Series:  “Christ Through Us” (WELS 175^th Anniversary)

Theme: “Christ With Us” (Revelation 3:7-13)

Pastor Nate Walther – Sunday, October 26^th, 2025

Eastside Lutheran Church – Madison, WI

            Christ with us.  It’s a fitting theme today as we celebrate the Lutheran Reformation and as we conclude our celebration of our synod’s anniversary.  Christ has certainly been with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod over the past 175 years, just as he has been with all true confessional Lutheran churches over the past 500 years – as we look back on the past, there’s just so much to be thankful for in connection to this theme… but we’re not going to be focusing on the past in this sermon.  Instead, as we live in the present and as we look at the future, do you appreciate what this means for you dear WELS Lutheran, dear believing Christian, dear precious soul bought back from the fires of hell by the blood of a Savior who loves you dearly?  Christ is with you.

            That may have been true in the past, that may be true for others, that may even be how we comfort people who are hurting in our lives, but what about me?  Do I always believe it’s true for me? What about when people ridicule you for agreeing with the Bible’s Creation account: “you don’t believe in science”, even though you do believe in science – that is, real science, not empty hypotheses about things long ago that no one observed? Or, what about when people attack you for calling something a sin: “you’re so unloving”, even though you do believe in love – that is, real love, which starts with God’s unconditional love for us no matter how we sin, and you’re always ready to share that with anyone who confesses their sin, as a fellow lost & redeemed sinner yourself?… Are we OK when that happens?  Are we certain we’re right?  Do we feel Christ is with us in those moments?  Or, if things aren’t going so well, do we wonder what we’re doing wrong?

            Let’s up the ante a little bit.  Do any of you know what it’s like to have your life in danger?  Do you know what it’s like to live in fear of death because of some serious illness, or fast-spreading infection, or a cancer you’re battling? Do you know what it’s like to have a loved one go through that?  Or, do you know what it’s like to worry that someone close to you with mental illness or a substance abuse problems will come busting through that door, because you know what they’re capable of? Do you even know what it’s like to live like our soldiers who have survived warzones and threats to their lives?  Have you had the experience of falling asleep with a loaded pistol in your hand, and every noise outside or in the house at night wakes you up in a cold sweat with your finger on the trigger?… When this becomes our lives, when we experience the evils of this world, when our suffering gets so severe, where is Christ in all of it?  What are we doing wrong?!

            You’re not alone… these fundamental matters of faith & doubt (ultimately, of life & death) are what our spiritual forefathers faced throughout the past.   For our Lutheran forefathers in America 175 years ago, did you know that, more than anything, they came here from Europe because of persecution.  The government was forcing them to unite with Reformed Christians, even though the two groups believed different things!Meanwhile, for our Lutheran forefathers in Germany 500 years ago, you may already know the story: when told to renounce his teachings that agreed with Scripture if not with the Church of his day, Luther took his stand against the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms and refused to compromise on a biblically-bound conscience… so what did the Holy Roman Emperor decree as the most powerful man in the world at his time? He basically had a “hit” put out on Luther.  For the remainder of Luther’s life he lived with the distinct threat that any one of his enemies could simply kill him as an outlaw, and there would be no legal ramifications to dissuade them. Finally, it’s the same thing true believers have always faced, going back to our Christian forefathers in the “O.G. city of brotherly love”, ancient Philadelphia from 2,000 years ago.  As we heard earlier, the first audience from our sermon text was being persecuted for their faith.  Bitterly so.  By this point Christians were being killed for what they believed.  It had happened in nearby Pergamum, to which this letter of Revelation was also written.  It would happen in Philadelphia as well.  And in all of this… seriously, was Christ still with them? 

            Listen again to what we God told them in our sermon text.  “⁸Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”So, in the following verses,the Apostle John (who wrote these words to them) goes on to explain how God would work all things for their good as they continued to place their faith in him… which is great, but it’s in the future, it’s not reality yet.  Instead, for the time being, he simply says “¹¹Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown. ¹² The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never leave it again…” What we have here is not a message of immediate gratification, but it is a certain message of hope.  Whatever you face in life, however evil has assaulted you, now matter how it causes you to question and worry and doubt, God’s message is crystal clear: “Hold on to what you have.”  Why?  Because if you are with Christ, God says this is doorway.  It will simply get you where you need to go.  That’s why you want to stay on that path. 

Finally, I can’t share an answer with you that will make all the challenging moments in your life easy.  I can just share the answer that’s always worked for God’s people.  It’s what worked for the founders of our church body.  Just think of how their situation turned out: how blessed are we now as Lutherans in America with the religious freedom we enjoy!  It’s what worked our namesake as Lutheranism also.  Despite how dark his things looked at one point – where Luther even had to go into hiding, holed up in a castle while he translated the Bible – still, Luther had a happy and productive life, he even got married and had kids, he died several decades later as an old man surrounded by friends and family. God worked that situation out for good.  It’s even what worked for those Philadelphian Christians.  Yes, including those of them who were killed for their faith!  Because they immediately got to heaven to be with Christ.  No one could shut that door.  In fact, if anything death only allowed them to pass through that door faster.

In a broken world where sin invites such difficult situations, such challenging problems, such pain into our lives, Jesus provides a different kind of solution.  Not searching for something else that still won’t put an end to the bad.  Not trying harder when our efforts are less than perfect and will still yield less than perfect results. Not treating the symptoms, all while ignoring the cause.  No, in fact, where do we find Jesus in all of it?  There, himself in the midst, of it.  He faced that darkness too.  He encountered those threats as well.  He was even killed by them on the cross… And God says, “Hold on to that,” which he has already given you: a substitute who died for your sin and a Savior who conquered your death, a God whose love for you is never in question and whose future for you is never in doubt.  That’s what will work, even if it doesn’t currently seem to be working! 

What else can we say when, in this very last book of the Bible that was written, this is what God says?  His final message through the Apostle John here isn’t to try this new spiritual craze when things don’t seem to be working out for you, nor is it to make new changes in your life. It’s simply to “Hold on to what you have!…”  That may be so hard to do at times, but it doesn’t make it the wrong answer.  Granted, when you’re persecuted or threatened, when you’re sick or suffering, when those questions or doubts creep in, the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.  We want to take matters into our own hands and fix it!  But sometimes there’s just nothing else to do.  Not when you are on the right path.  Because the door is open in front of us, even if the path is hard.  Other paths may be easier along the way, but how often do we fail to raise our eyes and see: there is no open door at the end of those paths, only dead ends!  It’s why – like the difficult daily exercise that eventually gets you to your fitness goals – we need to stay on this path, the same path Christ went on himself.  And he’ll get you through it;  somehow he’ll even spare you even worse trials, just like he promised in our sermon text.  That’s what he’s done for the past 175 years for our synod.  That’s what he’s done for the past 500 years for all true Lutherans.  That’s what he’s done for the past 2,000 years for all true Christians in every congregation.  That’s what he’s done for the past 6,000+ for all believers in the one true God of Israel who always made this the center of his promises: Christ with us. From the beginning of the Bible – as we heard two weeks ago in Genesis 3 – to the end of the Bible – as we hear in Revelation 3 today – that has always been God’s answer.  He’s not going to stop now.  Dear fellow brother or sister in Christ, whatever you face, know that this is true for you.  Christ is with you.  Be comforted by that always and in all things.  Amen.