future resurrection of our bodies to eternal life.

But what is it exactly that the Spirit draws us to, turns the eyes of our hearts to, brings us to trust in? To what does Baptism connect us? Jesus explains that to Nicodemus: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. So Jesus pointed us to the Spirit, and now the Spirit, through the Gospel, points us to Jesus, the Son of Man, whom the Father sent to be lifted up on a cross, so that we might believe in Him and be saved. Just as Moses long ago made a bronze serpent and lifted it up on a pole, at God’s command, so that the Israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes might look up at it and be mercifully healed by God from the venom that was killing them, so Jesus, the Son of Man, had to be lifted up on a cross, so that all the perishing people of the world might look to Him in faith and be saved—look to Him, no longer hanging on a cross, but now preached in the world as the One who gave His life on the cross and then took up His life again; preached in the world as the One whose death we are connected to in the eyes of God through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, where the name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is placed on the baptized, and the one who once was lost in Satan’s domain is rescued and given entrance into the kingdom of God.

And that’s the goal of our one God, of the Holy Trinity. That’s what the history of the world has been about. It’s why the world hasn’t been destroyed yet, in spite of people’s multiple attempts to bring the wrath of God down upon themselves with their godless behavior and their endless idolatry, with their refusal to believe the Word and to amend their sinful lives. God the Father knows that He has children who have yet to be born, and to be born again of water and Spirit, sinners who will become His children by the work of God the Spirit, who will bring them to the knowledge of God the Son, that they may not perish but have everlasting life.

We don’t talk about the Holy Trinity as a theological abstraction. No, when we talk about the Holy Trinity, we talk about the works of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit on our behalf—not three gods working together, but one God devoted to saving fallen man. One day we’ll understand our God a little better, when we see Him face to face after this life. For now, rejoice in Him as He has revealed Himself to us: as a Father who loved us and gave His Son for us, as the Son who loved us and gave Himself on the cross for us, and as the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth as children of the heavenly Father by bringing us to repentance and faith in Christ Jesus. That is the true goodness of God, of the true God. To this God alone be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

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The Spirit confirms the truth

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Pentecost

Acts 10:42-48  +  John 3:16-21

How important were the outward signs of the Holy Spirit in the earliest days of the Christian Church? We saw one example on Sunday from Acts chapter 2. We see another today in our reading from Acts chapter 10. In fact, these are the two most important texts in the whole New Testament for understanding the purpose of that particular spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. These four all-important truths were confirmed by the outward manifestations of the Spirit of Truth: (1) Jesus Christ is truly Lord of all, (2) the apostles, through whom the signs came, were truly sent by Jesus, (3) salvation is truly by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) salvation is truly intended for all nations. We see all four of those truths expressed in tonight’s reading from Acts.

Let me remind you about the context of Acts 10. The apostle Peter had received a vision from God—a vision in which God shows him all kinds of animals, clean and unclean. And He told Peter to “kill and eat.” When Peter objected that he had never eaten any unclean or “common” animal, God told him, “What God has cleansed, you must not call ‘common.’” That was God, the Holy Spirit, guiding Peter into all truth, as Jesus had promised He would. The Spirit was teaching Peter that not only were the Old Testament laws about clean and unclean no longer in effect, that God had removed the stigma of “unclean” from certain animals, but that He had also removed the stigma of “unclean” from people. In order to be “clean” up to this time, a man had to be circumcised, as all the Jews were. But no longer would that be the case. The Jews had previously considered the Gentiles to be unsaved and unsavable. But they were to think that no longer.

So the Spirit informed Peter that three men were coming to bring him to the house of a Gentile named Cornelius, a God-fearing man, but still an uncircumcised Gentile who hadn’t heard the Gospel of Christ. Peter was to go with them and preach to Cornelius and his house. What you heard this evening was a part of Peter’s preaching there, where he began by announcing to them that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He went on: God commanded us, that is, the apostles who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, to preach to the people, and to testify that it is Jesus who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins.

In that simple preaching, you have the apostle Peter’s testimony to those four truths I mentioned a moment ago. Peter claims that (1) Jesus Christ is Lord of all, (2) the apostles (including Peter) were sent by Jesus, (3) salvation (the forgiveness of sins) is by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) salvation is intended for all nations, for “whoever believes in Him.”

