The Lord will send a savior, and The Savior

Posted on June 5, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 1

Isaiah 48:12-22

Chapter 48 of Isaiah is the 9th and final chapter in this first set of 9 chapters in Isaiah 40-66. Remember there are three units of 9 chapters each in these 27 chapters. Last week, in the first half of Isaiah 48, we contemplated the Lord’s harsh rebuke of impenitent, idolatrous Israel, of those who were Israelites in name only, and we took a warning from it for ourselves. But the second half of the chapter has a much different tone, with pure comfort for the penitent and a reference to the coming Christ, a fitting way to end this 9-chapter unit.

 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. God speaks to those whom He has called. He called the people of Israel through their forefather Israel. In a similar way, He has called Christians through the Christ. And He reminds us all who He is: the First and the Last, who was there before mankind ever came to be and who will still be standing when all those who scoff at Him return to dust. He is the only true God, the Creator of all things, who speaks to the stars in the vastness of space, and they do His bidding. This is the God who speaks to you in the Scriptures, who issues commands, who makes promises, who calls you to repent, to believe, and to obey.

Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. Once more, the Lord calls on Israel to listen carefully to what He has been prophesying over and over in these chapters: that He would send a hero, a savior named Cyrus to rescue them from their future captivity in Babylon, and that Cyrus would be successful against the Chaldeans, another name for the Babylonians.

I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit. The pronouns are a little challenging in this section, but if you work through it, it makes sense. I, that is, the Lord, have spoken and called him, that is, Cyrus. But then the Lord says, “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret.” Those are the very words Jesus quoted when He was speaking to the Sanhedrin on Maundy Thursday. “From the time it came to be I have been there.” That sounds much like what the apostle John writes about Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word.” And finally, the clearly Trinitarian words, “And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.” Clearly this is the Person of the Son of God speaking, not just a savior, like Cyrus, but THE Savior promised to fallen mankind. And since the Spirit, together with the Father, has sent the Son of God, the Spirit is rightly called “God,” together with the Father and the Son, because only God can send God into the world.

So, tucked into this closing chapter of the first unit of Isaiah’s prophecy, there is a reference to the greater salvation that God will accomplish for Israel and for all men, the sending of His Son into the world to be the true Hero, the true Savior.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” Most translations treat these verses as (what we call in grammar) a contrary to fact conditional, “If only you had listened, then you would have prospered. But you didn’t, so you didn’t.” But the context suggests a better translation. “If only you will listen, then you will benefit! Then your peace will be like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Then your offspring will be like the sand. Then your descendants will never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.” Because God did prosper the people of Israel who listened to His words through the prophet Isaiah. He did bring them back to their homeland, and increase their numbers, and preserved them for another 500 years, until the Christ came. Now, at that point, following their rejection of Christ, at that point the words of Isaiah do become a contrary to fact conditional. If only you had paid attention, Isarel—if only you had believed in Christ Jesus—then you would have prospered. But you didn’t, so you didn’t.

But now Isaiah is speaking to the captives in Babylon: Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. He talks about their redemption from Babylon like their redemption from Egypt a thousand years earlier, because, in both cases, they had to cross a desert to get to the Promised Land. But in both cases, the Lord rescued them from their captivity and provided for them along the way.

As He promises in the New Testament, as He pictures for us in the book of Revelation, the Lord will do the same thing for His Holy Christian Church that languishes now in captivity to the figurative Babylon, to the world powers and to the antichristian forces within the false Church, that oppress the true Church in so many ways. It’s almost as if we’re living in a desert now, not just the deserts of New Mexico, but in a Christian Church that has largely been deserted, abandoned, with scarce resources and very little influence in the world. But soon the Lord will come and rescue His people and cause us to prosper in the heavenly Promised Land, if only we’ll keep listening to His Word and believing His promises!

Isaiah concludes these 9 chapters with the same sentence with which he concludes the next set of 9 chapters: “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” We need to remember that. Our world needs to hear that. The God of heaven denounces as wicked many of the things that this world celebrates, including the celebration of perversion going on right now in what they call “pride month.” There is no peace for the wicked, only God’s wrath and anger and eternal punishment. As long as a person remains in wickedness, that is, as long as a person refuses to repent of his wickedness, and turn away from it, he will never have peace with God. So God’s message to the wicked is not, “Peace! Do whatever seems right to you!” No, it’s, “Repent while there’s still time! And know the peace of Christ Jesus, who suffered at the hands of the wicked, so that the wicked might turn in humility and faith to the One who has made atonement for their sins.” Because, while there is no peace the wicked who remain in their wickedness, there is perfect, eternal peace for all the wicked who repent and believe in Jesus, which, in the sight of God, brings them out of the ranks of the wicked and into the ranks of the righteous. Amen.

