“A Blessing That Lasts”

/in /by

Author: John H. Boggs

Passage: Numbers 6:24-26

Date: June 15, 20205

I’ve used the NPH book “Sermon Texts” a lot in ministry. It not only brings you through the proposed texts & readings for Sundays of the church year, but also includes suggested texts for special festivals. The “Easter” section is full of suggestions, as is “Christmas” & others. “Trinity Sunday”, though, is a little light on texts. There were a few I looked at and thought, “that might work”, but nothing really jumped out. Thankfully, when I dug a bit deeper my search was complete as I turned to Numbers 6 (read text). While there are others that would do, the words before us are perhaps the PERFECT passage for Trinity Sunday. Why? Because, it includes A Blessing That Lasts, sharing 1) A promise of protection; 2) A gift of Grace; & 3) An Assurance of Peace- All of which come from Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.

Israel was one year removed from the first Passover in which God freed them from Egypt’s slavery. They had crossed the Red Sea & been recipients of water from a rock and manna from heaven. They had witnessed God flex His muscles against their foes. Now they camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai, where they would receive His expectations in the form of the 10 commandments. It’s here where he would also reveal Himself as LORD- the God of the covenant who loved them, who would protect them, who would bring them much more than they deserved. This same LORD told Moses, “‘Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites’”. What follows is a blessing so powerful it has stood the test of time & is how God’s called NT servants dismiss their people, as well.

There is no missing the mystery of the Trinity in these verses. Three blessings, each specific to the part the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit play in the lives of God’s people. The Father’s work is evident in vs 24, “The Lord bless you and keep you.” Whether OT or NT ears, what a privilege to hear these words spoken! Martin Luther writes in his explanation to the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that God created me and all that exists, that He gave me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.” My how the Lord has blessed us! In different amounts; in different ways; but He has blessed us- The house which keeps us dry. The car that’s faster than walking. The ability to provide for self & others. The blessings of sight, learning, comforting, leading, following- the list goes on. Take a second and think how God has blessed you… amazing. There’s more, though, “The Lord bless you and keep you” We pray to our heavenly Father in the prayer He taught us, “Deliver us from evil.” We ask Him to keep bad things away from us, to deliver us from them when they do come, to make them work out for our good and to His glory. And He does! The One who created all things, the One who parted seas and provided for 2 million people wandering through the desert cares about each of us so much He not only blesses us beyond imagination, He protects us when Satan, this world, & even our sinful selves get in the way. That’s God our Father.

The blessings keep coming in our text, “The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;” I love the personal nature of the words here as we see the work of our Savior, Jesus, “The Lord make His face shine upon you.” I’ve gotten away in my ministry from using the phrase “What would Jesus do.” I understand what it means and that it was popular years back. When I look at my life, though, and ask WWJD & then compare that to myself, I’m horrified. I picture Jesus looking at me with his face downcast like a hurt mother or disappointed father. I ask myself WWJD and it’s so often not what I’ve done or contemplated or spoken. Oh, how I don’t deserve the blessing in this verse. And yet Jesus loves the unworthy. He loves the unlovable. He loves those who deserve wrath. God the Father is seen in the first verse of our text as LORD, “Yahweh”- the God of an undeserved, one-sided covenant. How much more for the second member of the Trinity we worship. It’s the same love revealed in Exodus, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (34:9-10) As if this weren’t enough, we also hear, “The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;” Luther states that this Jesus “has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” 1500 years before that Good Friday outside the gates of Jerusalem, we today- at the foot of Mt. Sinai- see the effects of our Savior’s love, “The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.” That’s what undeserved love does! It looks on us & doesn’t see our warts and all. It sees us as blood bought souls because of the One who laid down His life for us. It sees us as new creations, as heirs of eternal life.

Finally, the Aaronic blessing concludes with the words, “The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” The Holy Spirit often gets the short end of the Trinity stick, doesn’t He?! I know He gets Pentecost, but throughout the Church year, Christians focus more on the work of the Father & Son than this “behind the scenes” member of the Trinity. Not today, though. The One who both creates faith in us and strengthens this faith through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament is revealed as we hear the timeless truth that God does indeed ‘turn His face toward us.” Luther continues, “But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” There is nothing worse than when you are talking to someone and they- either because of anger, boredom, or distraction- turn away to focus on something else. Wow is that frustrating. It’s also something that never happens in life for those who call on the name of the Lord! The faith created in our hearts by Water & the Word gives us access to a God who never sleeps, vacations, or gets bored with ‘turning His face toward you.” Think about that- the Creator of the universe, the Savior of our every sin, partners with the Holy Spirit to answer our every prayer, to conquer our every fear, to be attentive to our every need. Only because this is true can we hear the final words of our text, “The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace”- Peace in the middle of a messed up marriage; peace bigger than a hurting back or body ravaged by cancer; Peace when sleep deprivation hits us or financial crisis is an everyday reality or when life seems to either be passing us by or hitting us in the face again and again. This peace that the triune LORD gives us assures us that in Him we can handle any situation. And why?! For the same reason Paul could proclaim, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This blessing of peace is not built on me, myself, & I. It’s built on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I’m going to read the words of our text again with the understanding that the original Hebrew uses the 2nd person singular every time the word “YOU” is said. Hear these words spoken directly to you today, dear friends. Know this blessing first spoken 3,500 years ago is just as valid today as it was at Sinai. It’s a blessing powered by our Triune God- Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Hear these Words and know that this same God continues to shower His love on you and gives you His peace (read verses; end with “That is the Word of the Lord- AMEN.”)

A Perpetual Promise

/in /by

Theme: A Perpetual Promise                                         

Text: Matthew 28:20b (EHV)

Pastor Souksamay

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come. – Rev. 1:4

Dear friends in Christ,

“And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” (v.20b) These are some of the last words our Lord spoke before his ascension back to heaven. It is the culmination and completion of his life here on earth. And how would you describe that life on earth? God became man for us. God the Creator lived among his creation for some 33 years. During that time the Almighty did not always reveal his almighty power and glory. Rather the Sinless walked among sinners, looking like any mere mortal. He was tempted. He suffered abuse and rejection from those he came to save. He endured misunderstandings and misconceptions from friends and foes alike. He was betrayed, he was denied, he was ridiculed, he was abandoned. Even God the Father forsook God the Son as he hung on the cross to redeem us. That was our Lord’s life on earth.

I.

But now in this one verse, our Lord’s earthly pilgrimage is coming to a glorious conclusion. He has risen victorious from the dead. He is ready to ascend back into heaven: his human and divine natures still perfectly and forever connected. So, Jesus, our Lord, true man and true God, ascends back into heaven. This is how it should be. All is right for him now.

Aren’t you happy for our Lord? At last he will receive there in heaven what he should have always had. His human nature will share in the glory that his divine had before the beginning of time. No more holding back or hiding his almighty power and glory. No more walking among sinners but in heaven only being among saints and angels. No more temptations but in heaven perfection, sinless. No more abuse and rejection but glory everlasting. No more betrayal, no more denial, no more ridicule, no more abandonment, no more forsaking. Never again will he hang on that dreadful, terrible cross. He will now and forever enjoy the songs of the saints and the accolades of the angels. For all of this, aren’t you happy for our Lord that he has ascended back to heaven?

Yes … and No. There is one part of us that can say, “Yes. Good for you, Lord Jesus! This is right! You will finally be where you belong!” But now, there is the other part of us that says “No,”, the other part of us that is also a little bit sad. For don’t we also say this about our Lord’s ascension? “But now we cannot see you, Lord. If only you would stay just a little while longer, just as long as we are here on earth. It would be easier then to overcome our own temptations to doubt and all the other temptations that plague us our whole life long. It would be easier if you were still here with me.” We are sad, we don’t want him to go because we still need him and miss him: our Lord and Savior.

But our Lord Jesus anticipates this sadness. He knows that sadness and so he gives us these few words. Some of the last words he spoke while on this earth. And as always when he speaks to us it is with compassion, with love, with comfort … so astonishing and so far above anything we could have asked for or imagined. We see that already with that one word translated: “Surely.” It can also be translated: Behold, see. It’s a word used to make us stop and get our attention. For Jesus is about to say something important.

II.

After getting our attention, he simply says in today’s sermon text, “And surely I am …” “I am” What wonderful grace! What matchless love! Wouldn’t you think that our Lord would be glad to be rid of us? It is after all, for us and our sins that he came down to earth and endured: temptation, abuse, rejection, misunderstanding, torture, torment, that terrible cross, that death. Wouldn’t you think that he would be glad to be rid of us? But no! What does he say? “I am.” Who is that? He is our God and Savior, true God and true man. In his person as God and as man, he has all the attributes of God, including omnipotence, being all-powerful; that is, he miraculously and according to both his divine and human nature is wherever he chooses to be. He is God. Nothing is impossible for him. Nothing – neither time nor space – can limit or contain him in any way. So what he says here will come true? And what does he continue to say?