And then what follows is the Holy Spirit’s own testimony, through the gift of speaking in other languages, that what Peter had claimed was true: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

Notice first of all that the Holy Spirit didn’t come upon the Gentiles apart from the preached word of God, but “while Peter was still speaking these words,” He fell upon “all those who heard the word.” Always keep that in mind. The signs of the Spirit are there to confirm the word of God that is being preached.

He certainly did that here! The very same gift of speaking God’s praises in other languages that the Holy Spirit had given to the Jewish believers on Pentecost was now being given to these Gentiles who had just heard the Gospel of Christ and believed it. The same gift meant the same Spirit. And the same Spirit means the same God, the same salvation, the same status in God’s kingdom, and the same acceptance of them all as children of God and heirs of eternal life, circumcision or no circumcision. It no longer mattered at all!

And so Peter called for them all to be baptized, just as the 3,000 Jewish believers had been on the Day of Pentecost. No difference, just as Paul says to the Galatians in chapter 3: For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Forgiveness of sins is tied to Baptism, Baptism is tied to faith, faith is tied to the word, the word is tied to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is tied to Jesus, and Jesus is tied to the Father. They all go together. You should never think of one apart from the other. The only thing that you should think of separately are those external, miraculous signs of the Holy Spirit, like speaking in tongues. That was a special thing, a special gift, given, when necessary, for the sake of confirming those four truths that we mentioned, that (1) Jesus Christ is truly Lord of all, (2) that the apostles were truly sent by Jesus, (3) that salvation is truly by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and (4) that salvation is truly for all nations. Or, as Jesus put it to Nicodemus, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Amen.

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A harvest of life through the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 19, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of the Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

Pentecost was originally a sacred harvest festival, one of the mandated feasts of the Old Testament. Seven weeks after the firstfruits of the harvest were gathered, after the first sheaf of a farmer’s wheat crop was offered to the Lord, the Feast of Weeks was to take place, a feast for giving thanks to the Lord for the full harvest that had been brought in—a harvest that had been guaranteed 50 days earlier by the appearance of the firstfruits in the field.

You all know what happened on Easter Sunday. This is what St. Paul says about it in 1 Corinthians 15: But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ, the firstfruits from the dead, rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. And seven weeks later, it was time to celebrate the harvest of what He had accomplished, the harvest of the rest of the Church through the work of the Holy Spirit, a harvest of life that goes on and on until the end of the age.

Jesus had told His apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so they did. They waited, not knowing exactly how or when the Spirit would come. The events of today’s Epistle reading explain how it happened. There were three signs of His coming.

The first was the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. Unlike Jesus, who came as a man, whom everyone could see with their eyes and touch with their hands and hear with their ears, the Spirit is different. “Spirit,” as you may recall, means “breath” or “wind.” Jesus had once said to Nicodemus, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Since the Spirit doesn’t interact with us as a human being does, His presence can’t be recognized except through outward signs, much like the wind itself can’t be recognized except by the sound it makes and by the things it blows around. So the Holy Spirit used the sound of a mighty, rushing wind to signal His mighty presence among the believers in Jesus.

The second sign was the appearance of tongues as of fire, resting upon each of Jesus’ disciples. Years earlier, John the Baptist had promised that the Christ would baptize His disciples “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This was it. Not the kind of fire that burns or devours. But the kind of fire that spreads. And that fire would spread through tongues, that is, through the speaking, the preaching of the Word of God. As God had said through the prophet Jeremiah, Is not My word like a fire?

