Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, November 9th

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

1 Corinthians 15:11–50 (NKJV)

11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. 29 Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? 30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? 31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” 33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. 35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” 36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

1st Corinthians 15 is “the great resurrection chapter” and is often quoted at funerals because in it, St. Paul presents the fact, nature, and comfort of the resurrections for us as believers in Christ.

First, Paul must establish the fact of the resurrection, since then as now, skeptics abound. So, he asks rhetorically, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (12). These two facts cannot coexist—that Christ is raised but there is no resurrection of the body. So, which is it? Answer: vs 20, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Now for the nature and comfort of the resurrection, Paul says: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (22). Luther explains: “Here St. Paul is still speaking only about those who are Christians. These he wants to instruct and console with this article. For although also the non-Christians must all arise, this will not be to their comfort and joy, since they will arise for judgment and not for life. Therefore to hear this article does not bring comfort and joy to the world and the ungodly people of today either.… It is not surprising that such people are annoyed to hear of the blessed resurrection; for us, however, it is pure joy, because we hear that our greatest Treasure, over which we rejoice, is already in heaven above, and that only the most insignificant part remains behind; and that He will awaken this, too, and draw it after Him as easily as a person awakens from sleep” (AE 28:114-15).

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Wednesday, November 9th

Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, November 8th

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Matthew 22:23–33 (NKJV)

23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24 saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27 Last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Religious hypocrisy abounded in Jesus’ day; it abounds in our day as well. In Jesus’ day, the Sadducees were the hyper-liberal religious leaders—controlling the temple and the Jewish council. Being materialists, they did not believe in the supernatural, but saw Jesus as a threat to their cash-flow and power, especially after He turned over the money-changer tables in the temple court. So, they come to Him and pose a question about resurrection because they do not believe in resurrection. They are trying to make Him look foolish, but Jesus turns that table on them as well. He tells them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (29). Then Jesus explains both Scripture and the power of God to them as though they were foolish little school children. They claim to believe in the first five books of Moses, but they demonstrate that they do not believe what these books actually say about God and His power. In this way Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, and He vindicates the hope of God’s people in the resurrection.

Likewise in our day, many claim to be Christian and even want to be leaders in Christian churches, but they fail to believe in basic biblical truths like the resurrection of the dead. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy as well when He says, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (29). We, however, who have faith in Him and His word, know both Scripture and the power of God to raise the dead. He raised Christ from the dead, and we too will be raised from the dead, even as Christ promised us, “Because I live you also will live” (Jn 14:19).

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Tuesday, November 8th

Each Day in the Word, Monday, November 7th

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Matthew 24:29–51 (NKJV)

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days… they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (29-30). Jesus gives us a general description of His second coming but does not give us the exact timeline for it. In fact, He tells us repeatedly to stay ready for His return for the precise reason that we do not know when that will be, and that He will come at a time that we “do not expect” (44).

When He does finally return, we can rejoice, as He sends His angels to gather us from all points on the globe. He promised to rise from the dead, and He vindicated His word when He rose from the dead; and He promised to return, and He will vindicate His word when He returns, because His “words will by no means pass away” (35).

For those of us who have received His salvation in faith, Jesus’ return is accomplishing our full salvation, but for the impenitent, His return is a fearsome prospect of judgment. The signs of His return will be unmistakable. Thus, the need is not to predict the time of His return, but always to stay ready for it by living in faith in Him.

Christ tells us that His return will be sudden, and since we cannot calculate when that return might be the only option we have and His instruction to us is to eagerly watch at all times for His imminent return. This means we are to constantly live in our baptism daily, repenting of sin daily, and receiving His forgiveness daily. As with His supper, so with His return, only by living in faith are we “truly well prepared” to receive Him.

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Monday, November 7th

Beware of idols in all their forms

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for the Third-to-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

We began our service today with a happy thing, with the baptism of another soul into our Father’s family, into Christ’s kingdom, into the Holy Christian Church. The Gospel you heard today from Matthew 24 wasn’t filled with happy things, though, was it? Jesus didn’t always speak happy and comforting words. He has lots of things to teach His disciples (then and now) after they are brought into His kingdom through Baptism and faith, things that aren’t happy and joyful but serious and urgent, so that we can be happy with Him for eternity. We have to hear everything He says, and that includes the hard things.