“And surely I am with you …” “With you.” Wow. With that phrase the gospel of Matthew ends where it began. Matthew’s first OT prophecy about the Savior was recorded in Matthew 1:23. There Matthew quotes from Isaiah 7:14. Remember that passage? “‘Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,’ which means, ‘God with us.’” WOW and what does Jesus promise here? What does Matthew end his gospel with?  “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with telling us about Jesus and his relationship to his people. He is God with us.  He came down to earth to live with us and to live for us. So even this ascension, as in all things with our Lord, all he does is for you, for me, for us! He did not ascend to leave us as orphans. He did not ascend to be rid of us. He did not ascend so that in eternity, he could forget about us. He did not ascend so that the noise of the world would be drowned out by the songs of the saints and the accolades of the angels. No, it’s just the opposite. He ascended for you, for me, for us. He ascended … so that he could and would always be with us.

And here’s the special thing about his always being with us. His presence, his being with us, is not a fractional or divided or partial presence. His words are plain and clear: “And surely I am with you …” He, who does not lie and can never deceive, gives us this amazing, perpetual promise. When you get up in the morning and go to bed at night and during every moment in between, before, and after, Jesus is there with you. He is there not partially, but wholly and completely he is there. For that’s who this “I” is: Jesus, true God and true man, one undivided person. Even before you pray at meal time, “Come, Lord Jesus,” Jesus is already there. When you open your Bible to read it, Jesus is right there with you. When you enter his house to worship, it is Jesus who invites you; it is Jesus who speaks to you in the order of service, in the readings from his Word, and in the sermon. When you come to his table, it is the real, the true, the living Jesus, true God and true man, who reaches out to you and feeds you with his real body and true blood. When you rejoice on good and healthy days in the company of friends and family, Jesus is there to share in the joy he has given you. When you are tempted and fall into this or that sin, Jesus is right there to pardon and forgive. When you sigh in sorrow over living a life in a sinful world, Jesus is right there to sustain you in his life. When you are hurting or in pain, it is Jesus who is right there with you to help and to heal. When you feel all alone and wonder if anyone is who cares, it is your Lord and Savior right there with you. When you need him the most, he is still there. “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.”

Could there be anything more compassionate, anything more loving or comforting than that? His presence and his attention to you and to your needs is never interrupted by a phone call. No text message takes his eyes off of you. No phone notification takes his focus off you. The doorbell doesn’t ring to take him away from you. For your God, there is no one else more important than you. How amazing is that! How rare such attention is among us! His love and devotion is perfect, is constant, is without interruption. What could be more astounding! “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” This perpetual promise is exactly that: everlasting, always until the end of the age. These words are for you, for me, for us, for always, forever. They are our constant comfort as long as we are here on this earth … until we see Jesus face-to-face. So until that day, let’s conclude today with a prayer from the sainted Professor Daniel Deutschlander. He wrote:

“Preserve me to the end of my pilgrimage and in the hour of my death let me ascend to the home your work has prepared for me and that your Word has promised me.” In other words: Lord be with us now until we are with you forever. AMEN.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.

Listen, Live, & Let Loose: Worthy is the Lamb!

/in /by

Passage: Revelation 5:11-14

Date: May 4, 2025 (Confirmation Day)

Author: Pastor Horton

Have you ever experienced great excitement?  It was an exciting night a week from Thursday in Green Bay, WI.  The NFL draft took place and I can’t even imagine hearing your name called and walking out to hundreds of thousands of people cheering for you.  I can’t imagine the excitement.  What a celebration!  We often celebrate when big life events take place: acceptance into the college you were hoping for or that job promotion you’ve been wanting, or a wedding day.  These things bring about great celebration.  And then there are those things in life that make you incredibly happy: achieving a life goal, finding pleasure in music or nature or friendships, or spending time with loved ones (yes, pets count as loved ones).  These things may bring us great joy.

Excitement.  Celebration.  And joy.  I hope on this day of your confirmation you are feeling some of those things: excitement, celebration, and joy.  Why?  Well, because of the One who sits upon the throne of heaven.  The One who is able to receive all “power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”  The One who has made your Confirmation Day possible for you.  So as we approach our reading: Listen.  Live.  And Let loose.  For Worthy is the Lamb!

As you listen to that reading from Revelation, what do you hear?  The verbally inspired author, John tells us what he hears,  “I heard the voice of many angels who were around the throne and around the living creatures and the elders.  Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands upon thousands.”  There’s a party going on; on this your Confirmation Day!  We here in church are singing but we are also joining together with hundreds of millions of saints as well as with hundreds of millions of angels cheering, praising, and breaking into song for the Lamb on the Throne. 

But that is what we are told in these impactful and encouraging words from John, the disciple whom Jesus loved.  Listen!  The Lamb on the Throne is in control of all things including your life!  And believers need to be reminded of that.  Remember, the Christian church at that time of this writing was going through it.  About 60 or 70 years after the ascension of Jesus, the force of the Roman Empire was now being brought against the Christian faith.  Sporadic persecutions were erupting.  Popular opinion in  the world was turning against this Christian faith that disrupted Roman lifestyles and empire worship practices.  Would they survive?  Remember it was to these hurting people that this last letter of the Bible, Revelation was written. And remember in the opening chapters of the book, how some of those young Christians were losing their love of the gospel?  How some were growing lukewarm in their life of faith – to the extreme of Jesus ready to spit them out of his mouth?  And how some looked alive spiritually but were dead inside?  This letter was Christ’s gift to people running low on hope.  Just as much as any other, this book of the Bible is written to give hope.

And we need this secure hope built on Jesus and guaranteeing us salvation through his righteous blood.  Because sometimes we lose hope.  We lose faith.  We lose trust.  Sometimes the world will overwhelm you and apply pressures from the outside and your hearts will face temptation from within.  The devil is a deadly adversary and know that he will  do all he can to poison the well of your soul with doubt, and with despair.  And there is still the matter of your old Adam, which will want to do its own thing and go its own way – in defiance of the loving path God lays out before us.  There will be moments for you that are far removed from the excitement, celebration, and joy of your Confirmation Day – times when you are running low on hope.

“Listen” Jesus says to John and to you and to me, “take your eyes off your fallen world and your sinful self and look at what is coming!  For what we have here will only lead to despair and destruction and death.  But look at the life that is coming through Christ!  Listen to the shouts and cheers of praise!” 

Instantly John is transported to the throne room of heaven.  He sees God the Father there. And around him, as he describes the scene, are a crowd of countless angels, then 24 elders, and finally four mysterious beings, perhaps the cherubim the prophet Ezekiel had seen, but called here: “living creatures.”

Seated on that throne in the middle of the crowd, God holds a scroll.  The scroll is sealed.  This is the message John has been summoned to hear.  “But” John says, “no one in heaven or on earth… could open the scroll or even look inside it.  I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.”  At first it sounds a little silly: crying because you can’t open a letter.  But remember: this is the message he has been called upon to hear.  Imagine a final message from a loved one, a special farewell video you simply could not open.  That would be incredibly sad.

“Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep!  See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”  Which brings us to our verses.  Listen to the excitement, celebration, and joy of the hundreds of millions who were there: “They (the angel hosts)) encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Praise be to the Lamb.  Worthy is the Lamb!  Far better than walking out to the draft day crowds, here is an unexpected source of hope.  Not a fierce gladiator or a merciless tyrant, but a Lamb.  And not just any lamb, but a Lamb that looks like it has been slaughtered; his wounds still visible in the perfect holiness of heaven.  Now hopefully you (confirmands) have learned who this Lamb is and why he looks like he has been offered up in death.  We just sang “Crown him the Lord of love — Behold his hands and side, Rich wounds, yet visible above, In beauty glorified.”

Praise be to the Lamb!  His glory, in heaven “for ever and ever”, will be that he has died for us.  Think of it!  Jesus did a lot of miraculous things while on earth.  He taught many wonderful things.  But his glory is that he died to pay for our sins.  He did what we could not.  He opened heaven’s doors.  Our salvation comes through him alone.  That is what our youth have been taught here at our church and school, it is what we all know by the gift of faith thanks to the activity of God the Holy Spirit, it is what our former family members who died in the Lord now get to celebrate in glory, and it is what one day we will get to see and sing alongside the heavenly hosts.

