A Famine Not of Bread

  Click here to listen to this sermon. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).   “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Each of these passages, often used in funeral services, speaks of God’s love and compassion. God loves the world. He loves you and me. He shows that love by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world as one of us. Jesus lived the perfect life that you and I could not live. He loves His Father above all things and loves His neighbor as Himself. He demonstrates the depth of that love by laying do...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A point of climax and decision has arrived on the Plains of Moab. Moses is nearing death after leading Israel in the wilderness for forty years. The younger generation is about to enter the Promised Land, and he is preparing them for what’s ahead. So, here it is: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jorda...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life” (Revelation 22:1-2a). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of the last three weeks, our Epistle from Revelation has shown us a vision of the new Heaven and Earth. In chapter 21, we heard of “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (v 1-2). Last week, John saw “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” and went on to describe her beauty and radiance in detail (21:9 ff). Today, the depiction of the new Heaven and Earth is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. To better understand this depiction, we go back to Genesis 2, “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of t...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Jesus said:] “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day.” Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A significant theme in John’s Gospel is how Jesus came to give life, especially eternal life. You see this promise throughout the book. But in the Bread of Life discourse of chapter 6, Jesus says more. He explicitly promises to raise His people on the Last Day four times (v 39, 40, 44, 54). This promise of resurrection is central to the Christian faith. As we confess in the Nicene Creed, the goal of the Christian life is the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come. This reading allows us to address a few foundational questions about the nature of this resurrection under the theme, “The Bread of Life Raises.” First question: He will raise from what? The short answer is death. But this is more than the ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The strife is o’er, the battle done; / Now is the victor’s triumph won; Now be the song of praise begun. / Alleluia! ( LSB 464 st. 1) How fitting to sing these words on a day like this, a day of sorrow and mourning, yes, but also a day of joy, praise, and thanksgiving to God for all the blessings He bestowed upon Fay for Christ’s sake, and to you, Ron, Judy, Gary, Tim, others family members and friends as exhibited through Fay’s faith, love, and life of service to God and her neighbor. Though we will miss Fay’s infectious smile and her joyful spirit, we take great comfort in the fact that she has gone to be in the presence of our Lord, where there is no mourning, crying, pain, or death anymore. And we look forward to the Last Day, the Day of Resurrection. As you can read in her obituary, Fay was an active member of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. Over the years, she helped w...