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Heaven and hell and who goes there

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 1

1 John 4:16-21  +  Luke 16:19-31

We talk quite a bit in the Church about heaven and hell. They’re important topics. But the truth is, the Bible doesn’t describe either place in much detail. We’re left mostly with little pictures or references to each place that rightly cause us to long for heaven and to fear hell. Today’s Gospel, the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus, gives us one of those pictures. As is often the case, Jesus has two groups of people in front of Him—believers and unbelievers—and the unbelievers, we’re told a few verses earlier, are a group of Pharisees who were “lovers of money.” So let’s walk through the parable together this morning and ponder what Jesus has to say about heaven and hell and who goes there.

We’re told first about the rich man, to whom Jesus doesn’t give a name. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he feasted lavishly day after day. We’re not told that he was a violent man, or that he was hateful or mean or arrogant or any kind of lawbreaker. All we’re told, so far, is that he had a really good, comfortable life, and that he enjoyed it to the full. And we’re given to understand one other thing. It becomes clear that he knew Lazarus, the poor man lying at his gate every day, by name, and that he never offered him even a crumb of what fell from his table.

Then we’re told about the poor man, whose name Jesus does give us: Lazarus. Lazarus was poor. He was full of sores. He apparently couldn’t walk, because other people had to lay him every day at the gate of the rich man. He longed for those crumbs from the rich man’s table which he never received. The only kindness he received was from the dogs who came and licked his sores.

Finally, the poor man died. And his soul was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. Abraham’s bosom is a fitting way to describe heaven in the context of the Old Testament religion of the Jews. Abraham was the original recipient of the Old Testament. He was promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens. And he was promised that through his seed, that is, through the Christ who would one day be born of Abraham’s descendants, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Every one of the Jews believed that Abraham’s soul was resting comfortably in Paradise with the God in whom he had believed. Every one of the Jews longed to join him after this life, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, as Jesus once put it. And Lazarus, the poor man, was there.

The rich man also died. But his soul was not carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. His soul was sent to hell, where in the midst of his torments, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus lying in Abraham’s bosom. He longed for just a drop of water from Lazarus to cool his tongue in the midst of the flames, much like Lazarus had longed for just a crumb from the rich man’s table. But, whereas the rich man could have shared those crumbs during his earthly life, there was nothing Lazarus could do for the rich man. Abraham explains: Son, remember that you received your good things during your lifetime, while Lazarus received bad. But now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot, nor can they cross from there to us.

Can the souls in heaven and hell really see each other and communicate with each other as it happens in this parable? Probably not. But the point of this parable isn’t to answer that question. It’s to highlight some other important things. For one, the good things we have in this life can be shared, while the good things in the next life can’t be. For another thing, having good things in this life is no guarantee of God’s favor, or of good things to come in the next life, just as having a bad life here on earth is no guarantee of God’s disfavor, or of bad things to come in the next life. On the contrary, many of the rich (though certainly not all) are rejected by God, and many of the poor (though certainly not all) are accepted by Him. And since the things of the next life are eternal and unchangeable, the most sensible thing to do is to seek God’s favor in this life, so that you aren’t left longing for a drop of water in the next.

And that gets into the more important question: Whom does God accept and whom does He reject? Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? The rest of the parable reveals a little of the answer.

Accepting his own fate, the rich man’s thoughts turn to his brothers who are still alive. Then I ask you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house. For I have five brothers—that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. The rich man isn’t completely devoid of love, as one might expect from a soul in hell. He has some love for his brothers. He doesn’t want to see them end up with him in torment.

Abraham replies, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them! And that’s the answer, at least in general terms. Whom does God accept and whom does He reject? Who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? The answer is to be found in Moses and the prophets, that is, in the Old Testament Scriptures. And what do they say?

In the first book of Moses, we hear of humanity’s fall into sin and the resulting condemnation of death. In the first, second, third, and fourth books of Moses, we hear how God began to carry out His plan to redeem fallen mankind, a plan that focused on Abraham, and the people of Israel, and the covenant God made with them. In the second book of Moses, the Ten Commandments are listed. In the fifth book of Moses, he commands: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength… The poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’ Clearly the rich man in Jesus’ parable hadn’t opened his hand wide to his poor brother Lazarus. Why not? Because he clearly didn’t love the LORD his God with all his heart, or else he would have cared what God had to say. In other words, he had no faith in the God of Israel, and was, therefore, unconcerned with love for his neighbor, which flows from faith. He was an Israelite, a son of Abraham. But his was an empty religion, a dead religion.