Worthy is the Lamb!  Listen to the truth of your salvation.  And then live it with your Lord Jesus.  There will be times you will have spiritual highs.  Today, your Confirmation Day may very well be one of them.  You hear what in our reading?  The joy of heavenly victory.  You are ready and eager to charge out into the world with Jesus.  But then the realities of this world and the lack of perfection which exists in you and in me have a way of dashing those heavenly hymns to pieces.  There are times the world says it knows better than God and we listen.  And there are times we are not doing our confirmation best, and get bogged down in our own muddy sinful struggles.  There are times the devil is able to trip us up.  Then, oh, Lord, especially in those times, but always, show us our salvation in Jesus, pick us up in your forgiveness, brush away our sins, cleans us by your blood, take us under the arm and help us put one foot in front of the other in those ways you would have us go, ways that honor you and reflect our thankfulness and joy in being yours.

Help us to always listen to you.  Help us always to live for you.  And then, dear Jesus, help us to let loose great praise and adoration to your name now and forever in heaven!  John tells us more about worshiping the worthy One in heaven, “I also heard every creature that is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.”  And then, cascading “Amens” of praise are sung forever in the throne room of our Lord!

Worthy is the Lamb!  Dear confirmands old and young, the same One who knew you before creation, and claimed you as his own in your baptism waters, and who blessed you and kept you in the faith, will now strengthen and guide you all your days, and will nourish your soul with forgiveness, life, and salvation in his supper, and will see you safely home.  And one day, purely by the grace of God given to you by Jesus, the worthy Lamb on the throne, as your earthly walk of faith comes to a close, you will get to see that scene that John saw, and hear those millions of angels and millions of saints, and you will get to let loose with your own song of praise in excitement, celebration, and joys unending.  For worthy is the Lamb.  Amen.

Seeing does not equal believing

/in /by

Passage: John 20:24-29 (EHV)

Pastor Souksamay

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come. – Rev. 1:4

Dear fellow believers as we continue in the Easter season,

The world has done a big disservice to Thomas. What I mean is this. When you think of the apostle Thomas, what is the first thing you remember? Probably this account from John, and the nickname that Thomas now has: “Doubting Thomas.” We even use that name for anybody who refuses to believe anything to be true unless they see it for themselves. But there is more to Thomas’ life and even more to this account than just the doubting. Now we can’t justify everything that Thomas did here, but the one thing that I want us to take away from this gospel account today is this: seeing does not equal believing.

I.

Where we are in Scripture is the evening of that very first Easter evening. The apostles were behind locked doors that evening. They had seen the Jewish leaders kill their leader on the cross, just three days ago. They were probably afraid that they would be the next to die. But also that whole day, they had heard rumors and accounts from other followers of Jesus. These reports told the apostles that Jesus was alive and had even appeared to some other believers. But the apostles did not believe them. In fact, when some of the women, who had gone to the tomb and had seen Jesus, reported what they saw, we are told this about the apostles, “Yet these words seemed to them like nonsense, and they did not believe them.” (Lk 24:11) But then Jesus appeared to the apostles personally, and they did believe. But we are told that one of the apostles was not there: Thomas (v.24) Thomas means “twin” so most people assume he was a twin. 

But in any case, since he was not there, the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” (v.25a) Can you imagine their excitement?! The entire emotional roller coaster they had been on since the previous Thursday when Jesus had been arrested and they had all fled. Think about all those events. Jesus dying on the cross. Them fearing for their own lives. All the rumors and reports of his resurrection. Then Jesus appears to them too. Everything was alright again. They tell that to Thomas, to help him through his own emotional roller coaster and what does he say? “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.” (v.25b) Can you imagine the let down the other apostles had at this reaction? 

But then we are told that one week has passed. Maybe during that whole time, the other apostles kept telling Thomas it was true: Jesus had arisen. Maybe Thomas kept insisting he wanted personal proof. But anyways, a week later, they are all together again, including Thomas. (v.26a) And again, although the doors were locked, Jesus again entered the place where they were at. (v.26b) And he says, “Peace be with you!” (v.26c) The common way of saying “hello” among the Jewish people, and also what Jesus gave to his apostles because of his death and resurrection: peace between God and us.

But the thing that Jesus says next is even more shocking than him entering a room through locked doors. For Jesus then turns to Thomas and says, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Take your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue to doubt, but believe.” (v.27) Why is that shocking? Jesus was not in the room when Thomas said similar words one week earlier. But Jesus still knew what Thomas had asked for and he actually tells Thomas to do what he asked. He wants Thomas to place his finger into Jesus’ side, see the nail marks on his hands. Jesus wants to have Thomas stop doubting that he has actually arisen and … believe. 

But my counting this would be the 3rd miracle that Jesus performed that evening. First he entered through locked doors. Second, he appears before all of them again, showing he had risen from the dead. And third, he talks to Thomas and knows exactly what he had said and wanted to do, even before Thomas says it again. With all of those miracles, Jesus was again showing Thomas and the other disciples who he is. 

That is why Thomas then makes that glorious confession, “My Lord and my God!” (v.28) He saw the proof. He saw all he needed to see. He calls Jesus who he actually is: the only Lord and God. His only Lord and God. He calls Jesus the two most common names for the true God in the Bible: the Lord, reminding us that he is faithful; and God, reminding us that he is powerful.

And then Jesus has the last word, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (v.29) He has a subtle rebuke of Thomas’ doubting, but I also always loved this one verse because it is one where Jesus is actually and directly talking about you and me. We are the ones who have not seen him and yet have believed. Unlike Thomas: seeing does not equal believing for you and me.

II.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I think the world has done a disservice to Thomas. He is only remembered for his doubting in this gospel account, but he also has one of the best confessions of any of the apostles’ or any other believer in the Bible. He says to Jesus: My Lord and my God. Those words of his, recorded for the rest of time, in God’s Word, tell us exactly who Jesus is: the true Lord and God. What a legacy for this apostle!

The world has also done Thomas a disservice by nicknaming him: “Doubting Thomas.” Remember Thomas was not the only doubter. At first, the other apostles doubted that Jesus was alive when the women told them. They only stopped doubting when Jesus appeared to them, and they saw him personally. Same with Thomas. 

But even those apostles are not the only doubters when it comes to Jesus. So were all of us. I mean just think about it logically for a moment. What would it take for you to believe something is true, anything? What would it have taken for us to believe that Jesus was actually alive, if we had seen him die on a cross? What does it take today for people to believe that Jesus is the true Lord and God? What did it take for you?

If it was left to us, why would any of us believe that Jesus is the true Lord and God? What did it take for you to believe that the Bible’s account of the world is true and not the Big Bang Theory? What did it take for you to believe that Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and no other reason? What did it take for you to believe that God destroyed the world with a worldwide Flood and not believe the world that denies a worldwide flood? What did it take for you to believe that God himself was born in a manger in Bethlehem 2000 years ago and not just another baby? What did it take for you to believe that Jesus lived a perfect life for you and not just for himself? What did it take for you to believe that Jesus actually died on a cross and didn’t just faint or something like that? What did it take for you to believe that his death was for our sins and for no other reason? What did it take for you to believe that Jesus actually rose again from the dead, no matter what the world thinks or says? What did all of this take for you to believe all of it?

It took the only true Lord and God to create that faith in you, that belief that he is who he says he is. That just goes to show you the truth of Jesus’ words in the last verse today. None of us have ever seen Jesus, but we still believe. That just goes to show you that Jesus is the only true Lord and God. He is our Lord and God too. For who else could overcome our doubts and make us his believers!? Who else could make us believers, indeed, people who have not seen, but yet have believed!? 

Jesus overcame Thomas’ doubts and he continued to be a faithful disciple of the only true Lord and God. And if tradition is correct, he even carried the message of Jesus all the way to India and died there for his faith in his Lord. What a way for a man to live his confession that he made here. What a way for Jesus to still use this former doubter in his kingdom. Just like Jesus does with all his believers, with you and me as well. AMEN.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.

It is Hidden Even in the Savior’s Triumph

/in /by

Date: April 20, 2025

Passage: Matthew 28:1-10

Pastor Horton

CHRIST IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!  Listen to the angelic report, see Jesus alive through the gospel, and let your hearts be filled with joy!  A few verses from Matthew: “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.”  So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them.  “Greetings,” he said.  They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.”

Could there be a more glorious day than this?  What could compare?  Maybe that first day of creation, when God simply spoke and created time and space and all matter out of nothing?  Or, maybe the fourth day was more glorious, that day on which God, just by his Word, created the sun, the moon, and the stars and flung them into the vast universe with their positions and courses that they hold to this very day?  Was that day more glorious?  Well, no!  A thousand times no!  For as glorious as that was, such actions for God were as easy as you taking off an Easter coat on this chilly morning and throwing it down on the pew!  Ah, but this day!  This day will shine forever and ever in its glory and in its importance.  Now wait, what about the Last Day, the day when Christ will come again with all the saints and angels, the day on which all will rise from the dead and face the judgment seat of God?  Is that day more glorious than this one?  Oh, no!  Again, a thousand times no!  For if not for this day, that future day would not be glorious to us at all.  If not for Jesus’ resurrection, that Last Day would only be filled with horror and terror unimaginable as we stood before God’s proclamation of condemnation.  No, this day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, is by far the most glorious day in all of time and in all of eternity.

