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A Perpetual Promise

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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!

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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

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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

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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.

All We Need Is Love!

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“There’s nothing you can’t make that can’t be made. No one you can save that can’t be saved.

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Confidence with Christ

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The coach, with his cap on and his head down, starts out of the dugout and makes his way towards the mound.  You know the scene well if you’ve played baseball, softball, or watched any Brewers games. 

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Christ Jesus, Shepherding You to Salvation

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Last week, 12 hours after returning from our honeymoon, we attended a family funeral.  My uncle was called home to heaven.

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Finding Easter Peace

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Wasn’t worship on Easter Sunday great! We had three great services. A wonderful Easter breakfast. Fantastic special music, strings, and brass!

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From One Doubting Thomas to Another

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Many years ago, there was an East Coast pastor, Pastor Wright, who paid a visit to a small, Midwestern religious college. He stayed at the home of the college president, who also served as a professor of physics and chemistry.

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Easter Hymns: What a Heritage!

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One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job as pastor is worship planning. Worship is such an important part of our congregational life that we couldn’t really imagine our church gatherings without it.

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