Not that he could have been saved if he had shown enough charity. As it says in the Psalms: In Your sight, O Lord, no one living is righteous. There is no one who does good, no, not one. And in the prophets: We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one has turned to his own way. No, Moses and the prophets reveal the great problem of mankind: All have sinned, and no one does enough or can do enough good things to make up for his sins, to earn God’s forgiveness for the evil he has done and for the good he has still failed to do.

But Moses and the prophets reveal other things, too, don’t they? In the first book of Moses, God provided a solution to man’s sin. He said to the demonic serpent: The Seed of the woman (the Christ) will crush your head, and you will bruise His heel. When it came to the rich man Abraham, it wasn’t his generosity with his riches that brought him into God’s favor. On the contrary, it says that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was righteous in God’s sight by faith in God’s promises. But because Abraham believed God, he was also ready to obey God. Throughout Moses and the prophets, the Christ is foreshadowed and foretold as the One who would bear our sins in His own body, suffer and die for them, and make atonement for them, for the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all… No one who believes in Him will ever be put to shame. And then, to those who believe in the Lord God, the prophets say, Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate.

That’s all the rich man’s brothers needed to hear. The whole plan of salvation is laid out in the Old Testament Scriptures. Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? In summary, all men, as sinners, deserve to go to hell and are already on the path to the flames. But God would send a Savior, Jesus Christ, to suffer for our sins, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Those who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of their sins and are gifted a place in heaven. Those who believe in Him will live each day in repentance and faith and will seek to do good to their neighbor, being sanctified in love by the power of the Holy Spirit. But those who don’t believe will be condemned. And the lack of love in their lives and their lack of obedience to God’s commandments will betray the lack of faith in their hearts.

Now, as an unbeliever, the rich man was unconvinced by Abraham’s answer about listening to Moses and the Prophets. He said, No, father Abraham. No, Moses and prophets aren’t enough. My brothers will never listen to them. But if someone were to go to them from the dead, they would repent. But Abraham knows better. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then they will not be persuaded, even if someone were to rise from the dead. And, sure enough, within a very short period of time, possibly only a couple of months, Jesus would raise a man named Lazarus from the dead. And he would tell people about Jesus being the Christ. But most of the Jews would still refuse to believe. Why? Because they hadn’t listened to Moses and the prophets, who all foretold Jesus’ coming and the truth of justification by faith alone in Christ Jesus. And because they didn’t believe in Jesus, their love of money and their lack of love for their neighbor were also evident, as we see in the Gospels time and time again.

The Pharisees failed to learn from the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus. But you—you can still learn from this parable. If you’re poor, don’t despair! Repent of your sins and disobedience and trust in the Lord Jesus! Then, be satisfied with the very little you have, and be careful not to covet the things you don’t have. And know that, even if your circumstances never improve in this life, they will improve immensely in the next life, when the angels carry you to Paradise. If you’re rich (and most of us are, by Biblical standards) don’t despair! There’s still hope for you! Repent of your sins and disobedience and believe in the Lord Jesus! And then, be very careful not to become absorbed in the enjoyment of your riches, so that you neglect all the opportunities the Lord lays before your gate to spend your money on things that will last, on helping your neighbor, and especially your brother or sister in Christ.

Heaven and hell are real places, and your stay in one or the other will be permanent. So don’t let yourself get caught up in the things of this world, whether good or bad. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. Faith and unbelief can’t be seen, but the works that flow from each can. The one who believes will also love his brother, as the Lord has commanded. The one who doesn’t believe won’t care what the Lord has commanded. When your last hour comes, may you be found among those who believe, among those who have listened to Moses, and the prophets, and the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone is eternal salvation and entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

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The Lord rebukes those who are Israelites in name only

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Holy Trinity

Isaiah 48:1-11

We continue this evening with our walk through the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah. Surely you’ve noticed by now that, at times, the Lord speaks very tenderly to the believing remnant of Israel in these chapters, and, at other times, in scathing rebuke toward the unbelieving majority. We can’t just listen to the pleasant words; we must also listen to the harsh. And the first half of chapter 48 is one of those harsh, scathing rebukes of Israel. Oh, the Lord God would still rescue them from their captivity in Babylon. But He wants them to understand that He’s doing it for His own name’s sake, in faithfulness to His own promises and for the sake of His own plans and designs for the good of those who will believe, not for the sake of those who stubbornly remain in impenitence and unbelief. Because the people of Israel, as a whole, even back then, were Israelites in name only.