May you grow to love and treasure this day as the greatest day – a day more glorious than your birthday, your wedding day, the day of your child’s birth, and even than that of your own entrance into heavenly glory.  All through Lent we have been looking for the glory hidden on the cross.  And now on this day, that glory reaches a pinnacle! 

And yet, even on this most glorious of days, the glory of Christ remains hidden.  Did you catch it?  Who appears as glorious in the gospel lesson?  It isn’t Jesus!  It’s an angel.  The angel descends from heaven, knocks open the grave, and sits on the stone.  Where is Jesus?  He has already done his great works hidden from sight!  On Easter Sunday his body and soul were reunited in the grave.  No one saw it.  On Easter Sunday, as St. Peter reports in his epistle, the risen Christ descended into hell and proclaimed there his great victory over sin, death, and Satan.  No one on earth heard the shrieks of rage and the vain howlings of the devils that day.  That glory was hidden.

The only one that appears glorious in Matthew’s gospel is the angel who rolled away the stone.  His appearance was like lightning, and his face, white as snow.  And the glory of the angel made an impression!  Those tough soldiers who knew how to stare death in the face were no match for the glory of the angel.  Stunned and terrified, they fell to the ground like dead men.  When the women arrive at the tomb, the soldiers have apparently recovered and run into the city to report to the chief priests.  The angel is still there, but it is his message that is far more glorious than his appearance. “Go in and look,” he tells them. “See, he is not here in the house of the dead.  He has risen, just as he said he would.  Go and tell the disciples.”

Now, truth be told, in all of this great excitement, maybe we might feel a tinge of disappointment?  Don’t we want to see Jesus front and center on this day of days?  Don’t we want to see him shining brighter than the angel?  Trouncing the powers of hell before us and making those Romans run?  Don’t we kinda want to see him looking the way he will look on the Last Day and as John saw him in the opening chapter of the book of Revelation with blazing eyes and roaring voice?

No!  Instead we see his glory from the vantagepoint of the women at the tomb.  Jesus appears to them – yet with his glory hidden!  And thanks God for that, if the sight of angel caused soldiers to fall down like dead men, what, then, would become of us if we would see Jesus in all his resurrection glory?  Freeze in terror?  Die of fright right on the spot?  But no.  This is a day for gladness.  Unlike mere mortals, Jesus has no need to make sure that everyone is impressed by his might and his majesty.  This day is a day of joy for our Savior to comfort our souls.  The women have no dread, no fear, no terror.  They run to him, not away from him.  They fall down before him in worship and adoration.  Their joy cannot be contained.  How they must have drenched the ground with their tears of gladness!  And yet there will be a day where he arrives in full glory, but not this day.  On Easter he hides it. 

The glory is hidden in his words.  He tells the women, “Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”  Do not be afraid!  Even with Adam and Eve falling in the garden where we were separated from God by our sin.  And death became our lot in this life, and hell became our future in the next.  Do not be afraid, for Jesus died and has risen.  He did exactly what he said he would do already in the Garden of Eden.  He went into battle for us on the cross.  And he won.  Easter Sunday is proof of it.  Do not be afraid; he paid for our sin.  Do not be afraid; he conquered hell.  Do not be afraid; he has triumphed over the grave.

But how can I, sitting here in the pew this morning, know that he did that for me?  If you’re like me, my conscience still condemns, temptations still nag, and the thought of death still makes me uneasy.  Today we also listen to Jesus who says: “Go and tell my brothers!”  What an astonishing thing!  He calls the disciples his brothers!  Now if you remember, all they did was sleep in the Garden of Gethsemane after he warned them and told them to watch and pray.  All they did was both fight and flight, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus.  All they did was disappear, deny, and double-cross. 

And he calls them “brothers?”  That’s exactly the point.  That’s exactly the glory of Lent and of Easter.  The disciples don’t deserve that gracious name, and neither do we.  We are no better than they.  But we are no worse either.  Their sins are gone, and our sins are gone.  They are buried in Jesus’ grave when we were baptized.  And now with our sins handled and hidden away, Jesus looks at you and calls you brother or sister with a smile.  “Don’t be afraid!”  For behold the glory of Easter, now as God’s own children!

What a message!  See your risen Savior.  Appreciate how gentle, kind, and considerate, he is with us!  He does not scare us to death or terrify us sinners.  He hides his glory in his Word.  That’s where we will find Jesus emphasizing the point of Easter.  Jesus promised that he would rise.  And he has the women “go and tell.”  He does not appear to the disciples right away – He wants them to depend on the Word.  Soon enough his visible presence will ascend into heaven on the 40th day.  But his real and abiding presence he will not take away.  He will be with them, and us, until the end of time, just as he promised: in his Word and sacraments.

Do you want to find the glory of Easter?  You’ve come to the right place!  Here is where his Word is proclaimed.  The Word declares sin forgiven.  The Word drives away fears.  “Don’t be afraid.”  Tomorrow you will still have problems and temptations.  But “Don’t be afraid.  I have died, and see, I am alive.  I will not leave you or forsake you.” Ah, but Jesus, the grave – my grave – still lies ahead.  “Don’t be afraid.  I conquered it all in my death and resurrection.  Because I live, you will live also.  Death, the last enemy, has been defeated, and the grave is now the portal to life eternal.”

Go ahead then.  Go with Jesus.  Go and depart in peace.  And remember that he always gives more than he promises—so you too will see him in splendor in heaven.  Yes, and you will even share in his glory.  For you are his brothers, his sisters.  He will hold nothing back from you.  And every step of the way, whenever you can, come to his Word and return to his sacraments, so that through the whole journey you may taste and see the glory that is hidden on the cross, the glory that is his resurrection and the promise of your own.  FOR CHRIST IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!  HALLELUJAH!  Amen.

Praise God for Palm Sunday!

/in /by

Passage: Luke 19:28-40

Pastor Horton

Date: April 13, 2025-Palm Sunday

What a day!  Maybe you are wondering what I mean by that.  For you, the day is just beginning.  In fact, it is not even 8:30 in the morning.  But in my homeland on the other side of the world, the sun is about an hour away from setting over the Judean hillside.  The day is almost over for me, but it is a day that I will never forget.

This Sunday began like many others.  I woke up after the Sabbath with many things to do.  I had to take care of some business in the village.  I had to take care of my animals in the yard.  And like you with your holiday rush, I had to make final preparations for the Passover that was now only a few days away.

At least I had it easier than many of my countrymen.  Some God-fearing Jews had to travel over a hundred miles to reach Jerusalem in time for the Feast.  My house was only a few miles away.  And especially at this time of year it was common to see a steady stream of pilgrims passing by on their travel into the Holy City.      

But this particular day was different.  There was an excitement in the air, something I could sense but not explain, something I could feel but not fully understand.  Maybe it was because the crowds were larger than usual.  Maybe it was because the buzz was louder than usual.  I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but my life was about to change forever.  What I am about to share with you is everything that happened to me today, a day when the prophecies of the Old Testament came to life, a day when I saw the Messiah with my own eyes, a day that shares its name with the branches the people were waving in the air.  And at the end of the day, I want you to share in my joy.  I want you to be at peace.  I want you to raise your voices with me and…PRAISE GOD FOR PALM SUNDAY.

As the sun peaked over the horizon, I loaded up my donkey to go into the village.  There was a chance that I would be taking home more than what one pack animal could carry, so I brought along her colt just in case.  This foal was not ready to be ridden, at least not yet, but it was strong enough to carry a few things in its saddle bags.

After the short trip into town, I tied the animals to a post and left.  It was a good thing my business didn’t take long because when I came back I found two men untying them.  At first I thought they were trying to steal the animals, but these men were not acting like thieves.   They were working slowly and deliberately, as if they were the rightful owners.  As I approached, I didn’t really know what to do so I said: “Why are you untying the colt” (Lk 19:33)?  They weren’t startled.  They weren’t surprised.  It was as if they knew my question before I even asked it.  They simply replied: “The Lord needs them”, and they gave me their word that they would return the animals shortly (see Mk 11:3). 