It was a hard saying of Jesus that He spoke to His disciples during Holy Work as He warned them about things to come. Some of those things would come to pass literally, in the actual city of Jerusalem, within the next several years. But some of them would happen figuratively, within the figurative, spiritual Jerusalem that is the Christian Church on earth. To sum it up, an abomination will be set up in Jerusalem and a time of great tribulation will come upon God’s people. We must be ready to flee from the abomination and endure the tribulation until Christ returns at the end.

An abomination is something that God hates, and throughout the Old Testament it’s used as a synonym for an idol and for the practice of idolatry. We’ve been talking about this particular abomination for several weeks now in Bible study. Daniel is the one who first prophesied this “abomination of desolation” in chapter 9 of his book, an abomination that would be set up “on the wing,” which we’ve identified with the most famous wings in Jewish history—the wings of the cherubim overshadowing the ark of the covenant in the heart of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus confirms that interpretation by saying that this abomination will be set up “in the holy place.”

The idolatry that was literally set up in literal Jerusalem, in the literal temple, were the sacrifices, prayers, and offerings that the Jewish people made to God after the Day of Pentecost, in rejection of Jesus as the Christ. After His death on the cross, as the one divinely accepted payment for sin, after His resurrection from the dead, after the Gospel of salvation through faith in Christ was preached, Jerusalem as a whole said, “We don’t want it. We don’t want any of it. We want to approach God under the covenant He made with Moses, on the basis of our obedience to the Law. We want nothing to do with this Jesus.” And so their worship became the worst kind of idol in God’s sight. An idol that bears God’s name, but that bears it falsely. An abomination. The destruction that the Roman armies brought on Jerusalem in 70 AD was the desolation that was caused by the abomination that was Jerusalem’s rejection of Jesus.

The Lord foresaw all of that, and so He warned His dear Christians to flee Jerusalem, to flee to the mountains, to flee urgently from the city when they saw that the abomination (the idolatry of Jewish worship that rejects Jesus as the Christ) was firmly set in place, because He knew how bad things were going to get when the Romans finally came in with their armies. He also knew that fleeing wouldn’t be easy, that leaving the holy city would be hard, that life “in the mountains” wouldn’t be pleasant or comfortable, because a great tribulation was coming on the world over the next few centuries, not only in the destruction of Jerusalem, but in the Great Persecution of Christians and in the rise of all kinds of false teachers over those next few centuries. The Christians at that time needed to be prepared for how bad things were going to be. And they needed to be reassured that those days would be cut short for their sake; it wouldn’t go on like that forever.

And, to be sure, there was widespread peace for the Church after Constantine legalized the Christian religion in 313 AD. The Great Persecution was over. But, as often happens in times of peace and prosperity—as happened over and over again in the Old Testament—the people of God grow soft and complacent. They begin to enjoy this life and the things of this life too much. They move away from their dependency on God’s Word and Sacraments. And that’s when error and corruption and all kinds of evil are allowed to spread.

And so the stage was set for another abomination of desolation to be set up in the holy place. This time, not Jerusalem or its temple, but in the Holy Christian Church, which is God’s true temple on earth. Idolatry was officially promoted in the way Christians were taught to pray to the saints who have fallen asleep, to expect help from the sleeping saints, to sacrifice the body and blood of Christ in the Mass, to view the Roman pope as the Head of all Christians and to view his teaching as more authoritative than Holy Scripture, to believe that sinners are not saved by faith alone in Christ Jesus. These are just some of the idols that were set up in the holy place of the Holy Christian Church. They are the abominations of the institution referred to in Scripture as the Antichrist.

But the Antichrist isn’t a single person. For some five hundred years, Lutherans have identified the primary manifestation of the Antichrist in the Roman Papacy that endorses and promotes those forms of idolatry I just mentioned, and that, centuries ago, persecuted and killed those who disagreed. And so, for some 500 years, we are those who have fled from Rome to the mountains. We couldn’t stay in communion with Rome, nor can we go back to Rome. We can’t stay and share in her prestige or her glory, because destruction is coming upon her.

But the influence of Antichrist isn’t restricted to the Papacy. It’s all the setting up of idols that takes place within the Christian Church, where faith in Christ and the Word of Christ are substituted with something else. Protestants, who have no outward allegiance to the pope, have set up plenty of idolatries in the Christian Church, too. Women pretending to serve as pastors, contrary to God’s Word. Homosexuality endorsed and approved as acceptable and God-pleasing. Denying the saving, regenerating power of Holy Baptism. Denying the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The worship of man, the worship of personal preference, the rejection of the holy ministry, and the elevation of church bodies and synods to the place of God in people’s hearts. These are just a few of the abominations that have been set up in the Christian Church. All of these things are antichristian idolatries. To remain in communion with those who promote any of these idolatries is to remain in Jerusalem after the abomination of desolation has been set up.

