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The Lord Calls Sinners

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Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 9:9-13. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Most parents have felt the disappointment of having a carefully chosen gift spurned. You give a gift you hope will bond you together or re-create a particular joy of your own childhood—the thrill of your first fishing rod or the warm feeling you got from your Cabbage Patch doll—only to have the gift barely glanced at and quickly tossed aside. In such cases, even a polite “thank you” brings little comfort. On the other hand, few things delight parents as much as having a child so thrilled with a particular gift that he abandons the remaining unopened gifts to start playing with it. I remember the year our not-quite-two-year-old grandson, Andersen, got his first combine. The joy on his face and the way his whole body squirmed with delight said it all. No formal “thank you” was necessary. The gratitude was evident in the ...
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The Work of the Holy Trinity

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  Click here to listen to this sermon. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:17-20). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! You have likely heard these words before, the so-called Great Commission of the Church, where Jesus declares the Church’s mission until He returns. Many sermons have been preached on this text, usually about evangelism and the need to make disciples. We will speak a bit of evangelism today as well. But first, dear friends, we have some even better news from this Gospel lesson: The Holy Trinity is at work. In this text, the Lord Jesus Himself declares the identity of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and you can’...
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The Work of the Holy Spirit

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Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our first reading, Acts 2:1-21. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pentecostal movement raised a question for biblical interpreters. They studied the events of the Day of Pentecost and concluded that every Christian’s life should imitate the early Christians' experience on that day. Most pointedly, they concluded that all Christians should speak in tongues or prophesy as described in Acts 2. In contrast, most commentators view these events as unique and miraculous—not something Christians must imitate. Like all epoch-making works of God, Pentecost was accompanied by a spectacular, miraculous occurrence which both authenticated this event as an act of the God of Israel and served as a meaningful symbol of the earth-shaking change taking place in world history. It is a symbol lifted straight from the prophetic word of the Old Testament pro...
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Listen to Jesus Pray

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Click here to listen to this sermon. Shh! Listen closely! Our Lord is praying. It is the night of the Last Supper. He is soon to be betrayed, but not yet. He and His disciples are in the upper room, and the Lord is praying. So, listen closely, dear friends—because He is praying for you: “Father, the time has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. For You granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those You have given Him” (John 17:1-2). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The Son prays to be glorified. But consider this carefully. He is not praying for the world’s idea of glory. The world defines glory in terms of splendor, strength, beauty, and celebrity. The one who wins is the glorious one. But Jesus defines His glory quite differently. Because the Father has given Him authority over all people, all people are His responsibility. And the Son is about to serve all people by His crucifixion, so that...
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