Even though these men were complete strangers to me, even though I didn’t know where they had come from or where they were going, even though losing these animals would set me back quite a bit of money, I let them go.  But I decided to follow at a distance, partly to make sure that my animals were safe, partly because I wanted to catch a glimpse of this “Lord” who needed them.  The two men led the donkey and her colt to a larger group.  Some put their cloaks on the animals, and then one of them sat on the colt, the colt that had never been ridden before.  That was strange, I thought to myself.  He did it with such ease.  He sat on that colt like he was its own, like he was in charge of much more than this animal.  It reminded me of a Bible passage I had learned as a boy, taken from the great prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (9:9).  As the group made its way on the road leading to Jerusalem, I wondered out loud: “Is this some kind of great coincidence, or am I in the presence of the Messiah himself?”

Now, I had work to do back at home, especially with the Passover only a few days away, but I couldn’t let this man out of my sight.  I decided to keep following at a distance, not knowing exactly what to expect.  And because there were many others on the road heading in the same direction, I was able to blend right in.

That was until one of the travelers almost ran me over.  He grabbed onto me to keep me from falling and exclaimed: “Oh, it’s good to see you!”  Since I had never met this man before, I had no idea what he was talking about.  “My name is Bartimaeus,” he said as he brushed himself off.  “I am from the city of Jericho, and until just a few days ago I was blind – I was sitting by the roadside begging for money one day when I heard this noise.  I was told, “it’s Jesus (as he pointed to the guy who just went past on the donkey).  I had even heard that he had the power to perform miracles, and hey, I had nothing to lose, so I shouted at the top of my lungs: ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’ (Mk 10:47).”  “Some people were embarrassed by me.  Others tried to silence me.  But Jesus listened to me.  I’ll never forget those precious words: ‘Go.  Your faith has healed you’ (Mk 10:52).  Immediately my eyes were opened, and I have been following Jesus ever since.”

The man then disappeared into the crowds as quickly as he had appeared.  I didn’t know if I should believe him, but I knew that I couldn’t turn back.  I needed to keep following this man, wherever he was going.  I needed to learn more, so I stopped to ask a woman standing on the side of the road: “Do you know this man, the one they call Jesus?”  And she said with a smile: “Well, yes, I actually do.”

Her name was Martha, and Jesus had been staying with her and her sister Mary in Bethany.  She told me that she also had a brother named Lazarus who had died.  I was beginning to express my sympathy for her loss when she stopped me.  And I could tell by the look in her eyes that there was more to this story.  Martha told me that Jesus reassured her that he was the Son of God, the “resurrection and the life.”  Even though Lazarus had been dead for four days,” Martha told me, “Jesus called: ‘Lazarus, come out’ (Jn 10:43)!  And he did, linen strips, burial cloth and all.  Lazarus walked out of the tomb alive.”  That helped to explain the absolute excitement of the people who had come from all over to celebrate the Passover.  They had heard other amazing stories about Jesus, but now they had proof.   Lazarus was a living, breathing illustration of this man’s power.  Jesus was different.  Jesus was special.  And he was on his way to Jerusalem.

My unplanned journey brought me to the edge of the Mount of Olives overlooking the Holy City.  As Jesus began his final descent into the valley, the crowds grew larger and louder.  They treated this man like a king.  They threw their cloaks on the road.  They waved palm branches in the air.  And they declared: “Hosanna to the Son of David (Mt 21:9)!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Mk 11:9)!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest” (Lk 19:38)!  Maybe it was the power of the moment.  Maybe it was the testimony of Bartimaeus and Martha.  Maybe it was a combination of things, but before I knew it I was a part of this grand procession.  Once inside the gates of the city, the people were overjoyed.  Children were singing about him.  Pilgrims were praising him. 

But not everyone was happy.  The Pharisees were visibly upset.  They came up to Jesus and demanded: “Teacher, rebuke your disciples” (Lk 19:39).  Their anger caught me off guard.  I don’t know why they wanted the people to stop.  Personally, I didn’t want this day to ever come to an end.  And Jesus wasn’t ready to put an end to the celebration either.  He replied: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Lk 19:40).

The stones didn’t have to jump into action that day but eventually the crowds dispersed and the people went home.  As I retraced the route I had walked only a few hours earlier, I was able to think about all the things I had seen and heard.  I knew that something special had happened.  About an hour later, I heard a knock at the door.  It was the two disciples returning the animals they had borrowed that morning.  I invited them in and immediately began to ask them questions.  “Who is the one you call ‘Lord’?  Who is this Jesus?  Why has he come?  What do today’s events mean?”

The disciples admitted that they didn’t have all the answers.  They had been with Jesus for three years, and they still had some questions of their own.  But one of them did share with me something Jesus had shared with them when they started out on their journey:  “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.  They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.  On the third day he will be raised to life” (Mt 20:18,19)!

I didn’t witness anything like that, but then again nothing on this day was exactly as it appeared.  Jesus was hailed as a king, yet he rode on a common beast of burden.  Jesus was treated like a conquering hero, but he led no army.  Jesus accepted the praises of the adoring crowds, but he knew that those praises would not last.  And there was something else I thought about, something I could not get out of my mind.  Jesus knew exactly where my donkey was.  Jesus knew exactly what I would say.  That means he knows the future.  That means he knows what is waiting for him in Jerusalem.  And if he knows about the betrayal, if he knows about the condemnation, if he knows about the mocking and flogging and crucifixion and death, then why did he come?

I think I know why.  He did it for me.  And He did it for you.  He did it for those times when we are not so willing to part with our possessions.  He did it for those times when we are not so quick to follow him.  He did it for those times when we are content to let the stones sing his praises instead.  Jesus knew that without Palm Sunday there could be no Easter Sunday.  And so knowingly, willingly, humbly, and lovingly Jesus entered Jerusalem to complete his Father’s saving work, to suffer and die and rise again to take away my sins and your sins in full.

This is my story, but it isn’t exclusive to me.  This is your story too.  Maybe you weren’t right here alongside Bartimaeus, Martha, and myself, but you have heard about Jesus and all that he had done for you through the Word.  What a blessing God has given to you and to me!  Today Christians all over the world wave their palm branches in the air.  Today we worship our King.  Today we sing, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Today we proclaim, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” and realize that we are the ones who are truly blessed in Jesus.  He rode on to save us from our sins.  Praise God for Palm Sunday!  Amen.        

Forget it!

/in /by

Passage: Isaiah 43:16-21

Date: April 6, 2025

Pastor: Pastor Horton

If I were to ask you to name the top ten miracles God performed in the Old Testament in order to save his people…what sort of miracles come to mind?  I dropped the question into chat gpt just to see how AI might rank such a list.  What were the first miracles that came to your mind?  What were God’s great acts done to save in the Old Testament?  Maybe you thought about the individuals who saw great deeds done for them from a God who knew them and loved them and spared them for his good purposes: David and Goliath, Daniel and the lion’s den, Jonah saved in the great fish, and the three men in the fiery furnace all made the list.  Also, according to AI, there were acts done to save the people in the sense of sustaining them with manna in the desert.  Also on the list was delivering an enemy into their hands such as the miracle of the walls of Jericho that came tumbling down.  Topping the list was, and certainly as far as magnificent-miracles go, I found Noah and the life-saving ark during the flood.  But right after that (#2) was a miracle recalled in our reading from the prophet Isaiah. 

Listen again to the opening words: “This is what the Lord says, who makes a road through the sea and a path through mighty waters, who brings out the chariot and the horses, the army and the strong warrior.  They will all lie down together.  They will not get up.  They are extinguished.  Like a wick they go out.”  Can you guess the second overall pick by AI for God’s greatest Old Testament saving miracle?  It is the miracle of crossing the Red Sea.  Do you remember that one?  Do you remember God leading his people out of Egypt and their oppression only to find themselves with their backs to the ocean?  Do you remember how the Angel of God moved the pillar of cloud behind them to defend them from the aggressive Egyptians?  And how God had Moses raise his staff and hand as God sent wind to separate the water into walls and allow his people to be saved passing through on dry ground?  Do you remember how those heroic and fierce warriors of Egypt along with pharaoh barreled into the passageway in hot pursuit?  And how they didn’t dabble when it came to going on the attack but they all went in and none came out?  How were told that “the Lord threw the Egyptians into the middle of the sea.”  Every one of them extinguished like a wick in an instant. 

The Israelites certainly remembered God’s saving act.  They remembered the exodus by celebrating the passover each and every year.  It was a big deal before the Babylonian captivity and a big deal to bring it back upon their return to the Promised Land.  It served as a hallmark moment of God’s ability and willingness to save.

Do you remember?  Because God says today in our reading, that along with all those other miracles, “forget it.”  Wait what?  Verse 18, “Do not remember the former things.  Do not keep thinking about ancient things.”  Why would Israel and why would we forget it?  What is God talking about?  We don’t forget his great and miraculous acts to save!  But those events aren’t the best part of his grand plan of our salvation.  We are being told to not dwell on the past, because God had something even better coming in the future.  Something not even worth comparing to God’s gracious glories of the past.  Something great has been planned.  And that involves a promise fulfilled of a Savior in Christ the Lord.