The third sign was the sudden ability of the disciples to speak in other tongues, in other languages, in the very languages of the Jews and Jewish converts who were born in other countries, but who were living in Jerusalem at that time. As we learn later, from Paul’s epistles, this wasn’t an ability to actually communicate in those languages, like when you learn a new language. It was, instead, the outpouring of God’s praises in someone else’s language. The speakers didn’t even understand what they were saying. And the point of this sign is obvious: God, in the Old Testament, had focused His attention on the Hebrew-speaking Israelites. He had given them His Word, His covenant, and His promises. The Gentiles were ignored, largely, and allowed to go on living in their wickedness and false beliefs, outside of God’s kingdom. But that would be the case no longer. No longer was God’s attention focused on the Hebrew-speaking Jews living in Jerusalem. Now God was turning to all nations, to bring everyone everywhere into the New Testament in Jesus’ blood, the covenant of the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ crucified and risen from the dead. This marked the beginning of the fulfillment of Jesus’ parable of the Great Supper, where, after the invited guests, representing the unbelieving Jews, had refused the master’s invitation, He sent out His messengers to gather people “from the highways and the hedges,” Jews and Gentiles, with no respect to anyone’s nationality, or skin color, or bloodline, or language.

The purpose of the signs was very simple: First, to notify the believers themselves that Jesus was, right at that moment, keeping His promise to send them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Second, to attract the crowds in Jerusalem to this gathering of the Christians in Jerusalem, to make them curious and desirous of an explanation. And, third, to confirm that God was indeed with these Christians, that the Gospel they preached was from God.

And so, aided by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter preached his Pentecost sermon, which I’d like to read for you in full.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem…heed my words…This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’

This, Peter says, is the fulfillment of that prophecy from the Book of Joel, that in these “last days,” God would pour out His Holy Spirit on His servants, indicating that these Christians, these believers in Jesus, were the servants of God. And you notice the references in Joel’s prophecy to Jesus’ own prophecies regarding the last days, that there would be wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood, which Jesus explains as signs of His imminent return. In other words, the whole New Testament period is being prophesied by Joel, beginning with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and lasting until Jesus comes again. This whole age is the age of the Holy Spirit, the age of the harvest of life, when the gift of salvation is being offered to all.

The next verse from Joel’s prophecy, which Peter didn’t need to add at that time but which I think the world today needs to take into account, goes on: For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls. In Mount Zion, in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, Joel prophesied. But how? What’s the connection to Zion and Jerusalem? It’s not what modern Evangelicals teach, that the city of Jerusalem is and will always remain significant in God’s plan of salvation. No, the connection is clearly to that very outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, where deliverance from sin, death, and the devil was indeed proclaimed, through faith in Jesus Christ. From there the Gospel went forth into the rest of the world. So, again, it isn’t about the city of Jerusalem. It’s all about the Gospel. It’s all about Jesus.

All Israel was invited, but not all Israel was to receive the Lord’s Spirit or participate in the kingdom of God from that point forward. Only those who believed the apostles’ preaching, who repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, and were baptized in His name for the forgiveness of sins.

I’d like to continue with more of Peter’s sermon. Listen carefully to how he preached to the people of Israel that day:

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it… This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear…Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

And that’s the summary of the whole Gospel. Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, repent! Repent of all your rebellions against God, of all your failings, of all your breaking of His commandments, and of the prideful trust in your own works to save you, and believe instead in the Lord Jesus who was crucified as the atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins but has now been raised from the dead and reigns at the Father’s right hand. Be baptized in the name of Jesus, the Christ whom God the Father sent, and believe that that baptism in Jesus’ name is for the forgiveness of sins, that God, whom you have offended with your sins, has punished His Son for them, and is now offering to wash them all away and to claim you as His child and to bring you into His kingdom. And know that, as a baptized child of God, you will never again be alone. But, as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a home with him. The Father, the Son, and, as Peter promises, also the Holy Spirit will make a home with you. God will give you the gift of His Holy Spirit.

That isn’t a promise that you’ll speak in tongues. It’s a promise that the Holy Spirit will dwell side by side with your spirit, to preserve you in the faith, to guide you in understanding God’s Word and in applying it to your life, to urge you constantly to live a life of obedience and love, to fill you will courage, comfort, joy, and peace. Not the world’s idea of peace, where you don’t have any problems or conflicts in your life. But Jesus’ version of peace, where you can face any problem and any conflict because you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and you are on good terms with the One who is in charge of the universe and of the future.

So praise God today for the Day of Pentecost. Praise and thank Him for including you in His great harvest of life. And make every effort to walk each day in the peace that Jesus has given you, and in the faith and love that the Holy Spirit has worked in you and will continue to work in you. Amen.