“Hear this, O house of Jacob, Who are called by the name of Israel, And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; Who swear by the name of the LORD, And make mention of the God of Israel, But not in truth or in righteousness; For they call themselves after the holy city, And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name:

As we said on Sunday morning, it’s not enough to believe in “a” god. In order to escape death and spend eternity in the presence of the true God, you have to know and believe in the true God,  in the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In these verses before us, we see that saving faith in the true God involves calling on His name “in truth” and “in righteousness,” lest you be an Israelite—or a Christian!—in name only. In other words, you can’t just be a member of a church, or go to church, or call yourself a Christian. You have to have a penitent and believing heart that actually turns away from sin in disgust, and that relies on the true God and seeks mercy and forgiveness from Him, for the sake of Christ. That’s what it means to be a Christian “in truth and in righteousness,” as Isaiah puts it here.

But that wasn’t the case with most in Israel, especially before they went into captivity in Babylon. They still practiced circumcision and went through with most of the temple rites and rituals that God had commanded. Like the Jews in Jesus’ day (and in ours!), they made much of being Abraham’s descendants and of being the people of God’s covenant, and of Jerusalem being the chosen city. But, as Isaiah had said earlier in his book and as Jesus once said of the Jews in His day, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” At that time the Visible, outward Church of Israel was mostly made up of hypocrites, of non-believers in the true God and in the promised Christ. It was because of them that all Israel had to go into captivity in the first place. Take the warning that God gives you here and watch out of this kind of hypocrisy. Because it’s all too easy to be a Christian in name only, too.

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it…Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.’

God reminds the people of Israel that He had foretold many parts of their history, including their rebellion and the coming exile. He told Abraham ahead of time about their four hundred years in slavery in Egypt, and about His promise to rescue them from it. He told the Israelites at Moses’ time about how things would go for them in the conquest of Canaan. He told them ahead of time what it would be like when kings would finally rule over them. He told them about the coming of the Assyrians to wipe out the northern kingdom. And He told them long ago, through Moses, and again through Solomon, and now very specifically through Isaiah, about the eventual exile of Jerusalem and Judea.

And why did He tell them, knowing that most wouldn’t heed the warning? For the sake of those who would! And also, as God says here through Isaiah, so that they could never come back and say, “It was my idol who has done all these things.” Because He knew how twisted they were—just as twisted as the people today who look at the universe and say, “God didn’t do this. Chance did it! Evolution did it! Some other god did it! My science will tell me who did it!” Even though God told us long ago in the Holy Scriptures the things that He has done, the things that He would do, and the things that He will do. He even told the world ahead of time many of the details surrounding the first coming of Christ. And now He has told us that Christ is coming again soon for judgment. Who will take it to heart?

“You have heard; See all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, Even hidden things…And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’ …For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, And were called a transgressor from the womb.

Now, through Isaiah, God is offering new information. Not just a coming destruction of Jerusalem, but the identity of the destroyers, namely, the Babylonians. And He’s also giving them new information, not just the fact of a coming exile, but the length of it—70 years, as Jeremiah would specify—and also who would bring an end to that exile, namely, Cyrus, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and her temple. He’s also about to give them specific information about the coming Christ—about His suffering, death, and resurrection. Again, God will not allow His glory to go to an idol, nor will He leave any room for the Jews to take the glory to themselves for all this. No, God alone deserved the glory.

“For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, And for My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.

“For My name’s sake,” God says, I will defer My anger. Israel deserved to be completely wiped out for all their rebellions against God. But He had made some promises to them, promises that had to be kept, a plan that had to be carried out. He still had to bring His Son into the world, through Israel, through David’s descendants. Jerusalem still had to exist. And, at about the same time Isaiah wrote his prophecy, the prophet Micah was announcing the birthplace of the Christ in Bethlehem. So, no, God couldn’t wipe out Israel yet. For His own name’s sake, He would preserve them long enough for the Christ to come, so that He could be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

God says here that He will not give His glory to another. He won’t share it with idols. He won’t share it with Israel. But He will share it with Jesus! Jesus said, the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. And He once prayed, And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Those words of Jesus, combined with God’s words here in Isaiah 48, are some of the strongest testimonies in the whole Bible that Jesus is Jehovah God, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

So even in this harsh rebuke of the unfaithful in Israel, we see God’s grace revealed to the faithful remnant, and we also see God’s own determination to bring His Son into the world, even through these rogues in Israel who bore the name of Israel, but bore it in name only.

Today, the nation of Israel doesn’t even call itself by God’s name anymore. Because, since the coming of Christ, the name of God necessarily includes the blessed Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—a name which the nation of Israel utterly rejects. Today, it’s the Christian Church that bears the name of Christ, and those who call themselves Christians are, outwardly, the people of God. So I call upon all of you Christians, who have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Make sure that you bear the name of the triune God in truth and in righteousness, in daily contrition and repentance, with genuine faith in the Lord Jesus, and with righteous lives that truly reflect the righteousness that is yours by faith. The Lord rebukes those who are Israelites—or Christians—in name only. May you not be found among them, but among those who bear God’s name in truth and in righteousness. Amen.

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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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