“Forget it!  Forget the past!”  Those were also comforting words for the Israelites because not all of their history with God was good or glorious.  Their diary of events in the Old Testament was often downright putrid.  Like the former time when Israel stood in blatant rebellion against Moses and therefore also against God and many of them were swallowed alive when the earth opened up.  Or the former time when they grew impatient with God’s plan and they grumbled and poisonous snakes were sent into the camp as punishment?  Or the former time when God was up on Mt. Sinai yet the people’s hearts were down below honoring a golden calf?  Those former things?  Those former sins?!  “Forget it” declares God.  “Those former sins are now gone in the righteous blood of my Anointed One, the Christ.”  Through these words God is declaring reconciliation and peace for his people.

“Forget it!  Forget the past!”  We need God to say those things to each of us as well, don’t we?  It’s not all that hard and doesn’t take all that long to begin to think back to the former things that we have done that have been sinful.  We know.  We’re embarrassed by our sin.  We think back to those moments when we have done absolutely destructive damage to someone’s reputation with our words when we couldn’t control the firestorm of hurt we ignited.  There are those former thoughts that ran unchecked through our minds – thoughts not in line with God’s will.  And there are those former actions that cause great regret – a regret that can consume us as we dare not look up to a holy God in heaven.  Maybe you know all too well what I’m taking about.  Maybe you have scars, figurative but maybe even literally of your former things – our former sins.  The devil loves to have our past sin linger.  “Forget it!” declares God.  “Forget the past!”

This Lent, we traipse around in the desolate desert of our sin’s reality.  Just like Israel had done as they traipsed around while wandering in the wilderness, or as they traipsed off into Babylonian captivity, and then traipsed back home some 70 years later.  Their sin and God’s miracles were both before their eyes.  Like them, left to ourselves, our sin would only result in us traipsing into death – death now and forever.  Like them, we needed God to forgive, forget, make our loutlook new, and put the spring back into our spiritual step.

And has he ever done that!  Our reading continues as God proclaims, “Watch, I am about to do a new thing.  Now it will spring up.  Don’t you know about it?  Indeed I will make a road in the wilderness.  In the wasteland I will make rivers.  The wild animals, the jackals and ostriches, will honor me, because I am providing water in the wilderness, rivers in a parched wasteland, water for my chosen people to drink.  This people that I formed for myself will declare my praise.”

Now, we have a new reality.  For the Israelites, God would move monarchs to create a path back home for his people.  Now God alone would act to again save and to deliver.  Just as God alone has acted to save us from sin and death and hell.  God sent his son, whom he loves, into this world.  And even though, as we were reminded in today’s gospel, the world rejected him – still Christ Jesus bore all of our sins at his cross.  God would act to give us a path home to heaven through Jesus, who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Where only desolation and death existed for us, a new change in Jesus is welcome!  It is God who gives us a faith to believe him and God who formed for himself a people who know him and trust in him by that faith.  In a spiritual landscape where desolation, despair, and death once reigned, now God has made the life-giving water burst forth and change our reality.  Now we have a clear purpose and destination in service to our Lord.  Now we have forgiveness and a new day of grace in Jesus.  Now, through Christ, our parched souls are quenched and our lives have a newness, relief, and restoration.  Paul rejoices in writing to the Philippians: “Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Israel of old could forget their past because God had forgotten and forgiven their past.  Even with all the great miracles, God had an even better future mapped out for them.  One to bring them home.  Deliverance was theirs.  And so it is with you, dear believer!  Deliverance is yours as well!  God has done some pretty amazing miracles in your life, bringing you to faith and keeping you in the palm of his hand.  Forget the former sins of your past.  For they are forgotten in the cross of Christ.  Appreciate who you are and what you are and where you are because of Jesus today – as you have new opportunity to live and serve him.  And look forward to God’s great and gracious miracle of bringing us home to heaven.  That is where our journey is headed in Jesus.  And may we never forget that!  Amen.

It is Hidden in the Savior’s Rejection by the World

/in /by

Passage: John 18:33-19:21

Date: March 12, 2025

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Up and under.  Up to Jesus’ cross.  And under our own.  As we continue the Lenten journey, we consider the cross bearing that we share with Christ and that he shares with us: The cross always brings rejection, and to our astonishment, that rejection has glory hidden in it.  And tonight we find rejection from the world.  The world does not understand the cross and does not want to.  Listen to a portion of Jesus’ trial before the world in the court of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate: “‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.  Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’  ‘What is truth?’” Pilate asked.”

Could there be a sharper contrast?  On the one side is Jesus.  He testifies that he is a king and  that all who are on the side of truth listen to him.  Yes, listen to him in the sense of hearing and holding to his Word, in the sense of believing him, trusting him, and following after him. 

But on the other side, what does the world see?  A pathetic sight!  Ridiculous claim!  This Jesus a king?  Handed over by his own people who scream for his death?  Jesus’ kingdom consists of those who love the truth—and yet there is not one person who defends him, or speaks out for him, or is willing to come forward and declare himself a follower of this King?  Not one?  The world even prefers option B for Barabbas, a rebel and a murderer.  After all, how is it that this king is captive to a petty Roman official?  Beaten and spat upon by his own people.  Soon about to endure far worse at the hands of Pilate’s soldiers.  “Some king!”  The world says.  “Some kingdom!  Some truth!”

And there stands Pilate, vocal representative for the world.  He views and judges this Jesus through his eyes of human reason.  Will he uphold justice?  He listens to Jesus.  But no, justice would lose out to his love of his position and convenience.  His reason rules, and it finds the whole message to be nothing but foolishness, and a nuisance, and bother, and inconvenient, and sparking a troublesome mob.  Pilate sees no criminal in Jesus and yet punishes him anyways with flogging, a gruesome and painful torture that often killed its victims, and then the execution of this king. 

Why such hostility?  Such anger?  Such violence against someone that on the outside seems so weak and frail, even foolish?  It all hinges on that one little word that Jesus spoke to Pilate, the word “truth.”  Jesus said that he was the King of truth, who had come into the world to bear witness to the truth!  Pilate, however, wanted no truth from this Jesus.  He had already made up his mind.  He was not going to hear this guy preach about truth.  He reasoned, “there is only me; there is only the moment.  My truth is that I already have my needs, my wants, my will, my goals, my ambition, my pleasure, my power.  And we understand Pilate, because by nature we want what he does.  Any other truth is bound to get in the way of those things.  Something else?  Something more?  Such a truth would challenge me to give up my single-minded devotion to me. 

If Pilate would have listened, would things have turned out different?  No.  For the message of Jesus and his cross always provokes hatred and hostility from the world.  The truth of the law calling out my devotion to myself was there in fallen Eden and every day since.  This truth is that even in our best works and on our best days, we still offend the holiness and justice of God.  That truth is irritating.  We recoil at it.  Because we want divine truth to be about me in the moment.  This is evident over the pages of history, evident when I look into the honest mirror of God’s law, and evident from the mouth of Jesus.  And I still don’t want to hear it.  You and I declare with Pilate: “Away with this truth and the King who proclaims it!” 

But wait!  Thankfully there is more to the message from the King of truth than the guilty verdict over all of us and all our works.  He comes chiefly and primarily with this greatest truth of all: that he himself is the solution to the problem of our sin.  He is our only solution.

And how will he solve the problem of sin?  Will he give us a new law to keep?  Will he tell us that our sin doesn’t matter after all?  Will he bid us to just do the best we can and God will be satisfied and overlook the rest?  Is that the great truth that he brings?  No!  If that were the truth that Jesus brought, the people would not have flogged and crucified him.  But the King declares himself to be the only solution to the problem of sin, of death and hell that all deserve.  Christ alone will embrace all the sin and guilt of the world as our substitute.  The solution is that salvation will be a free gift, won by the crucified, secured for us by the crucified, and given in the message of the crucified.  But, tragically, the truth of the gospel that saves is even more despised than the truth of the law that condemns.

So here is the great mystery and the profound truth: So depraved is mankind that by nature we hate to be told the truth that we are depraved; and so great is our corruption that by nature we hate still more the truth that the only solution to the punishment we deserve is Jesus, the King of truth. You would think that people would stampede to this Jesus who delivers from death and hell.  Not so.  Now if we offered them free gas or free health care or free money, we would be trampled in the stampede.  But free salvation?  Free heaven?  Free rescue from hell?  No, not that!  “Away with him!  Crucify him!  Give us Barabbas!”

Jesus’ cross alone saves.  Up we go to follow.  Yet those who follow to the cross must also follow under the cross.  That is the mark of the Christian, the sign of the cross.  For wherever the King of truth appears with the message of truth, there will be hostility, opposition, and at times even violence.  