 

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Soon Babylon will pay

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Easter 6

Isaiah 47:1-15

Isaiah 47 is all about the fall of Babylon. Which is striking, when you think about it, because, when Isaiah wrote these words, Babylon hadn’t yet become a world power, much less had they done anything to the people and city of Jerusalem. And yet, before Babylon even rose to power, Isaiah prophesies her downfall.

“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.”

The Lord speaks to Babylon as He sometimes speaks to Jerusalem, as the virgin daughter of the king, a noble and prestigious position. And just as King David’s virgin daughter Tamar, once tender and delicate and clothed in a many-colored robe, went away and sat in ashes and mourning after she was violated by her brother Amnon, so God tells Babylon that she will soon be violated, too, and would end up sitting on the ground, in the dust, when the city of Babylon fell to her coming invaders, the Medes and Persians.

Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will spare no one.”

The enemy of God’s people would be reduced from the status of virgin daughter of the king to that of a slave, living in shame and disgrace. And it would be the Lord’s doing, His vengeance on those who dared to oppress His people.

Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, is the Holy One of Israel.

When these things happen to Babylon, Israel will rejoice in God her Savior and will boast about her God, her Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. What a change, what a great improvement from their former idolatry and rebellion against the LORD of hosts! His punishment of them in Babylon will accomplish its purpose, to wake them up from their shameful idolatry and wickedness, so that they could again acknowledge the goodness and mercy of the Lord.

“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms. I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

The Lord explains to the Babylonians beforehand that it was He who would allow them to defeat His people, who would enable them and permit them to destroy Jerusalem and take them captive. He was justly angry with them for their wickedness and rebellion. But that didn’t give the Babylonians the right to treat the Israelites poorly in their captivity. We aren’t told the specifics about the abuses that took place against the Jews in Babylon, but clearly they were not treated well. The Babylonians didn’t think they’d ever have to answer to anyone for how they treated God’s people. But they were wrong.

“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’;

Notice how God describes the Babylonians. Given to pleasures. Dwelling securely in their wickedness. Fooling themselves into thinking that no one could ever defeat them, including God Himself, could ever overthrow them from their elite position. Doesn’t it sound just like the powerful people of the world today, the people of our own country?

But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.

Destruction is coming on the proud enemies of God. Total, utter destruction. And here the Lord adds another component of their wickedness: Their “sorceries and enchantments.” You see, they believed in the supernatural. They acknowledged that there were forces in the universe beyond human ability. But seeking supernatural help or advice anywhere but from God alone is one of those things that will eventually bring down God’s wrath full force on the practitioners of sorcery or witchcraft.

“For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

Again, does this sound familiar? You have trusted in your wickedness. Whether it’s sorcery or sexual promiscuity, whether it’s climate activism or abortion activism, or evolutionary propaganda, there is an elitist condescension toward Christians in the world. The unbelievers boast of their wisdom and their knowledge. But the same thing is true today of our culture and of most cultures of the world as was true of the Babylonians: “Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you.”

Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

The divine Judge pronounces sentence on the oppressor of His people. Evil. Trouble. Desolation. It would come upon them unexpectedly, and that’s just what happened in 537 BC, when King Belshazzar was indulging in his sinful feast, and the writing appeared on the wall. Daniel told him what it meant, that Babylon was about to fall. And that same night, King Belshazzar was slain, and the Medes and Persians overthrew the city of Babylon.

“Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

The Lord taunts the Babylonians, who had trusted in their sorcery and astrology, much like the prophet Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. The lesson for all of them was the same: it’s foolish to trust in false gods. When the Lord decides to act, either to deliver His people or to destroy His enemies, no one can stand against Him.

Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before! Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.

Thus the Lord finishes His pronouncement of judgment on the Babylonians. The whole chapter was a harsh, unrelenting rebuke of those who would mistreat His chosen people in the future, with no hope of salvation for them whatsoever.