And so we must always be as those who are fleeing to the mountains. That doesn’t mean we stop going to church, though. On the contrary, it is still God’s will to create faith and to forgive sins only through the ministry of the Word, through preaching and through the Holy Sacraments. It is still God’s will to save sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified for their sins and by sustaining faith through His Means of Grace. And it’s still God’s will that Christians gather together to encourage one another, and all the more as we see the Day of Judgment drawing nearer. God will most certainly keep us safe from death and the devil as we flee from the idolatry of the Antichrist in all its forms.

But fleeing to the mountains means we have to give up all our idolatries, too, and keep giving them up, because idolatry is like the mole in the whack-a-mole game. Smack it down in one place, and it pops up in another. We’ve given up the prestige and the comforts and the conveniences of a larger church in order to remain faithful to the Word of Christ. But we could easily start to exalt ourselves and become prideful, or loveless, or we could cling desperately to the external things we still have. We could easily grow more attached to the things of this world than to the Word of Christ, which would mean forfeiting all the benefit of fleeing the abomination of desolation in the first place.

But to guard us against that, God continues to provide for us here in our flight. The Gospel is still being proclaimed in our midst, where the Holy Spirit calls us daily to repentance through His Law, comforts us and forgives us through His Gospel, hedges us in with His warnings to beware of all those false christs and false prophets who will seek to distract us along the way. “Here is Christ! Over here! Over here!” You know how confusing the religious scene is in our world. So confusing, so lonely, and so disheartening that even the elect are close to being deceived, as Jesus said we would be.

That would be more disheartening if we were truly alone. But we aren’t. Not only does the Lord Jesus accompany us always, to the very end of the age, but there are countless others around the world who have also fled Jerusalem and are living as spiritual refugees. Some of them we know, some of them we don’t. But we give thanks for them all, for the true believers in the world.

And all of this would be scarier, too, if Jesus hadn’t told us it would be this way beforehand. But He did. Right here in our Gospel. And He promises that it will be all right, and better than all right for those who cling in faith to Him above all things. We may be living as those who are fleeing, but God is with us as we flee, our Captain, our Defender, our Savior. He hasn’t sent us out of the city empty-handed, but has poured His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, and has given us His Word and His body and blood for food, and His righteousness for a cloak.

And at just the right time, the carcass will appear—the body of Him who was dead, but now lives again forevermore. And when He appears, the eagles will gather around Him, all those who have longed for His appearing. Paul described that in today’s Epistle: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The words of Jesus today paint a frightening picture, but not so frightening when He promises His help and a blessed ending for His Church, for His believers, for His saints. Cling to that promise! Beware of idols! And wait patiently here in the mountains for the Lord’s return! Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Beware of idols in all their forms

Each Day in the Word, Sunday, November 6th

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Tom and Karen Klumb

Revelation 19:1–5 (NKJV)

1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! 2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”

“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!’” (1). The great multitude of the saints of God have been praying, “Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory”; and once they are in glory, as the Church triumphant, they joyfully proclaim the salvation that is now theirs—secured by Christ and received through faith in Him. That proclamation will be ours as well when we are transferred from the Church militant to the Church triumphant.

That proclamation also refers to the “true and righteous” judgments of God, who at the end of time, will judge the impenitent for their sins and avenge His servants. The good news of the book of Revelation is that no matter how dark our times may appear on this earth, God does in fact Rule all things behind the scenes, and He will ultimately bring all things under His direct control.

Smoke from the incense of the prayers of the saints previously ascended to God pleading for our salvation from the oppression of those who oppose God, and now we see that in the end this smoke will be replaced by the smoke from their destruction which “rises up forever and ever!” (3).

Thus, we may look forward to our joining the heavenly choir, singing the praise of God for saving us and completing justice on the impenitent who had oppressed us in this life. Christ ultimately shares His victory in heaven with those of us who have shared His suffering here on earth. For this reason, we can praise Him even now as we look forward to praising Him forever!

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, show your mercy to your humble servants. We put no trust in our own merits. Do not deal with us with your judgment, but with your forgiveness; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Devotion | Comments Off on Each Day in the Word, Sunday, November 6th