As a cross has two beams, so the hostility to the cross has two beams as well.  The first beam is the one that we carry from our own nature.  Our own flesh, along with Pilate, dismissed Jesus’ truth.  By nature we don’t want an answer outside of ourselves.  “Right and wrong that come from God?  I already have me” we reason.  “I’m going to value this today and that tomorrow.”  People shouldn’t commit adultery; but if my children or my friends live together before marriage.  “But I’ll just look the other way.”  People shouldn’t hold grudges or gossip.  “But, God, you don’t know what was done to me!”  People shouldn’t steal or cheat.  “But the prices are too high and people have stolen from and cheated me!”  People shouldn’t be arrogant and self-righteous, “but let’s face it, we really are better than most, aren’t we?”

Then comes the confession in the liturgy: “I, a poor miserable sinner.” “No, no,” objects our flesh, “I don’t want to hear about that.  It’s so depressing!.”  Then comes the message of forgiveness: “In the cross of Christ you have all you need.  You are forgiven.  Your sin washed away.  You are redeemed by Jesus and restored as a dear child of God!’”  But the inborn flesh likes that news even less!  “Well, yea but I work hard.  I deserve what I get.  God is at least a little bit lucky that I’m on his side, and be at least a little flattered that I believe in him at all, given the world we live in today.  And if he doesn’t treat me right, I’ll show him and walk away from him, his church, and his truth.”

So the first beam of the cross that we Christians carry is the beam of our own sinful nature that hates the truth of the law and despises the truth of the gospel.  The second beam is the hostility of the world, who simply can’t stand the message of truth about Jesus.  Our world wallows in vice and wears corruption as if it were a badge of honor.  Perversions demand honor and respect in the world.  And woe to anyone who says, “But the Bible shares truth.”  And woe to anyone who says, “Jesus is the only solution and the only way to heaven.”  “No, no!  Away with such a one,” the world declares.  “Away with such a one from the earth!” 

So we see Jesus today in our reading.  The King.  The one who brings truth, the only truth.  His glory and the glory of the truth that saves is hidden under the cross.  The world wants no part of him.  And still, watch his reaction!  You might expect a lightning bolt from heaven to strike the crowd or earthquake under Pilate’s to make the world listen to the truth that Jesus has come to proclaim.  He endures it!  He takes it!  

Truth from the King is enough.  The time will come for his awe and wonder – for his exaltation and for judgment.  But that is all in his hands and not ours.  We journey under the cross as we go up to the cross.  We share the weakness and the humiliation until the Last Day.  And why is that?  Because our glory too is hidden under the cross of rejection.  Jesus works his Word  quietly in hearts creating faith when and where the Spirit wills it.  It is a miracle brought on by the gospel message, not by our theatrics, cleverness, might, or merit.  

The whole world may want to get rid of the cross and its truth – and the world has tried for almost two thousand years.  Yet gospel truth remains in the world, creating faith as God wills.  The truth still creates saints who lay their whole lives of sin and shame at the foot of Jesus’ cross.  Thousands still rise up while under the cross, to sing the praises of the Lamb that was slain and has redeemed us by his blood.  They rejoice in Christ.  They do not depend on a poll or public opinion or the views of human intellect.  No, their certainty rests on the Word of God and the work of God, even under the cross of hostility and persecution.  Heaven and earth may pass away.  But what Jesus gives will last forever!  Oh, may we always remain in the blessed number of those who know that glory hidden under the cross. Amen.

“It is Hidden in the Savior’s Solitude”

/in /by

Passage: Luke 18:31-34

Date: March 5, 2025, Ash Wednesday

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Our Lenten journey this year begins with the Lenten journey of Jesus and his disciples as it was so many years ago.  We hear Jesus’ call to go with him up to Jerusalem and to the cross  in Luke 18:31-34:  “He took the Twelve aside and said to them, “‘Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.  Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles.  They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him.  On the third day, he will rise again.’  They did not understand any of these things.  What he said was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was said.”

Jesus’ call to them and to us on this Ash Wednesday, gives us a bloodcurdling preview of what we are about to see in

this great drama of Lent.  It is horrible in the extreme.  It is shocking.  The Creator of the universe will be mocked and insulted?  How can that be?  The one who gave us breath at birth will be beaten within an inch of his life?  Is that possible?  He who is the author of every good and perfect gift that we have ever had since we were born, will be cruelly tormented and then shamefully executed?  His glory is hidden – hidden completely in the cross.

Do you ever wish that you could have been there?  Does the thought ever spring to mind: “Ah, Lord Jesus, if only you could have taken me along!  Maybe I could have helped you.  Maybe I could have wiped your face with a cool towel.  Maybe I could have yelled to the crowds that all that you were doing was for our salvation.  Maybe I could have been at least one witness on your behalf at your trials.  Maybe I could have done something, just some little thing, to lighten your burden, to show my love and gratitude for what you were doing for me.”  Don’t you sometimes want to say that to him as he begins his journey again to the cross?

Jesus takes us aside with the Twelve and announces, “We are going up to Jerusalem.”  And by faith we follow after him but we cannot help him.  The Twelve could not help him either.  Take note of the glory hidden in the coming cross.  Jesus makes it clear that “We are going up to Jerusalem.”  And after that one little word, “we,” the subject of the sentence changes.  He does not say, “We are 

going up, and we will suffer.”  No.  We are going up.  But it is Jesus alone who will suffer.  The Son of Man alone will fulfill the Scriptures.  The Son of Man alone will be mocked, insulted, spit upon, flogged, and killed.  All who follow him to the cross, his first disciples and we along with them, can therefore only be spectators at this great drama that is about to unfold.  He will not go there to show off his glory.  His glory is that he alone is the Savior.  His glory is hidden in the horrible solitude of all he suffered that our salvation should be entirely the gift that comes through his cross and his alone.

This is the way it must be, Jesus would tell us.  For he is going with purpose.  He is going to fulfill the Scriptures, to fulfill all that was written about him in the Old Testament.  Nothing will soften the blows.  Nothing will relieve the pain.  No one will help him.  Not his mother, not the Twelve, not the church or the state; no one helped him. To be sure, the angels served him for a moment in Gethsemane.  But during his trial and execution, even the angels are nowhere to be told.  Oh, what sadness that we cannot help him whom we love and adore!

The truth is that we would prefer to have the shame of his passion hidden and the glory of his resurrection on display.  But Jesus will have none of that.  All will see his shame.  No one will view the glory of the resurrection.  That will be hidden and made known only by his Word and the testimony of the few who saw him after that incredible event.  

But there is still more to it than all that.  Not only do we not help him in his agony – we caused it all in the first place.  From beginning to end, all that he has said that he will do on this journey he is doing in our place, in our stead, and on our behalf.  Was he despised and rejected?  We should have been.  Was he left alone with no help in the hour of pain and sorrow?  We should be.  Did even his Father abandon him at the crucial moment on the cross so that in the midst of life he was suffering the torments of the condemned in hell?  That was our lot.  We were conceived and born deserving that.  We have turned aside from his Word and sinned every day so that we deserve his suffering for all time and for all eternity.  

And truth be told, we didn’t even care that our sins would bring him to such suffering, such abuse, such a death.  How many times in a day do we turn aside from him without even thinking and refuse even to go up with him to Jerusalem?  We have better things to do.  We have our minds and hearts fixed not on him but on our own pleasure and convenience.  It is easier to watch television or scroll on our phones than to pray.  It is more convenient to love gossip or the lusts of the flesh than his cross.  For family bickering, there is always time.  For his Word and a family devotion, well, perhaps later.  It is time now, we often think, for the sports highlights, not for highlights in his words of salvation.

And it gets worse still.  We imagine in our total wickedness and depravity that we are not totally wicked and depraved.  We yawn or maybe even get irritated when someone points it out, especially during Lent.  We vainly assume that somehow or other there is at least a scrap of merit in us for which we should not have to suffer and for which he should therefore not have had to suffer either.  To put it another way, we imagine there is some good in us that does not require his journey to the cross.  We don’t like to recognize, much less confess the sin of our arrogance. It is the sin of thinking that at least a little bit in us needs no forgiveness and, yes, is even deserving of some eternal reward.

Where’s Jesus?  Going up to Jerusalem to suffer for everything that we are and have been when we did not perfectly love God and serve him with all of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our strength.  And when was that?  Every moment of our lives!

For we go up to Jerusalem, up to the cross with him in Lent.  But don’t follow too closely, as if you were going to somehow be of help to him.  We can do nothing to help him.  All that we have done only adds to his sorrow, his pain, his suffering, his death.  We are the cause even on our best days.  We are his curse. 