As you know, the Book of Revelation contains very similar language, against Babylon. John says this about Babylon: In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire. John proclaims the fall of Babylon, though no longer the literal Babylon that lies along the River Euphrates, but the figurative “Babylon” of this New Testament period. That Babylon is represented, first, by Rome as it led the way in the early persecutions against the Christian Church, and then also by Rome as the seat of the papacy which so terribly oppressed the Christian Church with its false teachings and tyrannical abuses. And now it has come to represent every enemy of Christians, especially the governments of the world, and every false-teaching anti-Christian institution in the world, that oppresses, persecutes, and mistreats the true children of God, all while claiming to be wise and knowledgeable, noble and prestigious, and unable to be toppled by anyone, including God.

But the dire prophecy of Isaiah 47, combined with the Book of Revelation, paints a very different picture for the enemies of Christ. Just as literal Babylon fell with a great fall, suddenly and with overwhelming destruction, so, too, every human institution that opposes Christ and His Church will fall, by God’s own design and doing.

Until then, let us live humbly, trusting in the Lord’s promise to come and save us at just the right time. And let us love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, as Jesus instructed us to do. But let’s not do it believing that the world may, at some time, cease to be our enemy. Some who are enemies now will surely be converted into friends before the end. But Babylon itself won’t be converted. And Babylon won’t fall, until it does, when the Lord Jesus comes for judgment, and His angels proclaim the glad tidings, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen! She will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.” Amen.

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The testimony about Jesus and its consequences

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Exaudi – the Sunday after Ascension

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

For forty days the Paschal candle was lit during our services here, until it was extinguished this past Thursday when we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven. As I said after the service, it seems a little strange, not having it lit anymore. Imagine how Jesus’ disciples felt during those strange ten days between Jesus’ Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It was a strange time of limbo, a time for those 120 Christians to do little else but pray and wait.

The eleven apostles didn’t know how long they’d have to wait, but they knew, more or less, what they were waiting for. They were waiting for the Helper, for the Holy Spirit to come to them. They were waiting for what Jesus’ promised: for the testimony of the Holy Spirit—the testimony about Jesus!—and for the beginning of their testimony, too, and for the terrible consequences of it that Jesus referred to in today’s Gospel. That testimony now belongs to us, to the Church that’s built upon it and that still holds it out to the world. That means that the consequences of the testimony also belong to us. But so does the help of the Helper.

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit after His ascension. He would send Him “from the Father,” because that’s how it works in the Holy Trinity. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, but also from the Son, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, in the sense that the Son is responsible for sending Him into the world from the Father. The Spirit’s work is to testify. But this is important: Notice what the content of His testimony is: “He will testify about Me.” The Spirit’s testimony is about Jesus. He tells what He has seen and heard about Jesus, and, as a Person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit knows Jesus perfectly. He testified about Jesus throughout the Old Testament and throughout the New. When He spoke by the prophets in the Old Testament, the focus was always on the coming Christ. Now it’s on the Christ who has come. Any supposed testimony of the Holy Spirit that doesn’t focus on Jesus, or that doesn’t tell the truth about Jesus, isn’t coming from the Holy Spirit, but from an unholy spirit.

How would the Spirit of truth testify about Jesus? He would do it in three ways. First, through signs and wonders and various miracles, starting with the miracles of the Day of Pentecost which we’ll consider next week. It was about Jesus, because those signs were always connected to the apostles’ preaching about Jesus, the message that He was the promised Christ, that He suffered for our sins, that He was raised to life for our justification, that He has ascended on high and reigns over all things at the Father’s right hand, that He will return one day for judgment. This outward testimony of the Spirit was important as the apostles began to spread the Gospel throughout the world. But it was temporary; that testimony has been given. It’s done.

There is another testimony of the Spirit, in the hearts of the apostles, enabling them to teach (and to write!) about Jesus correctly. He guided them into all truth, as Jesus said He would. He emboldened them to preach the Gospel of Jesus with new-found courage and conviction—just as He had done, by the way, with the Old Testament prophets, as Peter writes: the Spirit of Christ who was in [the prophets] testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

Then there is the testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of the hearers of the Gospel as He works through the preaching of the Word, enabling the hearers to believe and understand the Gospel of Jesus. As Paul writes, No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And again, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, enabling us to cry out to God as our dear Father. You can be confident that, whenever the Gospel is preached, the Spirit is there with His divine testimony, working to convict, to convince, to comfort, and to strengthen our faith in Jesus.