And so we go up there with him, following him at a distance, as he carries his cross all alone.  It is Jesus who must suffer and die.  He, and he alone, must do it all, or we are doomed.  Just think of it!  If he had required our help in 

order to accomplish our redemption –  we only would have ruined it.  We are sinners.  We cannot do anything at all that does not carry the stench of sin, the smell of death, the sulfur of hell on it.  We go up with him.  But he must do it all, or we are lost.  That is the glory hidden in the solitude of the cross, the solitude that Jesus must do it alone or we must perish.

And yet take heart!  As we follow Jesus up to Jerusalem as he invited, we see in him: our deliverance!  Lent holds both sorrow and great joy.  He is our peace, our life, our salvation.  Listen to him as you go up with him to Jerusalem.  There is not one word of complaint that falls from his lips.  There is not the least trace of bitterness or 

anger in his tone.  He does not accuse us as we deserve.  He does not shame us as we might expect.  No, none of that.  He alone will suffer, and he will suffer alone.  

And that is exactly the way he wants it to be.  His march to Jerusalem is a march of doom for him but of triumph for us.  It is defeat and death for him but a victory parade for us.  His face is set with determination to do all that needs to be done to fulfill the Scriptures for us.  His will is like iron and cannot be bent to turn him away from his purpose of paying the price of our wickedness and our total depravity.  So full, so perfect, so complete is his love for us.  So full, so perfect, so complete is his yearning for our salvation.  He wants to do it!  He not only does not need our help; he does not want our help either!  Every fiber of his being strains and stretches on the way to the cross for our salvation.  Without our aid, he made us.  Without our aid, he redeems us.

Now let us go up to Jerusalem with him!  Let us follow him starting this Ash Wednesday, but not too closely as though we would help him.  Let us go up with him and follow to the cross.  Let us be filled with sorrow for our sin that caused it all.  But then let us be filled with joy beyond all sorrow, that he did it all and he did it alone in great love.  For that is the glory hidden on the cross, the glory that he wanted, the glory of redeeming us by his work there.  Let us watch and keep watching until we hear the victory cry: HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!  Amen.

One Shining Moment

/in /by

Passage: Exodus 34:29-35

Date: March 2, 2025

Pastor: Pastor Horton

Are you familiar with this song?  “The ball is tipped…And there you are…You’re running for your life…You’re a shooting star…”  Any guesses?  What if I continue: “In one shining moment, it’s all on the line…One shining moment, there frozen in time.” It’s a song, recorded by a few artists now called “One Shining Moment.”  It’s played at the end of the final March Madness college basketball tournament when the Big Dance wraps up and a musical montage recaps all the great and memorable moments in the tournament.  And yes, I did my research and rewatched the “One Shining Moment” montage from 2015 when the Badgers made that great run to the championship game beating undefeated Kentucky, making them 38-1 (done) with Sam Dekker, Frank Kaminski, and Bronson Koenig.  And no, I don’t want to talk about the last 10 minutes of the championship game.  It was a memorable basketball run.  One Shining Moment.  Who knows, maybe this weekend here in our Eastside gymnasium, one of the teams or players here today may have their one shining moment as well.

Moses did.  Literally.  His face shone so brightly he needed a veil to cover it.  Why?  Because of the moments he had before God witnessing some of the glory of God.     

Do you remember Moses?  The disciples did.  He lived at one of those major moments in Israel’s history.  God used him to lead the Israelites out of their Egyptian slavery.  It was a shining moment for them, because it marked their birth, no longer as a family or tribe of people, but as a nation.  And when they came out of Egypt, instead of God leading the Israelites directly northeast to the Promised Land, he led them south.  God wanted them to see something out in the desert, at a mountain called Sinai.  They camped at the foot of the mountain.  You may remember how it was covered with black clouds and lightning.  Out of the thunder God called Moses up the mountain.  Many days later Moses came down and proclaimed God’s laws to Israel.  And here is how the Israelites knew Moses had one shining moment with the great I AM – we’re told: “Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining because he had been speaking with the LORD.” (Exodus 34:29).  He was shining with God’s glory.  He spoke God’s Words, and when he was done speaking God’s Word, the glory was covered with a veil.

One might reason that it should be the other way around.  You might think that when his face was glowing, that then the veil should be on, and then when his face stopped glowing, that then one could take the veil off.  But God always does things his way, always with his reasons.  Instead, when Moses was proclaiming the words straight from God, the people had to look at his shining, unveiled face.  Then, when Moses was done speaking, the shining glory began to fade away – it was then that he covered his face.  They never saw the plain old Moses.  Their only impression of him would be that of, well, “One Shining Moses”.  Why?

You know how it is with us.  What is amazing on Sunday is the new normal on Monday and thrown in the trash on Tuesday.  God didn’t want that to happen with his words of truth.  And so the veil that covered “One Shining Moses” was a reminder that Moses had spoken God’s word.  And even though he was just a regular guy, he was still God’s spokesman.  So, the veil wasn’t to hide the glory of God, but to hide the un-glory of the imperfect man Moses.  In addition, the veil served as a reminder that the laws given through Moses were temporary.  So, the man Moses was not able to save.  And the law given by the man Moses was unable to save, but they all pointed forward to a better reality.

We would do well to stop and think about how this applies to us today.  Because the truth is we want shining moments before God.  And much like a basketball player hitting a game winning three pointer, we often think that we can create such moments through the law.  We want to shine before God when it comes to our own deeds and accomplishments.  We want to hang our hat of salvation, not upon Moses’ name but upon ourselves. 

But humans are not able to save themselves.  For God tells us that the law demands perfection.  And it probably doesn’t take very long for each of us to recognize that we have lost some of the sparkle and razzle dazzle we had hoped to find within ourselves.  Take a quick look at your life as I do mine and we and realize that we have fallen far short of what the law demands.  Our hymnals even lead us through a series of questions we can use to examine our hearts before God and help us to recognize our great need to receive forgiveness at the Lord’s Supper.  Have we always made the most of our moments in ways that honor God?  Or have we wasted some of our time of grace on mindless pursuits, pastimes, and handheld devices?  Have we been the best employer, employee, and spouse, child, parent, or friend we could be?  Or have we had some not so shining moments of pettiness, selfishness, and stubbornness?  Have we been great encouragers and prayerful in light of God’s grace?  Or have we been mean and vindictive?   Have we always loved God above all things and loved hearing from his Word?  Or have we thought at times that we’re good enough law-keepers all on our own?  Should I keep going?  Because I could – I could keep calling you and me out.  Far from perfect people, we find in ourselves a darkness of sin – something we are born with and something we need help from God to be rid of.  And God helps us look away from ourselves and towards his solution in his Son.  We need shining moments with Jesus.

God opens up his glowing gospel for us today.  The true glory of God is only seen in Christ Jesus.  Here is perfection.  In his life, in his innocent death, in accomplishing our salvation, by swiping away every last one of our sins at the cross and declaring total triumph for you over death at his now empty tomb – which now radiates victory.  Jesus blocked  – he stuffed – the devils best work to destroy us.  Jesus himself says in John 12:46, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”  God’s plan to fulfill the law in Jesus was a complete success.  And now we, who have been made right before God in Jesus, we can joyfully live for him, not living in the shadow of what we have done but living for the light before us.  You know what really causes rejoicing in basketball – it’s when a player throws down a giant dunk.  The crowd gets on their feet and erupts in celebration.  We have more to rejoice over in our Savior Jesus!

And what’s more is that God gives us shining moments with Jesus, and helps our faith grow in him.  Our epistle reading tells us, “But all of us who reflect the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face are bring transformed into his own image.”  What a difference this shining moment makes for you and me!  When Moses came down the mountain after talking with God – the Israelites were afraid of him.  The law brings fear.  But the gospel of Jesus gives to us a peace that the world cannot and a peace that we cannot give to ourselves even through all our self-saving efforts to follow the law.  Jesus removes fear and helps us grow in life and in love.  Jesus changes hearts and renews souls.  That’s why today we look beyond the “one shining Moses,” we find the glory of God’s one and only Son.  

No matter if our basketball teams have the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat this weekend – we have these moments in the gospel right now with Jesus.  We see his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.  We see it veiled at times though Lent but there shining bright again in Holy Week!  And we get to have our “one shining moments” here at church with Jesus.  We see his coming to us as our needed Savior through his same powerful message.  We hear his gospel of peace.  We have his body and blood with the bread and wine in the Supper and we get forgiveness through him as he promises you!  We know that these moments are faith-building moments because God has promised to be present and at work through such means for our salvation.

And we can rejoice.  Because one day we will get to see the glory of God with our own eyes – better than what Moses did and longer than what the disciples had.  One might say, that all thanks to Jesus, our future song may not be “one shining moment,” but something more to the tune of “Forever with the Lord…Amen so let it be” .  Thank you, Jesus.  Amen.