But the Spirit doesn’t testify alone. It’s always connected with that preaching. Jesus goes on in our Gospel, And you also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. These words aren’t spoken to all people. They’re spoken to the apostles who were “with Jesus from the beginning.” Theirs is the eyewitness testimony, the testimony on which the Church is founded, together with that of the Old Testament prophets. And, just like the Old Testament prophets, the apostles recorded for us the very words that the Holy Spirit gave them and has faithfully preserved for us in the holy Bible.

You and I cannot offer such testimony. We were not eyewitnesses to everything Jesus said and did, or to His death, or to His resurrection. We can testify to the faith that each of us has in that testimony. We can and should tell the world that we have been convinced that the apostles’ testimony is true, and that Jesus is risen and reigning and returning. But when we invite people to church, when we invite people to know the Lord Jesus, we’re not inviting them to come and hear our testimony. We’re inviting them to come and hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the testimony of the apostles (and prophets), through the Church that has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief Cornerstone.

The testifying that the apostles would do was essential. Without it, there would be no Christian Church. But their testifying would not be without consequences. And Jesus wasn’t about to hide those consequences from them.

They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming, when whoever kills you will think he is rendering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father nor Me.

If the Holy Spirit was testifying about Christ in the Old Testament, and if He would continue that testimony in the New Testament era, then you see that the Old Testament Church is really the same Church as the New Testament Church. But, as Jesus predicts here, most of the Jewish people would reject Him and His apostles after Him, proving that they never really knew God the Father rightly, that their version of the Jewish religion was a sham. And they would keep up the sham. They would keep their synagogues. They would hold onto customs and rituals and traditions of the Old Testament. But their Christ-less religion would not tolerate the preachers whom Christ sent out. The synagogues should have naturally turned into Christian churches when the Spirit and the apostles testified there, but instead, the Christ-less Jews would excommunicate the Christian Jews from the synagogues. And they would go further than that. They would persecute and execute the apostles and many who believed the testimony of the apostles, thinking they were serving God as they did it. But they weren’t serving God, Jesus says. They have not known the Father nor Me.

Now, you and I can’t be put out of the synagogues. We didn’t grow up attending one like the apostles did. (Like Jesus Himself did!) But the testimony about Jesus that we believe, the testimony about Jesus that we confess in the world, still draws hatred from Jews and Gentiles alike.

I recently read about a Christian pastor in a foreign country (somewhere in Asia, I think) who requires people to answer a set of questions prior to being baptized. The first question on the list was, “Are you willing to be put to death for being baptized as a Christian?” Another question: “Are you willing to be mocked and ridiculed in the marketplace for being a Christian?” Another: “Are you willing to lose your job for the sake of Christ?” Another question: “Are you ready to be disowned by your father?” I want you to really think about those questions, and your answer to them. Because, over the centuries, Christians have had to face some or all of these consequences for their testimony about Christ. It’s not unexpected. It shouldn’t be unexpected. Remember that I told you beforehand, Jesus says. And when it happens, we shouldn’t be like the student protesters this week who went on a hunger strike…and then complained about how unfair it is that they’re hungry. No, when it happens, before it happens, before you spend another day calling yourself a Christian, you should know what it is you’ve signed up for (or will sign up for).

Who would testify about Jesus, knowing that consequences like these will follow? Only those who believe that Jesus rose from the dead and lives and reigns forever at the Father’s right hand. Only those who believe that heaven is our home and that even death can’t rob us of our eternal life with Christ our Savior, who suffered the same things for us, that we might be saved from sin and death. Only those who know that the consequences of not testifying about Jesus are far worse than the consequences of testifying about Him. Because if we don’t testify, who will? And if no one does, who can be saved?

It’s a lot to ask, a lot to expect. If only we had a Helper to guide us, to strengthen us, to comfort us through it all, to testify along with us and to shore up our testimony? Ah, but we do. The Helper has come, and He is still here. And next week we’ll celebrate the day of His coming. May the Helper, the Spirit of truth, grant you all the help you need, to believe in the testimony about the Lord Jesus and to confess Him before the world, no matter what the earthly consequences may be. Amen.

 

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